general

I read "Going Faster" from cover to cover before participating in a 3 day Skip Barber Racing School program at Laguna Seca Raceway (Monterey, CA). This book is not only one of the most informative accounts on the techniques of both fast driving and competition racing, but is an enjoyable read as well. The content has it all, from basic car control, to much more complex technical information regarding car setup, and physics of a race car. I found this book to be both informative AND inspiring, which speaks volumes in itself. Regardless of whether you are an armchair racer, gamer, autocrosser, club racer, or pro, this book offers something for everyone. I have also read many of the other standards on auto racing (Bob Bondurant's guide to high performance racing, and Carrol Smith's "Drive to Win"), and "Going Faster" offers the best of both worlds. If I had to choose one "Bible of Racing," this would most certainly be it! Worth Every Penny!

I am an amateur racer competing in SCCA regional racing.

I found GOING FASTER to be a very useful textbook. The organization is excellent, allowing me to skip some basic information and go directly to the areas which concerned me the most. The clear an detailed description of exactly how a racing car is driven through corners helped me analize my own driving and improve my performance.

The description of each aspect of racing starts with a technical foundation and then builds to a description of how to do it in the car. I am an engineer by traning, so this combination of a theroetical treatment with practiacl advice is excellent for me.

I found the descrption of how things are in racing to be right on, and I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to try racing, as well as to the racer who wants to improve his or her perforamnce.

For most people performance is something you read on the tach. If you are among those few people who think that a Fiat 500 at 99,995% of its potential is going faster than a McLaren F1 at 98% of its potential, then you cannot miss this book, unless you've already won a world championship... maybe.

Pros:
1) it assumes you initially know nothing. And for most of us, even car fanatics, it is damn true. Actually 99.99999% of people don't know the difference between oversteer and understeer! the explanation given by most websites and magazines is absolutely incomplete and useless for a pilot. Did you know that a car whose rear is visibly leaning outside the trajectory is *NOT* necessarily oversteering? (actually it can be understeering!)
2) this books covers every possible aspect of racing, including insights in the world of racing, psychological aspects, preparation for the race, chassis setup, the role of hardware, limiting the damage in case of accidents and spins etc.
3) it's far from the useless belief that car control is a skill you're born with. It's a brutal demystification of the reality of racing
4) it's full of anecdotes and pearls of wisdom from the Skip Barber Racing School Instructors, which makes it more complete and more enjoyable to read. It's recommended even for the general motorsport enthusiast, and at the same time for the professional pilots, I didn't think this was possible...
5) it comes from multiple inputs. Far from the inevitably distorted theories of individuals, this book is very objective about where lap time comes from. If you talk to individual pilots, they tend to emphasize the importance of the aspect of racing which is most challenging for THEM, instead of emphasizing the objective importance of, say, higher corner exit speed vs. shorter braking distance. I heard more than one real pilot stressing the primary importance of perfect threshold braking... read this book and you will find out that for a good percentage of corners you DON'T use threshold braking (in order to speed up the turn-in phase) unlike everyone thinks, and anyway optimized braking zones are the least important thing for lap time. It goes to the extent of showing the output of data acquisition monitors of professional racers and apprentices, to point out the mistakes and to QUANTIFY them. I don't think other books do this. Every line of text made me discover new things.
6) other qualities that I cannot think about right now :-)

Cons:

1) for the most technically oriented, of course this book won't answer all the questions (it isn't an encyclopedy). For instance, many of you will want to know more about tire technology in order to exploit their potential better (which is a crucial skill). To satisfy any further curiosity, you should read technical books (indicated in this book, anyway). This one focuses on driving, but it does not overlook car technology which influences driving techniques and concepts. You simply may want a deeper "engineering" insight. Impossible to include everything...
2) it stresses the importance of the hand-eye coordination, but non soon enough. I would have put it in the first chapter. It is the source of so many mistakes, people tend to look at the car instead of looking forward. You must look at where you want to go, not at your car.
3) it doesn't replace a stage on track, nor days of practice. An instructor will do what this book can't. The problem is that an instructor (and a lot of practice) is needed to do what *ANY* book cannot do.

Bottom line: this book is absolutely a must read, it's the ideal first step to enter a new performance dimension.