Motor Sport Fiction

[Milan Fistonic]

Rather than clutter up Gerard's thread with more pictures of book covers I thought I would start a new thread specifically about books that deal with fictional motor sport themes.

I have around eighty novels, both paperback and hardback, that deal with motor sport in its various forms.

Thses are some of the older ones that have interesting covers.


A Shriek of Tyres by Douglas Rutherford first published in 1958.

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Grand Prix Murder by Douglas Rutherford first published in 1955.

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Mask of Dust by Jon Manchip White first published in 1953.

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The Red Car by Don Stanford first published in 1954.

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Road Race by Philip Harkins first published in 1953.

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[Powder]

Eighty novels on motor racing! Wow. I only have three. :(

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..... Oh, and I have Alfred Neubauer's Autobiography too, which I think is case of 'not letting the truth stand in the way of a good story'. :)

[Kwaussie]

Seems to be the next big thing!
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/maserati/390892-little-red-racing-car.html

[bry3500]

My dad had a copy of the Green Helmet - I must have read about 10 times when I was a kid.

[tonttu]

"Gilt Edge Cockpit" and "Rally to the Death" are 2 more by Douglas Rutherford.

[Michael Clark]

And then there are Burt Levy's books - the last one I 'read' was Toly's Ghost. It is massive - I'd be interested to see if anyone actually read the whole thing - I gave up and started skimming...indeed speed skimming.

[ERC]

"Speed Six" that brings back memories!

I think I probably still have about five.

"Carlotti Takes The Wheel" - Mike Hawthorn
"Monza" - Bob Judd
"The Monza Protest" - Andrew Neilsen - more of an espionage novel than a racing novel
"Pole Position" - Tess Stimpson - tenuous link to motor racing
"The Seventh Royale" - Donald Stanwood - about a supposedly extra Bugatti Royale. I wonder if he wrote that after Tom Wheatcroft's re-creation!

[Milan Fistonic]

Powder

Your copy of The Green Helmet looks like a hardback edition which would explain why it is different to my two paperbacks.

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Fontana 1961
Horwitz 1963

[Powder]

Powder

Your copy of The Green Helmet looks like a hardback edition which would explain why it is different to my two paperbacks.



Yes it is, Published by Collins in 1957.

From the covers it looks like the main character had made a bit more progress with his woman by 1963. :)

[GeebeeNZ]

Thanks for that guys. I am not an avid reader so I have ordered a copy of the Green Helmet in DVD form. It should arrive in a few days.

[MarkQ]

16316An Ebay buy, neat old american comic featuring race driver 'Clint Curtis' chasing down the Mclaren Can Am cars.

[Milan Fistonic]

There have been some real shockers written by people who obviously have no knowledge of motor racing.

One of the worst is Racers by Sally Armstrong - The scorching bestseller of Formula 1 racing, on and off the track.

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Despite acknowledging receiving assistance from, among others, Creighton Brown, John Blunsden, Gerald Donaldson, Nigel Roebuck, Charlie Creighton Stuart, Frank Williams. The Silverstone press office and Nigel from Brabham she still comes up with this.


The tension on the grid where the cars were lined up before the start was unbearable…The mechanics were now making the final adjustments to the cars. The blue and yellow outer shell, or monocoque, of Max’s car was lowered ceremoniously over him, like some mystical ritual. It was then screwed into position, Max sat strapped in his seat, staring straight ahead while people busied themselves around him.

[TonyG]

I have a few copies of Auto Action. Do they count. lol
:cool:

[thunder427]

16316An Ebay buy, neat old american comic featuring race driver 'Clint Curtis' chasing down the Mclaren Can Am cars.

