Indianapolis Roadsters 1952-1964

Rating:
Summary: worth a look
Review: from lacar.com book reviews:

...A scorecard or table illustrating the ties between particular cars, drivers, race records, and especially the car names would have been helpful.

Still, this book has value. Joe Scalzo's writing style is better suited to a magazine format. If you pick up Indianapolis Roadsters and read a few pages at random, you will gain a terrific insight into the days when roadsters ruled the Indy roost. But if you want a cohesive story to take shape or are a hardcore facts and figures kind of person, you will come away disappointed.

If it sounds as though I am flipping a coin to decide whether or not to recommend this book, you are almost right. As a research tool, this book answers very few questions. Yet the firsthand accounts and fabulous photography of a previously neglected topic are fine redeeming qualities and make Indianapolis Roadsters 1952-1964 worth a look.

Rating:
Summary: Gearheads Beware - Race Team Soap Opera
Review: Growing up in Indy, I have a few comments after reading this book:

OK B&W pictures, really bad text. Author loves to name-call everything from a California-centric point of view. Hoosier Clems (indicates his age), Flintstone Tires, ad-nauseum.

If you would like to read about the darker, vulgar side of a few select Offy-Watson roadster teams, this is your book. If not, save your money and check out something that is a little more up-lifting or techie regarding a great classic racing era at Indy from the 40's to the late 60's (my personal favorite).

Never heard of the author before this book. Definitely has an attitude. Could have been a racing media wannabee or photographer that never made it big. This book didn't help that endeavor in my humble opinion.

Rating:
Summary: A Major Disappointment
Review: Let's set one thing straight immediately - this book is not about Indianapolis Roadsters 1952-1964. This book is about the "colorful" individuals who drove, sponsered, built and maintained these cars. It's proper title should be "Red-Neck S**t-Kickers who Loved Indy Roadsters". As a nostalgic chronicle of the people involved in Indianapolis racing from 1952 to 1964 it's a good read, but based on the title I expected the cars to be showcased. And the author's whole-hearted admiration of the despicable conduct of some individuals who gave motorsports a bad name really turned be off.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: This book is not so much just about the cars as about the whole Indy roadster era. Scalzo covers the hard living characters who participated in the era of the "dinosaurs". His writing style is gritty and a little bit melodramatic but, believe it or not, has actually mellowed since his "Stand On the Gas" days. If you look back on "Indy's" past with affection, and disdain the current over-hyped, over-sanitized and over-marketed racing scene of today (like I, and Scalzo, do), you'll like this book. There are many beautiful photos of the cars that Scalzo talks about as if they were friends and characters he misses.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: This book is not so much just about the cars as about the whole Indy roadster era. Scalzo covers the hard living characters who participated in the era of the "dinosaurs". His writing style is gritty and a little bit melodramatic but, believe it or not, has actually mellowed since his "Stand On the Gas" days. If you look back on "Indy's" past with affection, and disdain the current over-hyped, over-sanitized and over-marketed racing scene of today (like I, and Scalzo, do), you'll like this book. There are many beautiful photos of the cars that Scalzo talks about as if they were friends and characters he misses.

Rating:
Summary: beautiful photographs...not so great text....
Review: This is a badly needed volume, at least to those of us who rememmber the "stand on the gas and turn left" days at Indy, when the cars looked like cars and things like aerodynamics and ground effects didn't exist... Some beautiful color photos plus a lot of b/w pics highlight it. The text skips about covering this driver, then that with what seems to be no special order at all....Surprisingly, only one photo of the car that started (more or less) the roadster era, the car driven by the great Bill Vukovich, who had the breaks gone just bit different would have won 4 STRAIGHT Indy 500's...(He had a steering failure which caused a crash just 8 laps from the end of the '52 race, won in '53&'54, suffered a fatal crash running away from the field in '55)However,the other great names of the roadster era are well-represented:Bryan, Ward, Rathmann, Sachs, Jones and of course, Foyt. The price is bit high, but the photos alone make the book worth it....

Rating:
Summary: beautiful photographs...not so great text....
Review: This is a badly needed volume, at least to those of us who rememmber the "stand on the gas and turn left" days at Indy, when the cars looked like cars and things like aerodynamics and ground effects didn't exist... Some beautiful color photos plus a lot of b/w pics highlight it. The text skips about covering this driver, then that with what seems to be no special order at all....Surprisingly, only one photo of the car that started (more or less) the roadster era, the car driven by the great Bill Vukovich, who had the breaks gone just bit different would have won 4 STRAIGHT Indy 500's...(He had a steering failure which caused a crash just 8 laps from the end of the '52 race, won in '53&'54, suffered a fatal crash running away from the field in '55)However,the other great names of the roadster era are well-represented:Bryan, Ward, Rathmann, Sachs, Jones and of course, Foyt. The price is bit high, but the photos alone make the book worth it....