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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.7209
EAN: 9780618822195
Edition: First Edition
ISBN: 0618822194
Label: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: June 09, 2009
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Studio: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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Product Description
By the early 1960s, the Ford Motor Company, built to bring automobile transportation to the masses, was falling behind. Young Henry Ford II, who had taken the reins of his grandfather’s company with little business experience to speak of, knew he had to do something to shake things up. Baby boomers were taking to the road in droves, looking for speed not safety, style not comfort. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari, whose cars epitomized style, lorded it over the European racing scene. He crafted beautiful sports cars, "science fiction on wheels," but was also called "the Assassin" because so many drivers perished while racing them.
Go Like Hell tells the remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and a former racing champion turned engineer, Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company. They would enter the high-stakes world of European car racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity to the wind. They would design, build, and race a car that could beat Ferrari at his own game at the most prestigious and brutal race in the world, something no American car had ever done.
Go Like Hell transports readers to a risk-filled, glorious time in this brilliant portrait of a rivalry between two industrialists, the cars they built, and the "pilots" who would drive them to victory, or doom.
A Q&A with Go Like Hell author A.J. Baime  Question: What are you saying in your book that hasn't been said before? Answer: No one has ever successfully written a book about cars and racing that can be easily enjoyed by someone who doesn't know a thing about cars and racing. My book accomplishes this. At the same time, reviewers who have studied this automotive era for decades have read the book and told me they were shocked to learn many things they didn't know. Specifically, no one has ever written about this story with such a focus on the business side: why it happened in the first place, how Henry Ford II had a vision to create the first pan-European auto company in the 1960s, selling Ford cars from London to the border of Russia. How could he prove that his American cars were the best in the world and that Europeans should buy them? By winning Le Mans. There's a whole foundation to this story that I've never seen fully explored elsewhere. Q: How did you do your research? A: For starters, I did dozens of interviews: Carroll Shelby, Lee Iacocca, Phil Hill, Mario Andretti, A. J. Foyt, Dan Gurney, John Surtees, Edsel Ford II (son of Henry Ford II), Piero Ferrari (son of Enzo Ferrari), Lloyd Ruby, plus engineers, mechanics, PR men, executives, and on and on. I conducted interviews in Italy, France, England, Los Angeles, and Florida, plus countless others over the phone from my office in New York. On top of the interviews, I read everything ever written on the subject, and I saw every bit of footage, which was a particularly good source for dialogue. In some cases, I took fast cars onto racetracks, such as Daytona and Ford's Romeo test facility north of Detroit, to try to get further into the heads of the drivers during scenes that take place at these locales. Q: Any highlights during your research? A: My interview with Carroll Shelby. Afterward, he drove me from his office in Gardena, California, to the Long Beach airport. The guy was getting on in years, and his vision was fading. But we were passing car after car on I-405 in a Mustang GT-H, which has ridiculous amounts of horsepower. We're talking about a guy who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans wearing chicken farmer overalls in 1959. Nearly fifty years later, he can't see much, but he can still drive. Q: Why is this topical now? A: What's happening in the American auto industry today is just stunning. My book is in large part about Detroit at the dawn of globalism. It's kind of like the first chapter in a long narrative that is now reaching its climax. In the 1960s, when the global car sales race began, Detroit was battling against German, British, and Japanese companies for the first time. Ford sold cars by proving on the racetrack they were better than anyone else's. We won in heroic fashion in the 1960s. We’re not winning anymore (Photo © Timpthy White)
Product Description:
By the early 1960s, Ford Motor Company, built to bring automobile transportation to the masses, was falling behind. Baby boomers were taking to the roads in droves, looking for speed not safety, style not comfort, and Ford didnât offer what these young drivers wanted. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari lorded over the European racing scene, crafting beautiful, fast sports cars that epitomized style.
Go Like Hell tells the remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and a former racing champion turned engineer named Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company. They would enter the high-stakes world of European car racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity to the wind. They would design, build, and race a car that could beat Ferrari at his own game, at the most prestigious and brutal race in the world, the 24 Hours of LeMans.
Go Like Hell transports readers to a risk-filled, glorious time through this brilliant portrait of a rivalry between two industrialists, the cars they built, and the âpilotsâ who drove them to their victory, or doom.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
A clash of egos born of the spirit of competion creates the backdrop for the dramatic showdown in the mid-1960's at Le Mans between Enzo Ferrari, Henry Ford II and the spectacular machines they engineered to compete in the most prestigious race in the world. As well this is the story of the drivers who piloted the storied vehicles with daring and skill often risking life and limb in order to claim victory. A gripping account that anyone with an interest in fast cars and the fast life will cherish.
Rating:  -
Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a consummate car-guy. Specifically, I lead the pack in a Dodge. Everyone, also, knows that in the history of auto racing- Chrysler's Hemi continues unbeatable. No Fords, Chevros, or Ferraris, around here ever pass my Challenger without permission!
That said... I find AJ Baime's "Go Like Hell" (2009 304-page hardback) absorbing. This brilliant text is a quick read for the auto racing enthusiast. The book is well-written from interviews, book research, and the author's personal touring of the car racing world. It is comfortably resourced with 23 pages of end notes and eight helpful pages of period black-n-white and color photographs.
