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Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best
by
52/99
Critics
56/99
Readers
n/a
Scholars
27/99
Rating
77/99
Volume
63/99
Rating
49/99
Volume
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About This Book
For fans of The Boys in the Boat and In the Garden of Beasts, a pulse-pounding tale of triumph by an improbable team of upstarts over Hitler's fearsome Silver Arrows during the golden age of auto racing. They were the unlikeliest of heroes. Rene Dreyfus, a former top driver on the international racecar circuit, had been banned from the best European teams—and fastest cars—by the mid-1930s because of his Jewish heritage. Charles Weiffenbach, head of the down-on-its-luck automaker Delahaye, was desperately trying to save his company as the world teetered toward the brink. And Lucy Schell, the adventurous daughter of an American multi-millionaire, yearned to reclaim the glory of her rally-driving days. As Nazi Germany launched its campaign of racial terror and pushed the world toward war, these three misfits banded together to challenge Hitler's dominance at the apex of motorsport: the Grand Prix. Their quest for redemption culminated in a remarkable race that is still talked about in racing circles to this day—but which, soon after it ended, Hitler attempted to completely erase from history. Bringing to life this glamorous era and the sport that defined it, Faster chronicles one of the most inspiring, death-defying upsets of all time: a symbolic blow against the Nazis during history's darkest hour.
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Reviews
"He describes the twists and turns of the 1930s Grand Prix races as if he'd driven the courses himself."
"exciting, fast-moving prose."
"Of special interest to racing fans and readers of WWII."
"Highly recommended for historians and aficionados of pre–World War II motorsport competition and its larger-than-life contestants."
"Bascomb combines a wide-ranging history of racing --- the tracks and the tricks, the storied rivalries and daredevil tactics that permeated a sport that killed many a driver --- with the rise of the man responsible for the deaths of millions ..."
"A luminous book of sports history that explores a forgotten corner of the history of the Third Reich as well."
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