By some estimates, drivers had a 33 percent chance of surviving.  In the days before seat belts and roll bars, they were crushed, burned, beheaded with unnerving regularity.

TheJudge13 contributor Dane Hansen discusses a great literature find that will enthrall any Formula One fan. The Limit is a tale of rivalry, friendship and demise.

The Limit:

“I wipe a bead of sweat from my brow and grip the steering wheel. I can feel the rumble of 190 horses less than an inch away from my torso. The coffin-like monocoque feels flimsy and rattles with every step I put on the gas pedal. My job is to win and then if possible, escape with my life. Moments later I come to my senses and I am no longer sitting in a 1961 Ferrari 156. I have a blanket spread across me and I am sitting upright in bed sixty years later. Instead of a steering wheel to peer over, I see just a book filled with wilted pages thanks to my sweaty finger tips. This is the kind power the author imposes on his readers. I could have sworn I was there. I could smell burnt rubber, spilled champagne…and the blood of my friends”.

Michael Cannell takes his readers to the eleventh season of Formula One. He tells a tale between two obscure men in a struggle to find themselves in a sport where life becomes normal at 300 kilometers per hour. As a book of thirds, Cannell delves deep into the personal lives and minds of protagonist American technocrat named Phil Hill, and another – a German Count called Wolfgang von Trips. The final third is the culmination of both forces, meeting at a head in 1961 in a battle for world champion status, national heroism and  most importantly, self-achievement.

Cannell perfects his objective mastery in all 285 pages, and pays poetic reference to the many characters that helped shape the careers of Hill and von Trips. He blends his anecdotes so seamlessly, it’s a shock to realise you have been gently whisked away from the main story once you return to it. These little daydreams help frame a romantic and deathly dangerous picture in the reader’s mind. One cant help but imagine the story in sepia. He shares personal stories of Enzo Ferrari, the estranged family relations of Phil Hill and the insecurities of masculinity had by Wolfgang von Trips. We discover new frontiers in the lives of drivers we otherwise knew very little about. What the author excels at is his extensive knowledge of team personal. He opens the door to the masterminds behind engineering advancements, past drivers and mentors. Cannell (author) also pays a large tribute to fact and accuracy through the duration of the book, explaining in intricate detail the specifics of each car and track, and just how they came to be. This is proven when attention is given to his 23 pages of reference, where he scoured through 65 year old German newspapers, personal diaries of drivers’ girl friends and family memoirs.

The Limit, much like a balanced racing machine, provides and equalised journey through each chapter. Michael’s fluid ability with pen and story-telling, changes tempo in all the right areas, describing the frightening pace of a Formula One car, or the deranged sex lives of British and Italian racing icons. He feeds classic European stereotypes by reporting the stories of the very men who created them.

The book covers one of the greatest rivalries sport has ever seen and gives a fresh perspective to the epoch. A little more than a decade earlier and the world was in one of its darkest periods to date. In these times, human emotion was passionate in every sense of the word. Motor sport in this golden era of racing was every bit as intense as a war, be it with fewer casualties, but casualties none the less. Lovers loved intensely, racers raced to death and the only certainty was uncertainty. Drivers like Hill wondered through the pits in phobic struts, wondering about tomorrow, whilst others like von Trips enjoyed celebrity stardom and a near-permanent entourage of female attention. Michael Cannell illuminates the 1950s and 60s in The Limit. He shakes your imagination with violence, carnage, gore, romance and victory from the first page to the last. Praised by Murray Walker, The Limit is one of the greater motor sport literatures available. It is as educational as it is entertaining and supports the needs of every Formula One enthusiast.

Verdict? A definite page turner.