.....have a got a couple hundred of these along with some 15000 ,Hot Rod style magazines from mid 50's to present day, USA/UK/NZ/AUST,
most of them in individually sealed plastic envelopes, no!! the question has been asked,I'm not a collector, I still buy them for thier content value and when I was asked ,"are they 'For Sale'??,I said 'YES' ,next Question was "How Much?'........Thought for a Moment ,"$3 dollars Each"...."Great, I will come on over and sort out the one's I want"....."Sorry, You Buy The lot,or don't bother comming over"!!!...."Shit !!thats $45k, I'm not paying That, thats bullshit,you will Die with'em"..."So Be it,but let me explain one point,Today you spend $12.95 for one copy of the USA/ Hot Rod Mag and its full of stories on 'nostalgia'....this is genuine,mint copies that have become 'Nostalgic',there are number one's and two's of most titles,collector editions, that where collector editions before they had to print it on the cover, Annuals, Little pages, pictorials annuals,.. "so, 'sir,' I would rather 'Pulp'em than have you pick the eye's out of whats there,thank you for your enquiry"....Hang the phone up ,I shout so the Workshop next door comes out to see whats going on ...:mad:'GO,GET FUCKED!!! YOU PRICK!!!:mad:....felt much better after that out burst, you see they are my Books/Mags,for my pleasure and yes!!,if somebody want's to buy them 'ALL' I would sell them.............Mind you, I would ,now, have to think about it..........MJ:cool::p

[Powder]

next Question was "How Much?'........Thought for a Moment ,"$3 dollars Each"

So why did you tell the guy they were $3 each if they weren't for sale individually ?????

[crunch]

There have been some real shockers written by people who obviously have no knowledge of motor racing.

One of the worst is Racers by Sally Armstrong - The scorching bestseller of Formula 1 racing, on and off the track.

16356

Despite acknowledging receiving assistance from, among others, Creighton Brown, John Blunsden, Gerald Donaldson, Nigel Roebuck, Charlie Creighton Stuart, Frank Williams. The Silverstone press office and Nigel from Brabham she still comes up with this.


The tension on the grid where the cars were lined up before the start was unbearable…The mechanics were now making the final adjustments to the cars. The blue and yellow outer shell, or monocoque, of Max’s car was lowered ceremoniously over him, like some mystical ritual. It was then screwed into position, Max sat strapped in his seat, staring straight ahead while people busied themselves around him.

..."screwed into position"...then I look at the cover, hmmmmmmm!

[crunch]

It's not fiction, (but I bet some would like to claim it is) but the book called "The Pits" written by Beverly Turner is a good expose on F1.
I have never read the Green Helmet, but you have intrigued me enough I shall endeavour to find a copy and have a go. My collection of motor racing books are all non-fiction, but does not include the plentiful annuals or multitudes of autobiographies

[ERC]

Off topic (just), but when I valued my "best shelf" of larger motoring books, using realistic valuations I was staggered that they amounted to twice the written down value of my 2002 Cooper S, which is fully insured... I then took a photograph of the spines, listed them and put the values alongside as I would hate to think that on my demise, the non-car mad dependents would either chuck them into a skip or just get a local book dealer around, who would probably rip them off big time or not understand the real value.

So there comes a point in life thunder427 when you do indeed decide to sell off all or part of your personal collection(s) to fund your retirement lifestyle. No real point in accumulating assets in your youth and middle age only to live out a frugal old age! The trouble is timing. I sold off a major part of my Dinky Toy collection last year. Do I miss it? No. It was all buried in boxes anyway.

[Shoreboy57]

"Grand Prix" was released as novel. Remember reading it years ago. I assume it was published after the movie, essentially a re-written screenplay as I can find no record of an original novel

[John McKechnie]

ERC- Can relate to this. I am selling my 90 Biggles books ( collected since 1964) Donald Duck comics-Dating to 1940s and Rupert Bear sets to fund my improvements to XA Coupe.

[crunch]

Still got my hard covered Biggles books, but the dust jackets look a bit tatty.
Dinky Toys....who would have thought whilst playing with them in the garden all those years ago; that I should have put them all back in the box and stored them in a dark place for 40 years...then I to could own an XA Coupe! I guess I got my monetary value from the Dinky Toys by playing and imagining with them for countless hours.......

Again; a bit off thread; but what would you collect/store now for 40 years time as a $$$ earner?

[ERC]

Good point Crunch - start a new thread!

[John McKechnie]

Crunch-Biggles books with covers- tatty or otherwise.-Dinky toys with boxes-not hot wheels, Donald Duck comics. Falcon XA Coupes, HK Monaro Coupes, Kawasaki 500 Mach 3s and 750 Mach 4s.............I have mine, we can talk again in 40 years time.
Hey AMCO 72 ,Gerald what have you had stashed away as an investment for all these years .And dont ay a Mini......
Milans library has definitely been a good investment for the benefit of all of us , and thats no fiction.

