When the Engine Roars: the Motor Racing Life of George Begg

This is a second-hand copy of When the Engine Roars: the Motor Racing Life of George Begg by George Begg and Clive A. Lind. It was published by Craig Printing Co. Ltd in Invercargill in 1980.

Description: This is a hardcover book with 180 pages. Comes with a dust jacket. The dust jacket is covered in a non-adhesive PVC cover to keep it safe. This can easily be removed.

From the blurb:

New Zealand motor racing had not seen the likes of George Begg once he began his involvement in the sport, and it is not likely to see his likes again.

For 12 years, he took his race cars and teams to New Zealand circuits and pitted the best from his Drummond “Toyshop" on the Central Southland plains against the best the world could produce. Even after sorties in England and Australia, he could still hold his head high. His professional approach was recognised wherever motorsport enthusiasts met.

Now he has written about the effort behind that professionalism, and the toll it took. In all, he was to build 18 cars, and at his peak, his cars were to dominate New Zealand motor racing, in spite of the best from overseas being readily procurable in this country. The effort of building those cars, his successes and failures, and above all the excitement of racing cars, have been captured on these pages.

In writing of himself, George Begg is in fact writing the history of New Zealand motor racing itself during those years. He was such a part of it that no major meeting would take place without the man or one of his machines being present. He is also writing about the other people who took part-his opponents who also became his friends.

He traverses from his early days as a motorcycle racer to the sophistication of running a semi-professional race car team among the world's best. He details the difficulty of building cars from scratch, the problems of actually racing the cars, the people motor racing attracted and, perhaps above all, its unrelenting toil, and compromises. Yet through it all, he found humour and comradeship.

Nobody tried for long to replace him once he retired. This book explains why.

ISBN: 0959755462

Condition: Used. Book itself is in excellent condition. The dust jacket has some wear as visible in the product images. 1cm tear to top of dust jacket approximately 15mm in from the spine. Smaller 5mm tear on bottom of dust jacket approximately 6cm in from spine. Some minor tears on reverse. Possibly some UV damage along the spine of the dust jacket. All visible in product images.