A reminder of how much I miss Mark Donohue

[Dave_G]

Today I ordered a copy of The Unfair Advantage by Mark Donohue, in which he describes working with engineers during the development of the Porsche 917. I haven't yet received the book, but by all accounts I will enjoy it. Here's the excerpt that grabbed my attention. The engineers had managed to produce 800 HP out of the car:

They asked me if it had enough power then, and I said, 'No. It will never have enough power until I can spin the wheels at the end of the straightaway in high gear.'

How can you not love that? I was young when his brilliant life was cut short, but I'm convinced that Mark Donohue was one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen.

[mountainstar]

What's interesting if you read that book is you would almost think the way it's written that he was a failure of a driver. He is very understated about his accomplishments.

I think the sad thing about Mark Donohue was that he didn't have much balance in his life and didn't live to see retirement and to reflect on his achievements. But fortunately his legacy does live on.

[thebear]

Mark was also a graduate Mechanical Engineer (Brown U.) as you will discover upon reading. He related some of the problems in setting various cars up. Then they discovered that the floor of the garage was not level.

Ah the `good old days'.