How to Build a Car – The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer is an essential read for any racing fan – Adrian Newey is by far the most successful Formula 1 car designer in history, his designs have won 10 Constructors’ Championships, with 3 different teams, and in the ’80s he spent some time in the USA, where he designed the cars that won the 1985 and 1986 CART titles.
My favorite Adrian Newey story is from his school years at Repton public school in Derbyshire where he studied alongside former Top Gear and current Grand Tour host Jeremy Clarkson. Newey was in charge of setting up the sound system for progressive rock band Greenslade in one of the school’s 11th-century buildings. He pushed the sound levels so high that the band blasted out the building’s stained glass windows, and as a result he was expelled.
This book was penned by Newey and it covers the oftentimes unknown stories of his remarkable career in motorsports. It’s an engaging, fun read that deserves a spot on any petrolhead’s bookshelf.
Official Description:
How to Build a Car – The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer
The world’s foremost designer in Formula One, Adrian Newey OBE is arguably one of Britain’s greatest engineers and this is his fascinating, powerful memoir.
How to Build a Car explores the story of Adrian’s unrivalled 35-year career in Formula One through the prism of the cars he has designed, the drivers he has worked alongside and the races in which he’s been involved.
A true engineering genius, even in adolescence Adrian’s thoughts naturally emerged in shape and form – he began sketching his own car designs at the age of 12 and took a welding course in his school summer holidays. From his early career in IndyCar racing and on to his unparalleled success in Formula One, we learn in comprehensive, engaging and highly entertaining detail how a car actually works. Adrian has designed for the likes of Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Mika Hakkinen, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, always with a shark-like purity of purpose: to make the car go faster. And while his career has been marked by unbelievable triumphs, there have also been deep tragedies; most notably Ayrton Senna’s death during his time at Williams in 1994.
Beautifully illustrated with never-before-seen drawings, How to Build a Car encapsulates, through Adrian’s remarkable life story, precisely what makes Formula One so thrilling – its potential for the total synchronicity of man and machine, the perfect combination of style, efficiency and speed.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
