Gather Touch Wood Picturized By Duncan Hamilton File
old school book written some fifty years ago but simply "unputdownable"! A rare glimpse into the precommercal world of motor racing.
Funny and engagingly written. Loved it! Very good, thoroughly enjoyed this book A really entertaining read, This guy survived so many calamities it is just unbelievable, All written in a typically British way with the amusing anecdotes coming thick and fast, Hamilton starts his "racing" career at age two by figuring out how to get the wheels of his pram moving while still in it.
This results in him somersaulting down thirty eight steps to the garden below and knocking himself unconscious for several hours.
Thus begins an adventurous life,
He survived WWafter crashing planes and having at least two ships sunk from underneath him.
During his racing career he was ejected from a number of cars suffering many injuries and concussions but still carried on.
To get over an all night drinking hangover he needed a double brandy just two hours before starting theHours of Le Mans which he and his codriver won.
There are also a couple of other instances where he
had mid race drinks of alcohol for various reasons.
Not exactly an anti drinking and driving poster boy,
It was not all fun and games because it was an era of motor racing where drivers were killed on a regular basis.
But somehow Hamilton survived it all and got to write an exciting and surprising book of racing in the's.
If this is an era you are interested in I can't imagine a better book, A riproaring tale of motor racing from back when men were men, driving on the edge at crazy speeds, and being killed was almost inevitable.
Living in Ireland, I was shocked I had never heard of Duncan Hamilton he was Irish and a phenomenally successful racing driver with many wins, including the Le MansHours race.
'Touch Wood' is a fascinating memoir filled with incredible scrapes and fantastic tales of daringdo, some so outrageous as to be almost unbelievable.
But it's all true.
The races, close shaves and tragedies are told in such a casual conversational manner as to be both exhilarating and shocking at the same time.
This book really brings home how brave and perhaps foolhardy racers were back before seat belts, fire suits, crash helmets and car safety cells were commonplace for race cars travelling atmph.
'Touch Wood' is a great read, even if you are not a motor racing fan.
A must read for fans ofs sports car racing Duncan Hamilton won the classic Le MansHours race in, codriving his workcentered CType Jaguar with Tony Rolt.
Inthe same pair finished second, losing to a much largerengined VFerrari and by the narrowest margin in years.
In all, Duncan Hamilton competed in nine of those great Le Mans endurance classics, Having cut his racing teeth in such prewar cars as the RType M, G and the Bugatti TypeB, Duncan graduated to one of the immortal Lago Talbot Grand Prix carswhich he subsequently mislaid in a French coalhole.
After a hugely eventful racing careeronly Duncan could get himself fired by Jaguar for winning the RheimsHours race inhe eventually hung up his racing helmet in.
As Earl Howe wrote in the originalforeword to this book, though the drivers of this age were fiercely competitive, there were also "friends to meet, stories to tell and almost certainly a party to be enjoyed" Duncan Hamilton was certainly a little larger than life, and this book tells the story of a man who wasnt just one of the most successful drivers of thes, but also the man who trespassed at Brooklands, who spent the war in the Fleet Air Arm accidentally trying to drown American Admirals, and who was once stopped for speeding on the Cromwell Road, rushing to take part in a TV program on road safety.
It is a must for any classic car enthusiasts bookshelf, .