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Racing Theory Books
(11 posts, started )
Racing Theory Books
Will books on Racing Theory be any help for newbs learning racing theory (me )?

Has anyone read any that are useful? Will they contain more information, some that generally won't be found online? If so, which books are good for learning general racing theory (ofc a bit more in depth).

Thank you
I've been looking for some racing books too. So far I've done everything racing related by feel only and I'd like to understand the theory behind it all a bit better to see where I can improve. I get bored at work, so a book like this would be very interesting.
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(carey) DELETED by carey
I've contacted him by PM already like 2-3 weeks ago, still no answer. :P
#4 - 5haz
I used to have a link to this massive online report on 'The physics of Motor Racing' (I think it was called that), I'm afraid I can't find it anymore.
The LFS setup guide is pretty good info too, i have one of the skib barber books i read about 20 pages of it, learnt a few thing which you don't think about but im really not a book person so i didn't read much more.
Carroll Smith, Skip Barber, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna have written good books on the topic (amongst many others).

Oddly, Senna's was the worst, but I suspect it was poorly translated. Yet Senna's is probably the most expensive as it's a bit of a collectors' item. I got one for my birthday - we found a copy that was for sale by someone who clearly didn't know the market value
#7 - samjh
Quote from tristancliffe :Oddly, Senna's was the worst, but I suspect it was poorly translated.

The skill of an individual in a discipline bears no correlation to their teaching ability.

A driver who writes a book about driving needs to have good ability to translate their expertise into words. Senna, while a great driver, probably lacked in the teaching department.

Quote from GenesisX :Will books on Racing Theory be any help for newbs learning racing theory (me )?

Has anyone read any that are useful? Will they contain more information, some that generally won't be found online? If so, which books are good for learning general racing theory (ofc a bit more in depth).

Well, racing is a "doing" thing. You need to "do" in order to learn.

For an online resource, try Don Palmer's online book about limit handling:
http://www.creativecarcontrol.co.uk/

For print, my first and only racing book was High Performance Driving by Bob Bondurant, which was a waste of space and time. Frankly, you're better off getting some coaching from a karting club, or doing a two day racing course.
Is this for real life or sim racing? I'm going to assume real life because it's in the motorsports section.

First and foremost should be "Drive to Win" by the late Carroll Smith. It deals hugely with the real aspects of driving, being feel, understanding the machine, all that good good stuff engineers teach their young drivers. It's a very "teach a man to fish" book. (If this is for sim racing this book will be 95% useless). Some racing knowledge required for understanding!

If you want something more basic, try the Speed Secrets series by Ross Bentley. Most of it is pretty brief and undetailed, since it's basically an ad for his coaching service, but the later books touch on things that are worth thinking about and the early books will tell you all the basics, stuff like how to apex and pass and so on. Great if you're looking to improve your simracing skills. You might as well throw in the Skip Barber book "Going Faster" with these guys. Its basically the same from what I've skimmed through (not read it in detail).
I don't know if you guys want a physics oriented book, or a driving technique oriented book, so heres one i found some months ago, its kind of old, but its very good...
I hope im not breaking any rule attaching it:
Attached files
HighPerformanceDrivingManual.pdf - 204 KB - 8880 views
i would say that the best way do get your head around racing is go to an arive and drive karting place and just drive. iv been doing that since i was 8 and now i am able to win races in my mini

Racing Theory Books
(11 posts, started )
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