Go Like Hell

"Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans", by A.J. Baime is worth a read.

A.J. Baime deals with the epic battle between Ford and Ferrari with a sensitivity to context and a sympathy for the characters involved that elevate what some might consider just another car book to literature.

Several characters get star billing; Carrol Shelby, John Surtees, Ken Miles, and Enzo Ferrari. Sketches of Henry Ford II and several Ford managers are fairly well fleshed out. And there's a wonderful cameo appearance of our native son, the Kansas City Flash, Masten Gregory.

But the beauty of the book is A. J. Baime's capturing the zeitgeist of racing in that era (and it touches on almost all aspects of big league racing in the day).

Deep technical specs are avoided - but where technology provided an edge it's explained. (In particular Ford's use of data logging, one of the first cases of it's use in motorsports.) But the characters come to life and jump off the page.

One reviewer mentioned that there would be great heros and villians in the book. I didn't find any villians though. Rather, I saw fear, lives, huge egos, and money ground into dust in the high speed crucible of international motorsports.