Rating: 
Summary: The Perfection of a Genre
Review: The term Ruthian, in honor of Babe Ruth, is a metaphor frequently used in sports to describe an accomplishment that doesn't merely break a record but so far exceeds anything that occurred previously that it deserves this ultimate superlative. On the subject of learning how to drive a race car, Carl Lopez' book, "Going Faster" is Ruthian. A road-racing fan for many years, I had always wanted to take up amateur, SCCA racing but had difficulty developing a budget for it. Now that I can afford it, I wanted to find a way to make up for lost time in learning driving techniques. Although a lot of progressive, in-car experience is a necessity, Going Faster prepares you for learning by its incredible detail and brilliant illustrations, presented in down to earth fashion, used to describe virtually every aspect of the interaction of vehicle dynamics, race course variation, and proper driver reaction. If you have a library of other books on the subject, donate them to a thrift store and buy this book. Even if you never race, reading a book that covers a subject brilliantly is a pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: These guys have driving down to a science.
Review: This 278 page book is all about driving. If you were like me and cant understand how you could write 278 pages just on driving, your in for a real treat. This book is a racers bible. Teaches you the fastest way through a turn, how to find out how much side load your tires can withstand, how to run in someones draft, how to avoid accidents, what driving line to use in the rain,passing, lowering lap times, diffent ways to shift gears, deal with oversteer and understeer. I can go on and on. This book has improved my overall driving as an everyday daily driver. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their racing or just improve your overall driving.
Rating: 
Summary: Up date on content
Review: This book on race driving technique is intended to stand apart from all previous books on the subject. How? There are three major differences from existing works. First, its not one person's opinion of how race cars should be driven. The Skip Barber Racing School is a motor racing University, if you will. Each of the 100+ instructors bring with them unique experiences and points of view and the body of knowledge about the craft of race driving grows from an accumulation of the best input. Throughout the book the text and illustrations are illuminated by sidebar quotes from champion race drivers. The list includes Danny Sullivan, Skip Barber, Bryan Herta, Dorsey Schroeder, Jeremy Dale, Robbie Buhl, Brian Till, David Loring, Jim Pace, and Terry Earwood. The second major difference is that the book is intended to be a definitive work on what contemporary race drivers do to win races and championships. There is plenty of well-paced coverage of the techniques a beginner has to master, but it goes further than any other existing text in exploring the advanced techniques that make the difference between competence and brilliance. On-board data collection is continuously used to quantify how different techniques result in lap time differences. Finally, effort is taken to address a wide audience. The casual reader with an interest in auto racing, but no intent to get in a a race car, can skip from sidebar to side bar, then jump ahead to the advice and war stories of professional drivers which make up the bulk of the final chapters. In these chapters we compare how drivers adapt driving technique to increasingly faster and more complicated race cars. This section is salted heavily with quotes from the drivers who have won championships in cars ranging from Formula Dodge two litre single seaters through World Sports Car prototypes and Indy Cars. The racing beginner who is intent on learning will find that the progression of subjects is well suited to getting a thorough inderstanding of the knowledge and skills required to be successful. The experienced race driver can easily skim the fundamantals, (although I personally think that reviewing the fundamentals is useful for even the most experienced racer), and hone in on more advanced topics that can be immediately applied to the racetrack. This book is intended to be one that every race driver will have on the shelf to refer to when they've reached a plateau in thier driving. We hope readers will find that its akin to "The Elements of Style" for race drivers. The author's email addres is clopez@skipbarber.com
Rating:
Summary: If you can't go to school, at least buy the book!
Review: This is a great, detailed description of how to "Go Faster!" It represents the race driving theory taught in Skip Barber's 3-day school and will be helpful to anyone involved in racing at any level. Nothing beats the School's seat time you get under the instructors' watchful eye, but if you want to understand the how and why of race driving, this book does it best. There are some great illustrations and commentary from the pros throughout. If you can only have one racing book, this sould be the one! PS - it is a great refresher and study guide for those of you who have gone to school.
Rating:
Summary: If you can't go to school, at least buy the book!
Review: This is a great, detailed description of how to "Go Faster!" It represents the race driving theory taught in Skip Barber's 3-day school and will be helpful to anyone involved in racing at any level. Nothing beats the School's seat time you get under the instructors' watchful eye, but if you want to understand the how and why of race driving, this book does it best. There are some great illustrations and commentary from the pros throughout. If you can only have one racing book, this sould be the one! PS - it is a great refresher and study guide for those of you who have gone to school.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent fundamentals of race driving and setup
Review: This is an excellent book that covers all the basics. The diagrams are great and the text easy to understand. The book takes more of a physics, fundamentals and technique approach, without being too mathematical.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book
Review: This is the 4th or 5th racing instructional book I've read. Carl does a good job of explaining the different techniques in racing. I also picked up a few new things! The diagrams are professional and easy to understand. The side-comments by other racing experts also adds a lot of "realism" to it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This is the perfect book if you really want to "Go Faster." I have reread this book so many times that the cover is bent. The techniques mentioned in this book can carry over to any car you drive. I race karts, and the minute I really read and understood what is mentioned, I started "Going Faster" and won my first race. I also held the fastest time for the year at my track. Great book, I highly reccomend it.-- Shawn C.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This is the perfect book if you really want to "Go Faster." I have reread this book so many times that the cover is bent. The techniques mentioned in this book can carry over to any car you drive. I race karts, and the minute I really read and understood what is mentioned, I started "Going Faster" and won my first race. I also held the fastest time for the year at my track. Great book, I highly reccomend it. -- Shawn C.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This is the perfect book if you really want to "Go Faster." I have reread this book so many times that the cover is bent. The techniques mentioned in this book can carry over to any car you drive. I race karts, and the minute I really read and understood what is mentioned, I started "Going Faster" and won my first race. I also held the fastest time for the year at my track. Great book, I highly reccomend it. -- Shawn C.
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