With a title like this, a book has much to live up to, but fortunately, Basem Wasef’s Legendary Race Cars delivers on all fronts: it’s an entertaining and informative read, there are both historical and new photographs, and it’s beautifully produced. In fact, the publishers, Motorbooks, even had the foresight to allow the book’s jacket to double as a foldout poster, increasing its Christmas gift appeal substantially.

 Even before you reach the racecars, there’s a foreword by Sir Stirling Moss who sets the tone of the book perfectly, and it encouraged me to turn to the chapter on his Mille Miglia victory in the famous Mercedes-Benz 300SLR.

As a large format, coffee table book, Legendary Race Cars allows you to pick it up and delve into its chapters at your leisure, in much the same way his previous publication, Legendary Motorcycles. I really enjoy this ‘lucky dip’ aspect, where each exploration uncovers another gem.

As the author will confirm, choosing 25 of the most memorable and significant racecars from history isn’t an easy task. Yet he’s been able to tick most of the boxes we expected with vehicles like the Auto Union GP cars, the Mercedes Silver Arrows, Ford’s GT40 and Fangio’s Maserati 250F, etc.

From the modern F1 era there are notables such as Senna’s McLaren MP4/4, Andretti’s Lotus 79 and Schumacher’s Ferraris. Add the STP turbine cars, McRae’s Impreza, Prudhomme’s dragster, Parnelli Jones’ Big Oly, Rohrl’s quattro and the Porsche 917 to get an idea of the ground it straddles.
I started a second list of cars I’d like to have seen and will be sending it to Wasef as the basis for a second volume!

For racing fans wanting a more insightful read and to gaze upon the 3181 photos within its hard covers, Legendary Race Cars, won’t disappoint.

The book retails at $35 and basemwasef.com has a link to discounted new and used copies on Amazon, which was particularly helpful. We managed to find a used copy in “acceptable” condition for $103.82, which was entertaining in its own right!