Race engineer Carroll Smith and his fantastic books

At one time or another Carroll Smith was race engineer for cars driven by Andretti, Foyt, Gurney, Hulme, Ickx and McLaren. Cars he engineered and teams he managed won LeMans and the Manufacturer's World Championship. He was a passionate racer, an articulate speaker and an excellent writer whose books demonstrate the breadth of his knowledge, his dedication to the sport, his zest for life and his sense of humor.

PrepareToWin_256.jpgSmith changed the entire approach to race car preparation forever when he published the first of his superb books - PREPARE TO WIN - in 1975, a book which had a tremendous impact. Interestingly, most of the chapters had been published in the very best of the automobile racing magazines being published in the late 60's and early 70's, SPORTS CAR GRAPHIC. With this one book in hand, the amateur racer had access to all the accumulated knowledge that Smith had applied over his many years as driver, mechanic, race engineer and team manager.

PREPARE TO WIN provides a mountain of information to anyone rebuilding or preparing their car for battle and even today, 32 years later, its value is undiminished. Typically, anyone using this book while doing a "frame-up" rebuild would be alerted to twenty or thirty items that, were they not seen and addressed, could potentially cause a failure or a sure DNF!

Following on the great success of the first volume in his series, Smith added to the literature by writing TUNE TO WIN and then ENGINEER TO WIN, each of which took topics raised in the earlier volume to new levels of detail.

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TUNE TO WIN is the ultimate source of guidance for proper chassis design, assembly, adjustment and tuning while ENGINEER TO WIN is a comprehensive treatise on materials, fabrication and hardware.

Smith followed those books with a smaller volume which covered plumbing and fasteners in greater detail and then he wrote ENGINEER IN YOUR POCKET. 

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DriveToWin_128.jpgLastly, he wrote the truly great DRIVE TO WIN, a very insightful exploration and explanation of how to drive fast, how to compete and how to get the car to do what you want it to do.

Carroll Smith, the original "race engineer" stood alone at the top of his field and he unselfishly shared everything he learned with racers at all levels of competition.

Amateur racers, in particular, owe him a big debt of gratitude.