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Drive to Win: The Essential Guide to Race Driving is a book written by Carroll Smith, an engineer-turned-racing driver-turned-team manager that takes an unemotional, straightforward approach to explaining how cars work and how to drive them better. And that makes sense. Cars, ultimately, are just as unemotional. In fact, cars are like clocks, complicated machines with several intricate moving parts that all individually need to work well for the machine to work at all. The better the driver understands all those moving parts, the easier it is to make the best use of them.
That’s what differentiates Drive to Win from other racing books, and Smith himself explains it well: “The existing good books are all written from the point of view of the driver. This book is not. Here we are going to look at what the driver does (or should do) from the point of view of the racing car, the engineer, the team manager, the car owner and the sponsor.” That quote comes from the book’s forward and captures Smith’s approach and writing style perfectly.
Smith’s credentials include an engineering degree, race wins in Europe in a Cooper Formula Junior car, work as team manager on the highly successful Ford GT40 Le Mans-winning car for Carroll Shelby and a consulting turn with the Ferrari Formula 1 team. That’s, of course, in addition to writing Tune to Win; Engineer to Win; and Nut, Bolts, Fasteners, and Plumbing Handbook (known anecdotally as Screw To Win), before putting pen to paper for this book.
Drive to Win is broken down into seven sections: The Driver, Vehicle Dynamics, Learn To Win, Environments, On Track, At The Office (psst, he means the driver’s seat) and Advanced Drive To Win. Each section includes at least two individual chapters with titles like Chapter Four: Braking. See, straightforward. And there’s little time for equivocation or nuance, either. When discussing the merits of the discomfort of a three-layer fire suit and Nomex underwear, Smith writes, “If you think that a three-layer suit and underwear is hot, try a fire.”
From basics like learning racing lines to advanced knowledge like understanding how shock absorbers and differentials work, Drive to Win gives a rock-solid foundation to develop your own racing expertise, assuming you have the money and time. Smith takes a more holistic approach to the concept of racing. If you aspire to race, either as an amateur or a professional, this book provides excellent information. (And it makes excellent use of wood.)
Carroll Smith Consulting Drive to Win: Essential Guide to Race Driving
Carroll Smith Consulting Drive to Win: Essential Guide to Race Driving
