Can anyone suggest any good books on racing techniques, or setting up a car for a potential situation? I guess I am intersted in how to read a car, and the physics behind setting up a suspension.

X

 

Get "Going Faster" by Carl Lopez and the Skip Barber racing school.

Pretty much an entry level racing book but it covers 90% of what a real pro would need to know. The other 10% are much harder to come by. Also has a fair amount of info on car setup (towards the back of the book).

Jason

 

Wanted to add:

After "Going Faster" the next recommended book would be "Race Car Vehicle Dynamics" by Miliken and Miliken. But that is a pretty serious-level book that is designed for people with a pretty solid understanding of engineering. It's really the bible of the racing world though.

Edit to add: I've probably read 30+ books on racing and car setup during my time as a Mechanical Engineer and driving instructor and the two that I mentioned are my favorites and the ones I always recommend. But they are at opposite ends of the spectrum (in terms of complexity) - you should definitely start with Going Faster first.

Jason

 

Great! Im looking for techie stuff. Electrical engineer by training, but harmonics, damping and control loops are engineering universals =).

X

 

Share the techie stuff!

Be sure to post if you discover interesting or helpful topics in your reading. We don't ever have enough of posts that speak to engineering aspects of motorsports.

I am not an engineer and I found that most books on suspension dynamics etc were very dense when I first started reading. didn't understand most of it. somehow through osmosis I now can begin to think through simple suspension and dynamic problems...long way to go...auto electronics is still confusing.

 

I'd like to suggest a few older books that are still the racer's bibles.

"Prepare to Win"

"Tune to Win"
&
"Engineer to Win"

All by the late Carroll Smith.

I think they are still available through Motorbooks International.

I'll add 2 more:

"How To Make Your Car Handle", by Fred Puhn

"Race Car Engineering & Mechanics" by Paul Van Valkenburgh

 

Might check out the scheduale for the Evolution Driving school too. There are several levels, one is driving, another is car setup, another mental side. All classes conducted by National Champions in various classes from SCCA, and usually cost about 200 bucks per class,http://www.autocross.com/evolution/

 

Just checked, there is a 3 phase school in Dallas, next march

 

Sweet, I'll have to keep that on the list, although I dont know if I will have my car by then! =(

X