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The Limit: Life And Death On The 1961 Grand Prix Circuit (2011)

by Michael Cannell(Favorite Author)

4.11 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0446554723 (ISBN13: 9780446554725)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Twelve

review 1: Mike Cannell's book The Limit is an good history of sports cars and the Gran Prix in the 1950s and early 1960s. It focuses on the competition between Phil Hill and Von Trips for Grand Prix wins, and Ferrari's manipulation of them. Ferrari's efforts to keep them on edge in an effort to achieve faster speeds literally caused the drivers to drive themselves to death. The number and description of accidents and deaths ultimately makes this book depressing so I gave up about 75% of the way through.
review 2: A car gets me from one place to another and as long as it works I am happy. So one might wonder why I was attracted to read this book. It 'jumped off" the new books non-fiction shelves at the library because I had heard the author interviewed on NPR and tho... moreught it would be interesting to read. The book is supposed to be about Phil Hill, a race driver who grew up in Santa Monica, California. But it is more a story of many race car drivers, and also of Ferrari. The book ends with the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit and the rivalry created by the press and Ferrari. I thought the book was very well written and I enjoyed the chapters describing the lives of certain race car drivers. More photos would have been a plus, but there were some and they enhanced the understanding of the race driver. I recommend this book to anyone who is curious about what it was like to race cars when many drivers died while driving, either/and/or because of vandalism on the course, poor design of the car, or poor driving abilities. Many spectators died, too, because of cars careening into them or into the stands where they were. But the story isn't about death so much as it is about the individual drivers and how they came to be race car drivers. less

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