Going Faster- Mastering the Art of Race Driving Description:

Going Faster! Mastering the Art of Race Driving review:
5 stars (an exceptional book. a must read for any serious driver.) - This book is amongst the best I have ever read in terms of driving. It covers a tremendous amount of detail. This is a most read, is it not only from one of the top racing schools in the country, is allot cheaper. The information in this book is like having ten other books put together. Although this book covers almost everything it is not the only one to read.
5 stars (Perhaps the Most Complete Racing Instruction Book) - I think I must have bought almost every book there is on racing instruction over the years, and this book definitely ranks in the top three. It is incredibly complete and easy to understand. It also was good to read before the Skip Barber courses in order to get an advantage over the other drivers, and I still refer to it on a regular basis in Renault, etc. A MUST buy for anyone serious about competition!

Peter Olson
4 stars (The Best Manual of a Beginning Competition Driver) - I couldn't "swallow" this book at once, it took me three sessions during a couple of months to figure out that amongst the good books on motor sports this one serves the role of a guidebook, of a manual of a beginning competition driver, best of all.



What do I mean by "good books"? Competition Driving by Alain Prost, The Technique of Motor Racing by Piero Taruffi, Driving in Competition by Alan Johnson, Sports Car and Competition Driving by Paul Frere, to name a few. All of them are wise and not overcomplicated, and have no buzz about the success stories of champions, the buzz which is useless for the reader interested in driving techniques.



I've found out that the definition of oversteer and understeer here is the most complete and most correct amongst the books that I've listed, yet without the formulas that may frighten somebody. It took the author 17 pages full of illustrations to explain these modes of car behaviour. This is the first big advantage of this book.



Another major advantage of this book is the serious attention of the author to the role of hardware, which is sometimes overlooked by the other writers, who claim that hardware is important, but do not write in-depth chapters about it. The book has may illustrations and explanations how the center of gravity, wheel base, and the suspension elements like springs, shock absorbers and the roll bars affect longitudal and lateral load transfer speed and motion, which occurs during acceleration, braking and cornering; how various adjustment affect the weight applied to each of the wheels, and how this affects car behaviour. He is the only author to mention the effect of download on coefficient of friction of the wheel, and why the total friction of the wheels is at its highest level when the download on each wheel is the same, i.e. the car is balanced. The other writers in this case did only mention that to keep the car balanced is important without a sound explanation.



The book has an appendix with the listing of racing resources, it has a good bibliography and a useful glossary and an index.



I highly recommend this book, although sometimes I had a feeling that more humour and liveliness would have made it even better. Please also consider buying "Skip Barber - Going Faster" DVD in addition to this book.