The temptation to wax nostalgic exists in any sport. Baseball fans decry the rampant steroid use and remember when 50 home runs was a historic season. Basketball fans recall the great Lakers – Celtics rivalries and wonder if passing and defense will ever come back into style. And race fans pine for the days when the cars were beautiful and dangerous, not computer-laden pre-programmed speed appliances.
A. J. Baime’s book Go Like Hell recounts the battle between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans in the late ’60s. The fight between the exclusive Italian marque and the American industry giant is at the center of the shift from the early days of unregulated automobile racing to the modern safety-conscious multi-billion dollar business that it has become.
More than just a book for race fans, Go Like Hell is really a lens into the clash of American and European cultures in the 1960s. Le Mans provides a focal point, but the story encompasses so much more — industrial globalization, the safety crusade led by Ralph Nader, and a personal battle between Enzo Ferrari and Henry Ford II.
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