Description
Author: Art Evans with Bill Colson and Herb Jones, Softbound, 273 Pages, ISBN: 9780970507396, First Edition, 2007 **VERY RARE BOOK IN EXCELLENT UNREAD CONDITION**
Back in the fifties, the definition of a sports car was one that could be not only used as a daily driver, but also raced in an organized event. Cars and drivers of all abilities took to the field, resulting in some wild and wooly wheel to wheel action.
It also resulted in some amazing photographs. This book combines those photos with first hand accounts of more than 60 top drivers, some of whom went on to become world famous. The book is composed of 50 chapters, each dedicated to a different marque.
A full page photograph and explanatory text describes each model, 74 in all, often with a driver who describes the car along with personal experiences. Each chapter also includes a short biography of the individual most associated with the creation of the car, Enzo Ferrari, John Cooper, Sydney Allard and Ferry Porsche to cite a few.
The 274 page book is illustrated with logos of each make plus more than 200 period photographs. What the book amounts to is a very personalized history of sports car racing during the 1950s.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One of the highlights of this book and perhaps one of the things that make it different is the related personal experiences of those who actually raced the cars.
They are credited with a "With" rather than a "By.' This is because I did the actual writing based on interviews with the drivers.
My method was to record the interview, write the text, and then send it to the driver for comments and corrections. The reason for the credit "With" is because if there are any mistakes, they are mine, not the person interviewed.
In a few instances, there are "By" credits.
This means that the driver actually wrote the text. In a few instances, a section is credited "By Art Evans." I did this because I wanted to let you know that these were my personal experiences.
Bill Colson and Herb Jones are credited on the title page as co-authors. Bill, an historian who lives in England, wrote quite a number of the biographies. Herb lives in Spain and has a wide acquaintance with Europeans.
For a time during the sixties, he was involved professionally with Stirling Moss. Herb, an American, started out racing in California and then left for Europe in 1955 where, for the most part, he has lived ever since.
Although quite a number of folks are always available to me when I call for assistance while writing a book or one of my columns, my most important helpers are my neighbors, Ginny and John Dixon.
Ginny, a retired executive, is a total whiz in proofreading. She not only catches the usual typos that any proofreader would correct, but also she has a library of reference materials in which she looks up sometimes-obscure matters.
John, who raced a number of cars during the fifties and then went back to it later in life, carefully cheCks my facts.
Automotive photographer and journalist Jim Sitz helped checking facts as did the eminent British motor-sports journalist, Simon Taylor.
As you can imagine, a book of this scope covering 50 makes of cars was a daunting task.
Luckily enough, quite a number of additional friends stepped up to help. Among them were Marge Binks, Carl Goodwin, Will Edgar, Jim Franks, Don Klein, Glen Kurrus, Karl Ludvigsen, Mike Lynch, Bruce Meyer, Peter Miles and Carroll Shelby.
