What I Am Reading - Go Like Hell

Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans

By: A.J. Baime

Read it in cheap paper back at 320 pages.

Our November selection is brought to you by Dust.  Our little reading group has two practicing mechanics, a third college educated (no longer practicing) mechanic, and a few car enthusiasts.  One of these enthusiasts is Dust and thus picked A.J. Baime's Go Like Hell.

Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans is well, exactly that.  The car industry in the late 1950's and early 1960's was poised for reformation at the hands of many eager youth looking for freedom, responsibility, and a self-identifying image that they could find in a car.  Sales were directly affected by winning races and Ford looked to get in on that as the company was also looking for a new angle to sell cars and ensure dominance both at home and in Europe for car sales.  Naturally, in there way lay Enzo Ferrari and his quest to win in cars that were beautiful, fast, and most importantly winning.  This is the true tale of the companies, their owners, the teams, the mechanics, and of course the racers that would ultimately come to play their positions in the 1966 Le Mans. 

-Potential Spoilers Below-

Overall I expected high rankings from this book.  With so many people in the field and the many enthusiasts we have in this book club, it was unavoidable.  What many a reader was worried about was the level of detail that Baime would use in his descriptions of the cars, races, and overall technology of the industry in the 1960's.   Luckily Baime did well and for some of us, we actually wanted more details.

From a OTC Book Club scale of 1-10, with a one being a convenient wipe for your posterior and a ten a treasured capsule of prose:

Th3ee: 7

G$$: 8

Dust: 9

Hylen: 6

BoozyCoug: 7

Shely-the-Don: 7

SS: 6

Mech Dave: 8

We had 8 people finish with an average score of 7.25.  I think we all inflated this based on our interest in cars.  I can't say that I would recommend the book to someone that didn't have an interest in cars.  But that's not to discount how much we all enjoyed the book, I just think it would have been a point lower (perhaps a 6.25) if we were a little more critical.

We all had a hard time with are standard template questions that I use to foster conversation about the books.  There are a lot of people to like in this book from the tycoons present in Ford and Ferrari, to the racers for each team who possessed sheer talent laced with mystery and quirks, and of course mechanics with insatiable attention to power and detail.  Shelby probably one the prize for best character as he was in a way, all three of the things described above and had enough charisma to carry the title of our favorite character.  A callout to racer Miles who was also loved by many of us.

One of our least favorite moments was about the end of the 1966 Le Mans in which Ford finally gains their title.  We felt that the ending to the race was a huge disservice to the racers and the competitive spirit embodied in racing itself.  We all felt that the ending might have been different if the racers knew what the teams knew rounding those final laps.  Lets be honest, Miles got fucked, hard.

Overall an interesting pick and we were all pleased with it.