Race and Rally Car Sourcebook: The Guide to Building or Modifying a Competition Car

Rating:
Summary: Competitors pit-pass; Step one.
Review: In my quest for knowledge relevant to designing, building and driving a light-weight, high-performance sportscar, I have bought and borrowed numerous books, magazines, plans and workshop-manuals.
This book has been one of the best of my many purchases.
My one regret is that I didn't have this book much earlier; I very nearly did, but when I began my project, "Race and Rally Car" looked wrong to my novices' eyes. I hadn't realised then that my planned sportscars were so closely related to Formula racecars in all their systems and dynamics.
Now, with the benefit of my researching/learning experience, I am able to appreciate just how valuable a source Mr Staniforths' book is!
This is a truly great picture/storybook for us petrol-heads, a practical guide, and a comprehensive reference, all based on the authors' own extensive experience as a race-car designer, builder, and driver.
Those years of hard-won experience left an empathetic awareness of the broad-ranging requirements of a novice. He has created this book with just the right mix of wit and serious technical detail to inspire and encourage the reader with doubts about their own ability to "give it a go".
It encompasses all that is important in building a fast sports or racecar, thoroughly covering topics like planning, design, building techniques, technology, testing and development. It features excellent illustrations, really inspiring photographs, and includes historical and anecdotal material of considerable value to any aspiring Murrays, Tauranacs or Schumakers among us. There is also a detailed source-index to other authoritative sources for more complete descriptions of processes that have been, of necessity, only lightly dealt with here.
Overall, it's an enjoyable read and a sound investment. I suspect that the more sophisticated features of my ultimate design will owe more to this than any other single book.
It deserves a place in your library.

Rating:
Summary: A wealth of information
Review: This was the first book I bought related to race and sports car design. It is very well written, and Staniforth's writing style is very entertaining as well as being informative.

The book covers all aspects related to building and modifying a sports car and does so in reasonable depth. I did find that I will need other references where I want detailed information about a specific topic. For example, the sections on suspension are clear and offer good information and are sufficient to get you started with whatever project you have in mind. However, if one really wants to get down into the gritty mathematical details of designing suspension then a second reference specifically on that topic would be needed.

As a book to highlight all that is important in building a fast sports or race car, I recommend the book whole heartedly.