[Books] Legends of Speed by Bill Woods

[Amaroo Park]

Legends of Speed written by Australia's number one motorsports commentator. thats what the cover says. What a joke, the inacuracys and straight out mistakes are absoultly unbelievable. I started listing them but after getting 15 in one chapter I gave up on the book and the mistakes.

The one I liked the most was the author saying the Indycar racing was run in the 70's by the SCCA which he lists as being as the Sprint Car Control Australia. Funny I thought it was the Sporting Car Club of America

[Aysedasi]

Astonishing. Have you drawn any of the inaccuracies to the attention of the author/publisher?

[racer69]

I had a 10 minute flick through it at the book store;

My quick observations:

- In the time line, David McKay winning the very first ATCC at Gnoo Blas in 1960 wasn't worthy of a mention, yet most other ATCC's were

- Alan Jones apparently won the 1982 Australian GT series in a JPS BMW (He won it in a Porsche 935)

- Harry Firth apparently Brock's team manager at Bathurst 1975....even though Firth ran the Dealer Team and Brock drove for the privateer Gown/Hindhaugh team

- Brock, Moffat, and Harvey only credited with the Kings Cup at Spa in 1986. What about the other 6 drivers, and the fact the award is given to the team (MHDT in this case), and not the individual drivers.

- Gregg Hansford was apparently still driving for DJR in 1988 (John Bowe took his place after 1987)

- Jim Richards winning 1978 and 1980 Sandown 500 (Peter Brock won them by himself, and they were only 400km races)

- Moffat finishing 2nd in the 1980 Sandown 400 in a 1-2 with Brock for the MHDT (he finished 3rd)

Trivial maybe in some cases, but if i got this from a 10 minute flick through at the book store, what other one's are in there. The mistakes i've mentioned just show a lack of research, plainly and simply.

[Aysedasi]

It also sounds like a rather naff Woollies bargain bin name for it as well......

[Mattracer]

Astounding the number of inaccuracies.

[Amaroo Park]

I would be embarresed to put my name too it

[marcus]

hmmmmmmmmmmm , interesting.

I know for a fact that I am getting this book as a christmas present.

hopefully these things wont detract from my enjoyment of it.

i havent even looked at it in a store but I was hoping it was a good book.

is the rest of it up to par guys ?

[Amaroo Park]

Sorry Marcus but if you have any knowlage of the sport even the tinest skerrick you will be spotting mistakes everywhere

[Aarrgh8]

The pick of the new Australian motorsport books is 'The Sound and the Fury' by Bill Tuckey. I'd much rather find that on Christmas morning than Bill Woods' effort. There again, with all his faults, I'd prefer Bill Woods any day over Bill Tuckey anchoring a motorsport telecast. I've seen Bill Tuckey do it, and he was pretty awful. Bill Tuckey for writing, Bill Woods for talking.

[Amaroo Park]

Yes but Bill Woods talking about sailing would be better. Then again he knows as much about sailing as he does motorsport

[marcus]

oh well , its the thought that counts.

I hope besides the mistakes i can still enjoy the book

thanks for the updates guys

[Hazza]

It is a great read, even if Bill can't decide wether Ron was blamed for Jack running out of fuel at the British Grand Prix and Brands or the French grandprix.

But still and enjoyable read.

[Mattracer]

"The Devil Racer" anyone?

Pretty good so far.

[Amaroo Park]

I tried reading it again, but it is soooooo inacurate. It really is a disgrace

[Morris 1100]

I have started reading it, I am up to page 80 and I have four pages of notes regarding errors, mistakes and outright rubbish!

Tony Gaze drove in Formula 1.
Alberto Ascari won his second Formula 1 championship in 1953. (two mistakes in that)
Fango won his second title in 1955.
Monza was totaly rebuilt because of Ascaris death and the Le Mans disaster.
His description of the Le Mans disaster was a work of fiction!
The man can not spell "Austin Healey"
Tony Gaze, Peter Whitehead and Alf Barrett won the Mt Druitt 24 hour race! (Wrong!)
Officials chartered a jet to fly the badly burned Stuart Lewis-Evans back to London. (Wrong!)
David Mckay was married to one of Frank Packers daughters! (Wrong!)
Bob Jane's Mercedes was the first German car to race in the world without German Tyres! (total utter rubbish!)
The first Brabham car was the BT3. (I wonder what happened to BT1 and BT2!)
and many more!

[Amaroo Park]

The scarey thing is a lot of people will take this as the truth because Woods is a supposed EXPERT

[marcus]

well alot of that i didnt know was incorrect , so i guess I could be lead to believe that this was indeed fact.

I havent read it all as yet but am finding it interesting , some of the stories and stuff and not so much the facts.

Im hoping it gets better as i go along

still if alot of this stuff is factually wrong how can it be that it got published in the first place ????

surely he had experts go through the facts with him ?? (or maybe not as the case may be ?)

[marcus]

Morris , tony gaze did in fact drive in formula one.

he competed in 2 grand prix in 1952 in a privateer HWM car, the belgian Grand prix , the german grand prix and he failed to qualify at the italian grand prix.

that much i know is actual fact

[Morris 1100]

Bill has read a couple of books and spoken to the main players but he has not done any research at all!

Another gem... Bob Jane at Lowood in the 1961 ATCC, he found that Pitt, McKay and Geoghegan were all too good for him.
Sounds OK. except that McKay was not there!

Or on page 91 where he says Guilo Cabianca run through the gates at Modena and hit a taxi killing two people in the taxi.
Close but no Taxi! You can find the real story over at the Atlas Nostalgia Forum.

[Morris 1100]

Originally Posted by marcus

Morris , tony gaze did in fact drive in formula one.

he competed in 2 grand prix in 1952 in a privateer HWM car, the belgian Grand prix , the german grand prix and he failed to qualify at the italian grand prix.

that much i know is actual fact

The World Championship was run for Formula 2 in 1952 and 53.
So Tony Gaze didn't drive in Formula 1 but he did drive in races counting towards the World Championship.

Formula 1 had not been scrapped and there were races for Formula 1 cars, just not for the Championship.

[marcus]

ahhhhhhhhh well there ya go , i guess we were both right then

Ya learn something new around here evryday

[Craig]

I think I'd be back at the book shop asking for my money back...

[cavvy]

Originally Posted by marcus

ahhhhhhhhh well there ya go , i guess we were both right then

Ya learn something new around here evryday

Is that one for Billy?

Another error was Norm Beechey winning in Jim McKeowns Mk2 Lotus Cortina in SA - it was WA Touring Car Champs after the HK Monaro (still in Warwick Yellow) did not last until the main race.

[marcus]

No I meant for Morris

he was right that Gaze didnt drive in f1 but technically I was right as well as the races he did do counted towards the world championship.

man the errors seem to be mounting up big time in this book., which is very dissapointing

[Morris 1100]

I have given up taking notes, there are just too many!