Racing in the 1950s was a blood sport. Driver and spectator were regularly killed. One accident killed 50 and injured 200 more, it was unspeakably horrible. And they raced on, the winner taking the podium. The cars were not yet festooned with corporate sponsorship, rather a solid color reflecting the country - Italy red, Germany silver, Britain green etc.. it was a battle of nations in the aftermath of WWII, the killing now refined to a few super-star gladiators who took their role seriously. A loss was a national disgrace. And the women, always beautiful and available. Booze, parties, and movie stars. Live fast and die young was not just a saying, they created it, James Dean was a racing fan. The technology was primitive, drivers often Jerry-riged cars mid-race to keep them going after some part or another blew or dropped off. Phil Hill, the American driver who won the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit and subject of the book, was a master of this sort of thing who could get into the "zone" and intuitively read and understand his vehicle by sound and feel. Other drivers like the German Wolfgang von Trips operated on sheer balls. Some lasted, many did not. The tolerance for risk was very high then, it says something how much we have gained and lost. ( )

While I've been aware of the outlines of this tale for a long time, Michael Cannell does a fine job of distilling down several generations of coverage to give you a joint life and times of Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips and the insanely intense environment they performed in. This being a time when the overhang of World War II was still like yesterday and Von Trips easily slipped into the role of being a unifying hero for Germany, whereas Hill mostly drove out of a love of cars and an existential need to prove his own relevance to himself. There are any number of ironies that you can point to in this tale of sport run in the spirit of war but the most poignant one is that while Trips became the beloved martyr in death, Hill was reduced to something of an afterthought (particularly since his racing skills rapidly deteriorated after 1961). Except Hill was the man who went on to have a happy family life when he thought that was out of reach; something both Von Trips and Enzo Ferrari probably would have envied. ( )