Inside Racing Technology: Discussions of Racing Technical Topics

This book discusses racing technical topics in a very friendly manner, without complicated formulas that you can find in numerous "vehicle dynamics" books. The latter books have little practical value for a beginner racer, because 95% of their graphs and formulas are nowhere to apply. The author brilliantly uses his favourite style of describing complex topics in a form of interview with appropriate experts. There are very noteworthy discussions with tire compounders from Goodyear and Firestone, and the other tire experts. These interviews motivated the author to create the entire new book dedicated exclusively to the tire, as the most complex component of the car. I highly recommend "Racing & High-Performance Tire" by Paul Harney in addition to this book. The chapter on shock absorbers is the best piece of information I ever read about dampers. It's very easy to understand, but covers every important aspect of a shock absorber: bump and rebound, single-and dual-tube design, cavitation, emulstion and gas-bag shocks, washer stacks and external adjustments, different valve types, high-speed vs low speed damping, shock dynamometer, and so on. The book finishes with a very impressive interview with Carroll Smith, the author of "Prepare to Win" and the respective titles. Carroll answers such complicated questions there like what are the two things that the best drivers feel much better than the mediocre drivers: "It's real simple. They're feeling two things. One is the slip angle of the tire, and the other is the self-aligning torque of the tires, on all four tires".