Ultimate Speed Secrets: The Complete Guide to High-Performance and Race Driving

by Ross Bentley

Performance and racing drivers constantly seek ways to sharpen their skills and lower their lap times. Ultimate Speed Secrets is the indispensable tool to help make you faster, whatever your driving goals.  Professional race driver and coach Ross Bentley has raced everything from Indycars to World Sports Cars to production sedans, on ovals, road courses, and street circuits around the world. His proven high-performance driving techniques benefit novice drivers as well as professional racers. Ultimate Speed Secrets covers everything you need to know to maximize your potential and your

Choosing the correct lineOvertaking maneuversAdapting to new tracks and carsThe mental game and dealing with adversityFinding (and keeping) a sponsor.The pages are filled with specially commissioned color diagrams to illustrate the concepts described. Whether you are a track-day novice or a seasoned professional, Ultimate Speed Secrets will arm you with practical information to lower your lap times and help you get the best out of your vehicle—and yourself. It’s the ultimate high-performance driving tutorial!

Genres: Racing, Nonfiction, Cars

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Chaunceton Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great, super detailed guide to race driving. There was a fair amount of fluff and some repetitive information, but for the most part this is just page after page of valuable information. There are also plenty of visuals. I'd recommend this to any racer at any level.

[Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Certainly a must read for anybody who has ever even considered driving a car on a track. I would call it a must read for anyone who is a serious fan of auto racing and wants a deeper appreciation of what drivers are up to at any given moment during a race. This book is meant to replace several of Bentley's previous books by consolidating their content into a single tome. It is quite thorough. The material is accessible while never being dumbed down. The discussions of weight balance and traction are worth the price of the book alone. Even the portions on mental preparation and attitude are surprisingly good (Bentley gets bonus points for quoting a favorite of mine, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind). I know that this book, and those from the Skip Barber school, are considered to be the best on the subject, but I still underestimated how much this was going to enrich my understanding of the dynamics of an automobile (I should really say that I overestimated my understanding of it prior to reading the book). It makes you wish there was an F1 race on the TV every time you put the book down.

[Casper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started in this 1,5 years ago. Picked it up recently to start over and finished it in about a week. If racing or driving fast at all is your passion, this is a great book to read. Great insights, valuable tips, some methods to work with and besides that a very interesting read with some nice stories to support his theories.

[Azmi · Rating 4 out of 5]

More suitable for racers who don't enjoy reading. Explanations are concise without missing much. Many chapters only took a page. I love the unexpected tips you never thought of such as adjusting your wing mirror. And it comes with colorful illustrations which is a nice bonus.

[Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource for learning the fundamentals of racing, but it's brought down by some dubious psychology and neurobiology. For example, he talks about learning styles, something which has been largely discredited for awhile now. He also talks about being able to improve your "left and right brain integration" and thus your racing ability by doing unrelated cross-hemisphere exercise, which as far as I can tell has little evidence to support it.

[Scott Beddingfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Complete guide to getting faster in a track or race car. Many tips that would make one safer at the legal speed limit in the highway. The author’s promise and follow through on repeating important points throughout the text is helpful. Tons of practical, how to advice to make one faster. A surprising amount of mental techniques and exercises are discussed. Examples provided of many well known professional drivers who are mentioned by name.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is THE resource for race drivers. There is a wealth of practical knowledge and you can't digest it all in one sitting; you keep going back to it as a reference.

[Steven C Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for any driver who wants to improve.

I have been racing for 20+ years. Still can not figure out why I did not read this book earlier.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a mixed bag. On the one hand it has several excellent chapters on how to improve your driving, what it takes to be a racing car driver, how to build a team, etc.

On the other hand, Bentley espouses some questionable theories about learning and how the brain works. I found myself skimming and skipping some parts of the book because of that. There are also some pretty basic grammatical and spelling errors in the book that take away from the impact of the writing.

If you can overlook the significant flaws of this book it is a great read if you're interested in becoming a better driver.

[Joao · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book if you are serious about simracing. The techniques explained are really helpful and it is very simple to read. It does get repetitive sometimes but that's good because you keep reviewing stuff you may have forgotten. On a second read it does get boring tho.

There are some sections of the book about the mental part of racing explaining things like "mental imagery" and such. I did not practice these so I can't comment on them.

[Mikoda Lancaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read. Lot to take from it even if you don’t drive. Principals of racing can be applied to any discipline but if you play Dirt Rally or the F1 games it makes it a lot more fun to read.

[Ryan R · Rating 1 out of 5]

less you riving

[Christine Virgin · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone beginning a track driving journey, this book includes so much helpful information presented in such a clear and concise way.

[Pablo Diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tough read in some part, but it's a really good, insightful, and practical read in general.

[Scott Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written. Gives tips on how to improve your racing abilities even when you're not in a car/on track. Would recommend!

[Kim Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good technical read on driving techniques. Not an easy read. This is potentially something I could come back to or get people to read to build a better licensing system.