[AMCO72]

John, Ive got collections of books like us all I suppose. I used to collect anything and everything with a Motoring theme, but it all got out of hand and I started to slim things down to 1 or 2 subjects.

We had, in Hamilton way back, a dealer in Antiquarian books, and he, unlike many old book dealers also had an interest in car books.......Crows Nest Books.....gone now I'm afraid. Once a year he held an auction of books with a sporting nature, cricket, rugby, golf, etc etc and Motoring and Motorsport. I unloaded box's full of general motoring titles to his auctions. I have to say I didnt make a fortune out of these, so they could hardly be called investments, but they provided a bit of cash to re-buy stuff that I was interested in.

I already had a good number of publications on the LeMans 24hr race so decided to only buy in more of them. Did a lot of dealing with book sellers in England, and even did some trades from stuff I had bought here in NZ. There was a particularly interesting book shop in Devonport which occaisionally had some gems, so I was a sucker for those, and managed to pick up some rare-ish titles.

In conjunction with the LeMans stuff I also purchased books on, and by racing drivers......SCH Davis being the most prolific, but have a number of others...Fangio, Hawthorne,Frere,Setright,Nye, Moss, etc etc etc......and stuff with mainly photographs......Frostick, Klemantaski, Skilleter, Moity, again etc etc etc.........

Jaguar and Bentley are my first loves in vintage and post vintage titles, and have a few well thumbed copies of these marques and also a few rather nice signed limited edition prints of these and others, mostly with LeMans as a background.

My other place of interest is the Titanic, and have been collecting all sorts of stuff about that stricken liner for years....memorabilia, videos, books, puzzles,models, calendars and again etc etc etc.

Whether any of this will turn out to be 'colllectable' in the future, I dont know, but my two children are both keen on books so I think that the rather weighty collection is in safe hands, if not as a big money spinner for them.

I have to say I did not by them with their future value uppermost in my mind, but mearly because I wanted to read and keep them, rather than borrow from the library, or from friends........sometimes NOT a good idea.

See I didnt even mention the Mini!!!!!!!

[John McKechnie]

Gerald- Fine imput , that probably sums us all up. We get books to read, research , enjoy and like to think it will have kept its worth when we sell it. Titanic never goes out of fashion. Hard to find bookshop in Devonport is still going.
In keeping with this thread, I read an Alister McLean book-Road to Dusty Death.Was in 70s, set in F1, however did not see anything technical, known Teams, tyres or anything.Only thing interesting was that the villains carried drugs from country to country. Sounds like a well known English team that used to test on in Europe and got busted for drug carrying.
Also I can remember Boys own illustrated books (early 60s) where the heroes zoomed around tracks and roads in open sports cars-English of course-and the cars had a fin up behind the 2 occupants.
Would that have been a Lister, C type,D type?
Oh, yes car had a stripe.

[Milan Fistonic]

"Grand Prix" was released as novel. Remember reading it years ago. I assume it was published after the movie, essentially a re-written screenplay as I can find no record of an original novel

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You are correct. The novel, written by Manning Lee Stokes, was based on the screen story and screenplay written by Robert Alan Aurthur.

In the book it is stated: "This novelization arranged by Lyle Kenyon Engel."

[Milan Fistonic]

Two novels supposedly written by World Champions.


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[ian]

Here is another by Bruce Carter.

[Michael Clark]

Has 'Braking Point' been mentioned?

[Milan Fistonic]

Not so far Michael.

I've got four books by Andrew Neilson.

Braking Point

Dead Straight

White Death

The Monza Protest.

It's been a while since I read those but I seem to remember they weren't too bad.

[Michael Clark]

I bought Braking Point from a second hand bookshop in Kerikeri about 18 yrs ago..Neilson is described on the cover as 'the Dick Francis of Motor Racing'

Perhaps I should re-read it!

I also see 'Montezuma's Ferrari' by B.S.Levy and a 1988 'Green Helmet' with a different dust cover completely to those shown. I once had 'Monza' by Bob Judd (?) - I also once had a book called something like 'Stirling's favourite car stories' with extracts from various car related books - I haven't seen that for a very long time but I am sure the opening chapter came from 'the red MG'.