Baime presents the fast paced, colorful, story of Enzo Ferrari's and Henry Ford II's early and mid 1960s battle for the face of Formula One auto racing. Their fight across the race tracks of Europe and America, posited curiously by the author as an extension of World War II, reveals Ferrari's personal nationalism and Ford's familial obsession to win regardless. The story is dramatic, tragic, exciting, and memorable.
Author Baime brings statistics, celebrity conversations, colloquial expression, sports analysis, and personal reflection to this gripping ride through Ford's herculean efforts to beat Ferrari. Readers meet Lee Iacocca, Carroll Shelby, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Ken Miles, Phil Remington, Dino Ferrari, Giovanni Agnelli, Bruce McLaren, Mario Andretti, and many more. The various 1959-1967 Ferrari and Ford racing models are reviewed from tread to top and bumper to bumper. The development of Ferrari's 4 liter V-12 and the birth of Ford's historic 427 cid (7 liter) motors are told with reverence and insight.
Baime relates brilliant victories (at Indy, Daytona, Riverside, Sebring, Monza, Le Mans, and many more), pit row personality conflicts (between Goodyear and Firestone contractees), auto industry management mistakes (don't race a Ford with and Italian gear box!), fiery race car crashes, and "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat", as Jim McKay used to say. An informative history of Le Mans wheels adeptly through the story like a Ferrari 330 P3's romp down the Mulsanne at 210 mph. This book is a gear-head's delight!
Baime's writing style is quick, concise, and forward, much like the race pilots of which he writes. You won't want to put this book down. Beware, there is some gruff language here (steering the book away from a fifth star) mostly in quotes. But, what else would one expect from the hard running-win at all cost-racing scene (and a "Playboy" magazine editor writing about it)?
If you have a spouse, relative, friend, or acquaintance who loves auto racing this book is an excellent gift candidate. If you're a gear-head wanting to learn about the face of racing in the 1960s this book is a must-read.
Rating: -
Here in America, most people think the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 are the 2 biggest auto races out there. To those people I say, "Not so fast." The Grand Prix d'Endurance les 24 Heures du Mans (24 Hours of Le Mans) is the greatest single race in the world as it pushes a car to the absolute limits. It's also a race that as a child, I had a hard time believing that a single race would go on for 24 hours. I thought it was insane, and even now I still think it is to some degree. This book focuses on probably the most interesting period of Le Mans, and the struggle of Ford in trying to win the race outright.
A.J. Baime has written a detailed and engaging history outlining how and why the Ford Motor Company became so driven in trying to ultimately win Le Mans. The need to sell more cars was often achieved through racing victories as seen with the dominance of NASCAR by the Ford Galaxie. Le Mans dominance by Ferrari through the early 1960s also translated into sales of customer cars. There was the belief that if a manufacturer's vehicle won at Le Mans, the company must know how to build cars that can last, as well as having power.
The story that unfolds shifts between the Ferrari side and the Ford side. We get to meet the big names of the automotive world like Henry Ford II, Enzo Ferrari, and Carroll Shelby. Then we get the foundation for why Henry Ford II became so obsessed with winning at Le Mans. It would take 3 tries before his goal was fully realized in 1966. Subsequently the GT40 would dominate Le Mans in 1967, 1968, and 1969 to close out the decade. In between that we are told stories about many of the greatest race drivers that the world has ever seen ranging from men like Bruce McLaren to Phil Hill to Mario Andretti. What makes the story so engaging for the reader is Baime's ability to make the reader truly understand what was going on in the sports car racing world during the 1960s, and it certainly doesn't hurt that we get to know many of the individuals.
When reading this book, it becomes clear why auto racing these days will never match the "golden age" of racing during the 1950s and 1960s. Racing was a glorious thing, and the cars were simply machines meant to go fast. While we could debate the obvious stupidity in retrospect of the lack of car safety, it's the very lack of safety that makes this era so appealing. You had to have somewhat of a death wish to get behind the wheel of a Le Mans race car or a Formula One car. The amount of drivers killed during races is astounding, but what might be more astounding is how accepted it was. Safety was viewed as being unmanly so there were no great pushes towards it. Drivers tended to be surrounded by fuel, and things we take for granted now like seatbelts were an after-thought then. But what is just as amazing is how with the technology of those days, they were able to achieve speeds in excess of 200MPH on the famed Mulsanne Straight. Equally amazing, are driver reactions to the race cars reaching these insane speeds.
With the end of the 1960s, the golden age started to pass, but it would linger on in the early 1970s with the Porsche 917. For those who love reading about the GT40, the Porsche 917 story is one I suggest checking out. For as fast as the GT40's were, the 917 was even faster hitting 246MPH on the Mulsanne Straight. In fact one driver was reported as saying when he had to start braking for the Mulsanne Corner, the 917 was still accelerating.
This book is highly recommended for all racing enthusiasts, and even those with a passing interest in automotive racing or even automotive history, as the story itself is unlike any other out there. The Ford-Ferrari rivalry is one of the greatest stories in automotive history, and this book does that story justice.
Rating: -
"Seabiscuit" for automobile racing! A fantastic read! I could smell the rubber and hear the engines whine. Great book.
Rating: -
Fantastic Book. Read it in four days. As an American, car guy and a racer it made for a great read. Not only full of history but it was entertaining like a Burt S Levy book.
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