Grand Prix Racing

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31030, 9 April 1966, Page 4

Grand Prix Racing

Formula One. By Anthony Pritchard. Allen and Unwin. 325 pp. Subtitled “Grand Prix Racing Since 1946,” this volume is divided into five parts: the 1500 c.c. supercharged and 4550 c.c. unsupercharged for: mulae; the 2000 c.c. unsupercharged and 500 c.c. supercharged formulae; the 2500 c.c. unsupercharged and 750 c.c. supercharged formulae; the 1500 c.c. unsupercharged

formula, and a section on the Ferguson four-wheel-drive car and on Indianapolis. As a history of “formula one” racing and the fortunes and misfortunes of the various “marques” the book succeeds well, though chiefly as a work of reference.

There has obviously been much painstaking effort put into collating the facts about each type of car and its performance in each race. The small modifications made to different designs from time to time are all enumerated in detail, reasons for retirements are given, and design features are carefully described.

Mr Pritchard must have considered three methods of treating his subject: concentrating primarily on the various drivers, dealing with the races in chronological order, or dealing mainly with the different “marques” and their fortunes during their time in racing. He has chosen the latter course, isolating each formula in a section and then dealing individually wjth the different cars which competed. There are also tables giving the results of each Grand Prix. This results in a most detailed description and analysis of the various cars and teams, but does encourage repetition as the performance of first one car, then another, in the same race is described. It also tends to the chronological confusion. Though the bock was pub-

lished in January this year, some of Mr Pritchard’s comments are already out of date, which is indicative of the rapidity with which situations tend to change in motor sport. The section on Indianapolis is brief and rather misleading on the facts of the 1963 race, when Parnelli Jones won from Clark after the “yellow light” incident. It is also inaccurate on the 1964 race, saying only that Clark lost a wheel, when in fact his rear suspension and driveshaft failed after his tyres started to chunk out, and go seriously out of balance.

Mr Pritchard must be given credit for a most thorough and minutely-detailed coverage of the Grand Prix scene since the war. The book is illustrated with a profusion of monochrome photographs of the various Grand Prix cars.