[Michael Clark]

Ooops, I see it is in fact called 'The red car' - I subsequently read the entire book and seem to recall really enjoying it.

I've also remembered a book I borrowed from the local library about 40 years ago based on Le Mans and a young mechanic getting upgraded to driver status..maybe?

[Shoreboy57]

16369


You are correct. The novel, written by Manning Lee Stokes, was based on the screen story and screenplay written by Robert Alan Aurthur.

In the book it is stated: "This novelization arranged by Lyle Kenyon Engel."

Thanks Milan - I was too young for the movie on first release. The book was quite "racy" in its time for a youngster as I recall. Great to now be able to watch the movie on DVD. it was quite a feat for 1966 filming technology

[stubuchanan]

Two novels supposedly written by World Champions.


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I could believe that the two Hawthorn books were written by him. They seem to be aimed at a young teenager market and are at best unremarkable.

On the other hand, I started reading yesterday "The Green Helmet" - the Fontana paperback with Sid James on the cover, picked up probably for 50c at a Lions Club book sale a year or 2 ago. Jon Cleary was a skilful writer, and his description of a '50's Le Mans 24 hour race has a genuine air. I remember the movie from way back then, cameo appearances from Roy Salvadori and Jack Brabham (who even mumbled a few words!)

Apart from a couple of Nevil Shute books with motor racing references, that is the extent of my motor racing fiction collection, although I have read some non-fiction that was so inaccurate it probably qualified!

Stu

[Steve Holmes]

Here is a contribution from Grant Ellwood:

"I found this book in a local (South Boston) antique shop recently. The book was published in USA in 1909 by the Saalfield Publishing Company, a departure in genre for the author who mostly wrote cowboy stories (no cowboys in motorsport of course!)".

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[tonttu]

And not forgetting the children's books all written by NZ authors in recent years:
The Roaring River Rally by Moni Graham
Roger the Rally Car by Dick Oliver
Go Murph by Hamilton West School Students

[Milan Fistonic]

And not forgetting the children's books all written by NZ authors in recent years:
The Roaring River Rally by Moni Graham
Roger the Rally Car by Dick Oliver
Go Murph by Hamilton West School Students



And you could add to that list Slide the Corner by Fleur Beale published in 1993.

[Powder]

And not forgetting the children's books all written by NZ authors in recent years:
The Roaring River Rally by Moni Graham


Monica Graham is rally driver Emma Gilmour's sister, and also used to do a bit of rallying herself. I don't think she was quite in the league of Mike Hawthorn and Graham Hill, but as drivers who have authored motorsport fiction I guess they have something in common.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I have a few copies of Auto Action. Do they count. lol
:cool:

If it's the April 1 1988 edition (check the date...) with the story about Dick Johnson driving a third McLaren Honda at Adelaide for the Grand Prix in it, then yes it counts as fiction!!!!!
Quote from DJ "I guess thats why it's called 'Auto Fiction', then..."

[Malcolm McLeod]

Interesting topic....I have found the Andrew Neilson books great, and the Douglas Rutherford books not bad either. In fact, I have The Gunshot Grand Prix on my bookshelf, but lost (and want!) Rally to the Death.
I also have Breaking Point, and Dead Straight, but found White Death not so good. Incidently, the Dart racing car described in Breaking Point was said to be designed by a brilliant New Zealand designer...but I forget his name!!!!!

You left off your list books by "W.E.B. Griffin"...he wrote several under the name "W.E. Butterworth", including Yankee Driver, several under the pseudonym of "James McM. Douglas", and 4 or 5 under the pseudonym of "Patrick J Williams". He also wrote several M*A*S*H books with Richard Hooker...

[Lee Tracey]

Having discovered Douglas Rutherford not long after I seriously got into reading, and all things related to cars I remember really enjoying his stories. Great yarns as I recall.

Michael I have finished Toly's Ghost, as well as all the other Burt Levy 'Buddy Palumbo' Books. Must say that the first two were the best mix of history and plot. The fabulous Trashwagon didn't quite hit the mark with me while Toly was just a long recitation of major racing events of the period with so believable plot to link them together.

Bob Judd wrote several racing related books beside Monza though I found most of them to be rather shallow as both stories and on the technical side.

