Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans

"Go Like Hell" tells the story of the Ford Motor Company's mid-1960's assault on the 24 hours of Le Mans, an endurance race for production and prototype cars, considered by many then to be the ultimate auto race. The book covers the development of the Ford GT-40, a car whose sole reason for existence was to beat Ferrari at this storied event. A.J. Baime's tight narrative and excellent prose introduces us to the people - both on and off the track - behind the development of the car, taking us through each failure, and ultimately, success, cumulating in a 1-2-3 finish at the 1966 Le Mans.While a story where Ford's massive financial and engineering resources are pitted against that of small, boutique automaker like Ferrari may seem like a strange take on David vs. Goliath, when one considers that Ford - who had not officially competed in auto racing in four decades - was aiming for a win at Le Mans within three years, against Ferrari, who had won the race for seven consecutive years, it's not so difficult to see Ford as the "David" in such a seemingly lopsided rivalry, as what unfolds is a story as captivating as "The Right Stuff", only with racing cars in the place of rockets, and with a mercurial Italian in place of Khrushchev. The book features many names familiar to racing fans: Shelby, McLaren, Gurney, Phil Hill, and John Surtees, along with one unsung hero in the form of test driver and racer Ken Miles; a great read for both racing fans and those unfamiliar with the sport, and if you're one of those who never quite understood what exactly people see in racing, this a good a place to find out.

First of all, being, or having been, a race car nut is helpful if you wish to enjoy this book.In 1970, after the Ford assault on LeMans I came interested in American Sports Car racing. In '70 - '72 I did some work, nothing to really speak of, with the SCCA out at Bridgehampton through friend at work named Rick Holzer.In that my interests were A through G class sports car racing, FIA Group 5 Sport and Prototype, F-1 Trans Am, Can Am and IROC. NASCAR, INDY and Formula 5000 not so much. I read avidly of the 917, 512 T20 racers but got to the tracks (Watkins Glen, Mosport, Riverside) after they they had been outlawed although I did get to personally witness Roger Penske's Sunoco Porsche 917 essentially destroy the Can Am Series in 1973. I had a subscription to Competition Press/Autoweek for 10 years.My interest in this book was piqued by a man named Jim King, who gives daily tours at the Shelby American dealership, factory and museum just south of the Mandalay Bay Casino in Paradise Nevada.This is the history of two men and their cars. Enzo Ferrari and Henry Ford II as well as that amazing racer, car builder and salesman, Carroll Shelby.Reading it is a pleasure and provides a sentimental journey, through what was a very exciting time in international Sportscar and Formula 1 Racing. However, it is just a sampler and points you in various directions at the end of the book.Baime gives you a glimpse into how this period of time and particular circumstance foreshadowed the Global Economy, the Reckoning of Japan's automotive influence, the ascendancy or Ralph Nader and the personality of Carroll Shelby, to name a few. If you want more you'll have to read more. For example, next on my list "Inside Shelby Racing" by John Morton.So, "Go Like Hell" provides a valuable and entertaining jumping off point for a variety of topics that pertain to, or were influenced by, Sports Car racing in the United States as the country went through radical changes in that period of time known as The Sixties.

This book is about the automotive competition between the large, sprawling, and bureaucratic Ford Motor Company and Ferrari of Italy to win the annual 24 hour long car race in Le Mans, France during the 1960s. There is much rich material in this story which gets underway in the early 1960s with Ford losing market share to General Motors and its leader, Henry Ford II, the grandson of the founder of the company, Henry Ford, deciding to withdraw from a 1957 agreement among auto manufacturers to refrain from linking their products to racing via advertising. Ford attempts to buy Ferrari, then the established leader in car racing worldwide and the repeat winner of Le Mans for many years, but the leader of the sports car maker, Enzo Ferrari, pulls out of the deal at the last minute. This leads Ford to spend millions of dollars and hire tons of talented racing drivers and engineers to develop an automobile that can win at Le Mans.Author A.J. Baime has a lot of interesting events and characters to deal with. On the one hand there is Enzo Ferrari, a European who is brilliant at building fast cars and holds a philosophy of cars that attributes human qualities to them - they are beings, their engines are souls. On the other hand there is Henry Ford II, a child of privilege who heads a massive corporation with his name on the building. It has factories, committees, and limitless testing facilities and resources. Ford was seduced by an attitude toward the automobile that is European but he brought an American fascination with technology to the art of racing.Baime is a journalist and the book reads like a long magazine article. There are many avenues where he could have gone deeper into some of the events and characters. I wish he had explored more the origins of the Ford Motor Company, especially where Henry Ford became obsessed with racing early in his first two failed companies, and the ways in which this influenced the DNA of Ford. I would have liked to learn more about Enzo Ferrari’s background and his company. Ferrari seems to have used racing as a kind of advertisement for his products but you won’t get any sales figures or financial information in this book, it doesn’t get into that much detail, sadly.That said, Baime has talked to many of the people involved in this story, at least those that are alive (a lot of race car drivers’ deaths are recounted in this book) and his research seems to cover a lot of contemporary newspaper accounts of the races and memoirs of the racers. Even if it is a somewhat shallow account, it does have a very interesting story to tell and Baime covers it from both the Ford and the Ferrari side pretty extensively. Car racing is an exciting sport to many and this episode in its long history has relevance beyond the racetrack as it involves business history, automotive technology, and the history of the automobile.

Great read, highlighted several points I was not aware of before.

A book that any motorsport fan should read, it includes moments, people and names that are from endurance, NASCAR, Indy and Formula 1, it has a bit for everyone. Ultimately, the book is written in a way that captivates you and you just want to keep reading until you finish.

génial pour l'Histoire, génial pour la profondeur des enquêtes. un grand récit et une belle matière pour l'excellent film de Mangold.

Leitura obrigatória para os amantes de corridas. Além do duelo entre as marcas, há muita história das corridas e pilotos da época. Muito bom!

Interesante historia sobre la gran rivalidad entre Ford y Ferrari, quizá la de mayor relevancia a nivel mundial en el deporte motor.