Can-Am 50th Anniversary: Flat Out with North America's Greatest Race Series 1966-74

Una lectura interesantisima de una de la competiciones más avanzadas e innovadoras que se ha conocido. Sin reglas y con libertad total para ir incorporando a los coches de competición nuevos y revolucionarios elementos que son parte de los artilugios existentes hoy en Formula 1. En aquellos tiempos la participantes con los bolidos Can-Am hacían mejores tiempos que los Formula 1. Muchos Corredores famosos se midieron en las Series Can-Am. Para mi el más innovador fue Jim Hall con su Chaparral.El primer coche con alerón y con caja de 3 velocidades, y hacia tiempos increibles. En fin, una lectura interesante e instructiva.

Back in the day, the Can-Am was THE auto racing series. It had the fastest, most technologically advanced cars and the best drivers from around the world. But after 9 short years it was gone. The reasons it came about and died are covered in detail. There are many interviews with drivers, mechanics, and team owners who participated in the series.I'm was a huge fan of the series and own every book I know of on the Can-Am, so I didn't know what to expect from yet another book on the subject. Would it just cover the same old ground but with some photos I hadn't seen before, or would there be new stories and insights? Well, my fears were unfounded. This book explains incidents I only thought I knew and adds things I never knew happened. Like exactly what happened in the accident that ended Jim Hall's racing career. Or the fact that it was kept secret for 40 years that Mario Andretti once tested a car for Team McLaren! This is a history book that is hard to put down once you start reading.George Levy & Pete Biro have done a magnificent job with this book. In some ways, it even surpasses the work of Pete Lyons., the authority on the Can-Am. (Lyons' race-by-race accounts in his books are more thorough.) Any fan of motor racing should have this book in their library. Any fan of the old Can-Am must have this book.

If you are a motor racing enthusiast, this is a book you need to own. Whether you are 20 or 70, if you admire Nico Rosberg or Bruce McLaren, this is food for your passion and a pass key to the innards of the best of professional Auto Racing. Those on the upper end of the age scale, like me, will be treated to first-hand insights into what it was like to compete against the world's best racing drivers in cars with absolutely no limits to their design. The mandate was to simply make them as fast as possible. For those without the benefit of years, you can get a realistic look at top-level racing as it was. The racetracks were crude, the cars built without concern for driver well-being. and there was a long line of brave men eager to test themselves, the risk be damned. Not all, including many of the best, survived. I was a kid doing autocrosses with my '67 Camaro, considered Lime Rock a shrine, and couldn't wait to get my copy of AutoWeek where I could follow the Can Am. I'd feast on the column, with Denny Hulme's by-line, that made the driving come alive. This book brings all that excitement back to me.

Outstanding book - simply outstanding!!!!For those of us who saw, heard, smelled, touched and felt these groundpounding rockets, this book is a great way to once again enjoy all that we loved and lived for.I was at Laguna Seca for the race in 1966. At the time this series was in it's infancy, those of us who witnessed the greatest drivers and fastest cars were always hoping to be able to see photos and news from the various events. Now, 50 years later this book does just that. Very few of us knew of the behind the scenes stories that made the series so great. Many thanks to Mr. Levy & Mr. Biro for the research and effort it took to write this book. The stories and photos make this book one that belongs in the collection of all us CanAm fans.

This book is the best value in motorsports right now. Using a number of never seen before images from ace auto racing photographer Pete Biro and the well written and well researched prose of expert automotive journalist George Levy, the reader is treated to many anecdotes from the participants of the most outrageous professional racing series ever witnessed. The younger readers who did not get to see these cars and drivers in action in the period will receive a proper education about professional auto racing before it became a politically correct, one make spec car parade. Innovation was rewarded with success and , if too successful, rejection by the sanctioning bodies SCCA and FIA. If you purchase only one racing book this year, THIS is the one!

Very good history of the series. I felt like I understood the evolution, though you have to read between the lines a bit to understand how the facotry teams ended up dominating and ultimately destroying it. The author clearly knows everybody involved, which at times seemed to lead him into writing people in a little better light than may have been true. Certainly feels like we are reading a somewhat sanitized version. Of course, even the people he quotes know they may well be racing and working together again, so no real bashing... The picture are of course spectacular,

This is physically a very high quality book with premium production value about one of the most legendary North American automotive racing series of all times. It takes a very unique look at the Can Am series, not so much focusing on the races themselves and results but on the drivers and team members that made it happen. The behind-the-scene photography is stunning, putting you on the track, in the pits, and in the motor homes for a truly unique view of the action. If you have been looking to understand the Can Am series from the viewpoint of those that were there, this book definitely needs to be on your required reading list.

If you were around in the Mid 60s when Can Am was just getting started,,, this book is for YOU. I read it and its like going to a race... they put you right there! I'm definitely ordering more as gifts.

A great book this. Firstly it is a lot bigger than I had expected; so many books these days barely warrant the title for they are often little more than brochures, but this is big like the cars themselves and the personalities who ran and raced them.The photos are stunning and the book is full of anecdotes from the people who were there at the time. It brings it all back to life and these were truly thrilling times in motor sport. I was a teenager back then and living in rural England. My Can-Am fixes came through the pages of magazines and often months after the event. I can still recall seeing an artist's impression of Jim Hall's 2e and the sense of winder at such a car, for I had seen the contemorary Lolas and McLarens on TV racing my side of the pond, but they looked stone age by comparison.I have several books on the Can-Am series, but this is no duplicate. It stands on its own merits as a valuable reference of one of the greatest periods in motorsport. In the sixties Indy may have had a wild decade, F1 had returned to power and NASCAR discovered aero. It was a great time, but the Can-Am was the greatest series perhaps and this book is a fine tribute.

This book is on my treasured list. Photographs superb. Takes you right back there when "there were no rules" and racing was really on the edge. Not a computer in sight yet they still made and raced fantastic machines. Compared to current F1 and sports car racing way better. The book reminds me what we have lost. The drivers didn't act like football stars either. Please note Hamilton/Rosberg etc.

Superb. The Can-Am series was fought out by the World's fastest road racing cars between 1966 and 1974. There were very few rules, innovation was encouraged and flourished; drivers of the calibre of Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, Dan Gurney, John Surtees, Chris Amon and Jackie Stewart (to name a few) raced McLaren, Ferrari, Porsche, Lola and Chaparral cars across North America. This book is filled with excellent period photos and inside stories told by those who were there at the time. A perfect companion volume to Pete Lyons' excellent books on the Can-Am.

An excellent book with lots of background detail and personal anecdotes about the whole CanAm series.I can thoroughly recommend this book.

I just want to say what a fantastic book it is! Great photos, colour and great text. there's anecdotes and stories from the people who were there, and you get the sense that it is written by people who know what happened. It's a really good read. I wish all racing books were as good.