Prepare to Win: The Nuts and Bolts Guide to Professional Race Car Preparation

One of road racings top professionals presents here a vast amount of his accumulated car preparation knowledge. Covers fasteners, plumbing, riveting and welding, basic metal work, braking system, clutch, suspension, wheels and tires, engine, gearbox, electrics, fuel cells, paint and paperwork. 95% of amateur racers don't have a clue about aerodynamics, vehicle dynamics, and other rather essential but very diificult areas, and the professional racers aren't much better. The beauty of this book is that Carroll Smith breaks it down and tells you EXACTLY what you need to know in a very easy to read format. The art and science of race car development and tuning   Carroll Smith has been racing, as a driver, an engineer and as a team manager, since 1955. He turned professional in 1960 and his cars, driven by men such as Amon, Andretti, Foyt, Gurney, Hulme and Ickx, have won races in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan in events as diverse as Le Mans and SCCA regionals.   He began writing this trilogy in the early 1970s and the first volume, Prepare To Win, which covers the nuts and bolts of race car preparation, was first published in 1975. This was followed in 1978 by Tune To Win which covers development and tuning. Finally, in 1984 he published Engineer To Win, an essential guide to materials and technology. Each book has been regularly revised to reflect the state of the art.   PREPARE TO WIN deals exclusively with the nuts and bolts of race car preparation. It contains no theory, only down-to-earth specific instructions on how to set up a race car in a professional manner. Being professional "does not necessarily mean being paid, it means doing things the right way, the only way, using logic, common sense, forethought and dedication. What Carroll does here, through his vast experience, is to provide that logic, the common sense and a lot of the forethought. The rest is up to you, but as he points out in chapter one there is no magic, only vast amounts of hard work and a fanatical dedication to the task at hand.   The whole spectrum of race car preparation is covered from the basic nuts and bolts and basic metalwork through the braking system, linkages, plumbing, fastenings, wheels, tyres, suspension, engine, transmission, electrics, paint and finally paperwork.   Short of hiring the author as team manager, PREPARE TO WIN is one of the best investments a race car owner or builder can make.