Cheers
Lee

[Milan Fistonic]

Interesting topic....I have found the Andrew Neilson books great, and the Douglas Rutherford books not bad either. In fact, I have The Gunshot Grand Prix on my bookshelf, but lost (and want!) Rally to the Death.
I also have Breaking Point, and Dead Straight, but found White Death not so good. Incidently, the Dart racing car described in Breaking Point was said to be designed by a brilliant New Zealand designer...but I forget his name!!!!!


"If it was possible to love a racing car, Guy [Taylor] had had an affair with the Dark DR1. It was designed by a brilliant New Zealander, Don Rendel, an ex-Grand Prix designer who had decided to start his own racing-car production factory. The DR1 was a classic motor-racing example of 'if it looks right it is right', a neat single-seater with a distinctive full-width nose and a sloping cockpit surround. It was esy to work on, tough, and above all fast. The DR1 had a versatile chassis that would accept anything from a 170 horsepower Formula Three engine to a 300 horsepower Formula Two unit."

[Powder]

Interesting topic....I have found the Andrew Neilson books great, and the Douglas Rutherford books not bad either. In fact, I have The Gunshot Grand Prix on my bookshelf, but lost (and want!) Rally to the Death.

There's a copy of Rally to the Death available here:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=9023016474&searchurl=an%3Drutherford%26sts%3Dt%26tn%3Drally%2Bto%2Bthe%2Bdeath

[thunder427]

So why did you tell the guy they were $3 each if they weren't for sale individually ?????

Powder, Quite possibly comes under ,'The figure of speech', He asked me would I sell my collection,I said 'Yes' as I had aprox 15000 magazines,he said how much, I subjested, work it out at $3 each!!!!...that way if there was only a total of 13000,then at $3 each that would be etc etc.................MJ

[Malcolm McLeod]

There's a copy of Rally to the Death available here:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=9023016474&searchurl=an%3Drutherford%26sts%3Dt%26tn%3Drally%2Bto%2Bthe%2Bdeath
Not any more - it's winging its way to New Zealand....along with a couple of others I'm missing ("Racing Mechanic", and "Yankee Driver".)
Thanks for bucking my ideas up!
Postage almost twice as much as book cost, but bill total was only about US$55 for all 3, so not too bad.
Next book might be a LOT more...

[Malcolm McLeod]

I can recall the book Michael....I used to read it a lot.....and like you I can't recall the title!!!!!!
Milan...help!

I have also just recently bought a copy of the book "Twenty-four Hours at Le Mans", a novel by J.A.Gregoire, first published in 1955. he actually competed in the race for 4 years back in 1927 in his own creation. now I just gotta find time to read it...




I've also remembered a book I borrowed from the local library about 40 years ago based on Le Mans and a young mechanic getting upgraded to driver status..maybe?

[ERC]

I have just managed to get hold of jpg images of fiction from 1958 or so, from the UK comic, "The Wizard". There was a story called "The Heel and Toe Kid" which oddly enough was where and when I learned about heel and toe down changes, several years before I could even drive!

Maybe my memory is playing tricks, but did Katherine Mansfield pen a book with a motorsport background?

One of my favourite authors of recent times was Tom Sharpe (the writer of "Wilt", "Porterhouse Blue" etc.), and in one of his hilarious novels was a school teacher with a vintage Bentley - "Vintage Stuff". Not a motorsport theme though...

[Racer Rog]

I agree with that fact that Tom Sharpe's books are a hoot, I have the collection, and even when rereading them I just about piss myself, they are hilarious.
Roger

[ERC]

I think I have read the Wilt books about four times. The South African based ones come a close second.

[Malcolm McLeod]

And you could add to that list Slide the Corner by Fleur Beale published in 1993.
And one I found on Friday "The Rally Game" by Gayle Cresswell about a young mechanic who dreams of becoming a champion rally driver. He has an ancient Escort (what else!) rally car he is rebuilding, some good mates, and a very tolerant boss!
Published 2011, ISBN 978-0-473-19016-3
Oh, and has a photo of Chris Alexander's Suspension Tech rally car on the back...

[ian]

I dont know if this is going to work. A long time since I have done it.
i PICKED THIS UP AT rOTARY BOOK SALE.
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[Malcolm McLeod]

...and I have just added to my collection a copy of Douglas Rutherford's book "Killer On The Track", the sequel to The Gunshot Grand Prix.