Driving Ambition questions

[bjaffee]

Was thinking about buying this, but since it's so expensive, was wondering if someone could tell me more about it. I'm really interested in the F1 GTR race cars, and I was wondering how much, if any coverage does the book give.

Is there any chance someone could post some low quality scans of some random pages? I don't care if they are really blurry, or watermarked, or even if you use a digital camera and your thumb is covering part of the page! I just would like to see what's in the book.

[mini magic]

amazon.com gives a free preview.

the book has almost everything, it is the mclaren bible

[Peloton25]

If you are looking specifically for GTR info, you'll find there are only a few chapters in the book - roughly 40-50 pages on the GTRs. The coverage is fairly slim unfortunately but it's about the best you will find short of the Michael Cotton book specifically on the GTRs. A copy of that book recently sold for about $300 on Ebay, so if you think "Driving Ambition" is expensive...

Anyway - most of "Driving Ambition" is about the development and build up of the McLaren F1. You really get to see a huge amount of that process - the photos and level of detail are quite incredible. It really is an excellent book - one of the greatest single-model-specific automotive books ever published.

If you are only looking for copies in places like Ebay, then you should stop. The book was recently reprinted by Virgin Books and is available at somewhat normal (given the value of the dollar) prices these days. I think Amazon is offering new copies for about $60. You can also buy slightly used copies through them for a bit less, so you might want to go that route.

>8^)
ER

[bjaffee]

Well, 40-50 pages actually sounds like a lot. I was thinking maybe the book was only about the roadcars and only had a passing reference to the racers. Are there a decent amount of pictures of the GTR's in their various racing colors?

[Peloton25]

Well 50 pages out of 272 is decent. I might be guessing a little high on that number though.

There are several photos of most of the GTRs that were raced up through 1997 including the longtail cars. There a little snippet on each of the races throughout the 1995 - 1997 BPR and FIA GT series'. Beyond that, the book doesn't offer much except a page or two on the pair of GTRs that competed in the '98 LeMans 24Hr race.

The one point I could make is that there is no way anyone who's interested in these wonderful cars would ever be disappointed by the book. It's truly spectacular and we would be lost on a lot of the info about the cars if it had never been printed.

>8^)
ER

[tvrfreak]

Peloton, do you have a copy that GTR book by Michael Cotton? I got to see it in England, but it wasn't for sale. Is it worth buying?

[Peloton25]

I don't, but I certainly wish I did. The one that was on Ebay last week - seen here - is actually the first time I have ever seen the book listed for sale anywhere.

At the same time that one was offered, the seller listed this other book put out with Cotton's help that also looks like it may contain some good material relating to the GTRs from the '95 season.

I hope to be able to add both to the library sometime soon.

>8^)
ER

[cabrio92]

Hello,

my brother is actually in New York city, do you think is it possible to find Driving Ambition cheaper than Amazon ?

Thank you
Philippe

[McLaren F1 Guy]

Amazon would probably be the way to go for D.A. I got mine in an astonishing 2 days after I ordered it, where as a place like exoticar.com doesn't even get it to their warehouse for a few months.

[tvrfreak]

My local Barnes and Noble store was able to order a few copies for me at around $70 each. It took about 10 days.

[bjaffee]

I decided to go ahead and order it from Amazon. It's about $65, and shipping is free. I did find a place that had it cheaper ($53) here,

http://www.drivewerks.com/catalog/Sh...BKRACE_pg7.htm

I'm guessing they probably charge for shipping, so it would probably come out to close to the same price as Amazon.
In the end, I just figured Amazon would be more reliable and has a better return policy (should something be wrong with it).

[cabrio92]

Hello,

it is not free for Europe bouououououh

Ciao
Phil

[Peloton25]

Well the publisher, Virgin Books, is based in the UK so I would expect if you were to find the book cheaper, it would be over there somewhere. I don't have the first clue where to look, but you could try contacting them directly to find out if there are any local distributors of the reprint.

>8^)
ER

[cabrio92]

Hello,

thank you peloton25.

I found these links : http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...272498-1167626
&
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/tg/...483628-8626546

Do you think that they are really new ?

Ciao
Phil