Book ’Em, Dario

by Ray Bryden on February 27th, 2010

When I was a kid I wanted to not only drive a race car, I wanted to design and build it. I was fascinated with the story of Bruce McLaren who not only achieved those feats but excelled in all. There were no racing-related resources where I lived, but after a five hour trip to visit my brother, he brought me to Atlantic News, a magazine shop that not only carried Formula 1 magazines, but also real books on racing, and I snapped up a copy of Racecar Engineering & Mechanics by Paul Van Valkenburgh. I was completely hooked even if I only understood a fraction of it at the time.  Coincidentally, I eventually went to university a block away from Atlantic News and began to bolster my racing library with the Carroll Smith ‘To Win’ series. Now I have a decent bookshelf of racing engineering, driving, and analytical books. For those interested in the field here’s an incomplete list of my resources:

Racecar Engineering
1)    Race Car Vehicle Dynamics, William Milliken and Douglas Milliken – this is the grand daddy of all, and contains so much detail and high end physics, particularly with regard to tire behavior, that it will require multiple readings to grasp some of the finer points. Rich in content but difficult to read.
2)    Racecar Engineering & Mechanics, Paul Van Valkenburgh – this is the antidote to Milliken. Much less depth of content, but the principles are laid out in a more straightforward fashion, and is overall a nice compliment to Milliken.
3)    Chassis Engineering, Herb Adams – a Cliff Notes version of Valkenburgh. Makes a good handy reference, but some of the deeper principles are not covered or explained.
4)    The Physics of Racing, Brian Beckman – found this book available online as a free download. I think it covers most of the key topics of racecar physics with a good blend of detail and readability. I’d be lying if I said I’ve read much of it, but you can’t beat the price.
5)    Tune to Win, Carroll Smith – Carroll was a gifted writer who was able to distill difficult concepts into a concise package. This is his best work and covers racecar physics and dynamics comprehensively. A priceless section on tuning setups makes this an important one to have.
6)    Racecar Engineering (Magazine) – I highly recommend this for aspiring racing engineers. Lots of interesting articles for everything from drag racing to club racing to Le Mans to F1 and everything in between. From basic engineering to practical tips and lots of great stories from experienced car designers as well.

Driving Resources
1)    Going Faster, Carl Lopez – If you only buy one book about how to drive a road course racecar, then this is it. To me it is a complete work with every important aspect of how to drive successfully.
2)    Drive to Win, Carroll Smith – This is my favorite Smith book, and covers everything almost as well as Going Faster, but is not as well laid out and with less pictures and tips. Still it is a valuable resource if only for the section on tuning setups (duplicated from his Tune to Win book).
3)    Bob Bondurant on High Performance Driving, Bob Bondurant – good but not great. Will suffice in a pinch, and although he writes well, it doesn’t encapsulate things concisely, and doesn’t make for a good reference book.

Car Builder Resources
1)    Prepare to Win, Carroll Smith – more of a nuts and bolts book for mechanics and those working on getting the car onto the track. Not my cup of tea, but an important component to his ‘To Win’ series.
2)    Engineer to Win, Carroll Smith – this is what helped to push me into the field of metallurgical engineering. I was fascinated with his explanations of materials science, though they are a little on the superficial side, and now are a little dated as it is going on 26 years old.
3)    Build to Win, Keith Noakes – seems like someone was riding some coat-tails with the name of the book. A beginner’s guide to composite materials for racecars, but of little value to anyone seriously interested in the field.

Racecar Data Analysis (thanks to Chris Hall for these recommendations)
1)    Data Power, Buddy Fey – a terrific resource for those interested in using telemetry data to understand car behavior and advice for how to improve from both a driving and car setup standpoint. Impossible to find though as it has been out of print for ages, and copies on eBay run $300 US. I got my copy by inter-library loan. Sadly, it’s due back soon.
2)    Analysis Techniques for Racecar Data Acquisition, Jörge Segers – the Milliken of racecar telemetry. Covers most of the same ground as Data Power, but in a slightly more detailed way (many more equations and physics explanations).
3)    The Race Engineer, Buddy Fey’s blog (http://buddyfey.blogspot.com/) – not to be missed. This site should be bookmarked by anyone interested in racecar setup and data analysis.

For insomniacs like me, nothing beats a warm glass of Milliken.

Another tip is to put Dave Kaemmer, Ian Berwick, Eric Hudec, Grant Reeve and other iRacing developers on your forum watch list as their contributions to the forums in terms of car behavior – particularly with regard to the simulation – are paramount. You may want to add Volker Hackmann to that list as his understanding of everything related to racecar engineering is probably as good as anyone’s on the service.  I also recommend tuning-in to Derek Daly’s new internet radio show on racefanradio.com on Wednesday evenings (9 PM Eastern US) which deals with overcoming obstacles for young drivers.

And last but not least, use Google or Bing or whatever search engine you prefer to milk the internet for all its worth. There are tons of resources available for free – but keep in mind, you often get what you pay for, so you should take free resources with some guarded skepticism.

Feel free to post your own recommendations.