This book has been around for a while now, having originally been printed in 1994. The author, Burt Levy, states that no publisher was even remotely interested in his book about sports car racers in the 1950's. They were even less impressed by the fact that it was a FICTIONAL account of sports car racing in the 1950's. "No market", they said and "car people don't read". So Burt went ahead and published the book himself, using word of mouth to promote it. At last count this first book in what is now a series was on its 4th printing and still going strong. Better yet, the author has now written two follow up books: "Montezuma's Ferrari" and "The Fabulous Trashwagon".

I don't know about you, but I'm bummed out about being born in 1962. You see, I missed the entire 1950's and early 1960's sportscar and road racing revolution. The days when you could pry the hubcaps off your XK 120 and drive to Watkins Glen, Elkhart Lake or Sebring to RACE and then drive home. No roll bars, no seat belts, no helmets, no barriers or run off areas...... no brains either. But what fun it would have been!

Burt "B.S." Levy has written a wonderful series of books detailing the trials and tribulations of a New Jersey teenager named Buddy Palumbo, who by sheer luck and no small amount of God-given talent for repairing foreign sports cars, gets to experience first hand the blossoming sports car racing scene in 1950's America. It is fiction, make no mistake, but Levy has interspersed an amazing amount of real people, places and cars that seem to make the story come to life and make you feel....... well, it makes you feel
like you're really there. Just the thing for us vintage racing types who close our eyes while driving and imagine its 1954 and we're driving a BRG Jaguar C-type at Elkhart Lake, Phil Hill right on our back bumper........ aahhh, to dream!

And its not all about just cars either. I'm not Italian and I'm not Catholic, but the author's description of Buddy's teenage Italian goddess girlfriend with the iron-clad brassiere made me feel like I was in the back seat with them. Levy's attention to detail and ability to call a spade a spade makes for some interesting reading, to wit:

<< Let me explain to you how it is with automobile mechanics. I personally divvy them up into three distinct categories. First off, you've got your basic Shadetree Butchers. Most Butchers are home-garage amateurs who only bring their cars to a professional after they've already made a godawful mess out of whatever they were trying to fix in the first place. Butchers can be counted on to snap studs, shear bolts, strip threads, wedge bearing races in cockeyed, and turn every electrical problem into a stinking, smoldering glob of molten plastic and charred insulation. No self-respecting mechanic likes working around a Butcher, and cleaning up after one is even worse.

One giant step from the Butcher is the Parts Replacer. Parts Replacers know their way around an automobile all right, but they don't comprehend AT ALL how car stuff really operates. To them, every mechanical component is like a sealed vault filled with some kind of rare magical pudding that makes it work. So they invariably start yanking off old parts and throwing new ones at a problem until it either goes away or the car's owner declares bankruptcy. God certainly must have loved Parts Replacers, because he made so many of them.

And then you've got the Fixers. The maestros. The Real McCoy. Fixers can diagnose a hiccup in your carburetor or a death rattle in your crankcase just like a medical doctor, and then go in so slick and clean that when they're done, you can't even tell the car's been worked on. Except that it runs better than ever. A Fixer can MAKE parts. "It's all done, Mr. Jones. The choke cable was sticking because it was going over-center, so I made a new bracket to bring it in at a better angle."

Those guys are hard to find. >>

To buy the books, visit the website http://www.lastopenroad.com

Read them in order, you won't regret it! I'm anxious to see the latest installment myself "The Fabulous Trashwagon", I can't wait to see what our hero Buddy is up to now!