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Jo Ramirez: Memoirs of a Racing Man | 
 enlarge | Author: Jo Ramirez
Publisher: Haynes Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $21.61
You Save: $13.34 (38%)
New (6) from $21.61
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 802602
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 1844252388
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.72092
EAN: 9781844252381
ASIN: 1844252388
Publication Date: December 24, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Sealed and New. In stock - Sent fast from British booksellers.
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Product Description
Foreword by Sir Jackie Stewart. Jo Ramirez is one of the best-liked and most respected Formula 1 personalities of recent years, and is held in high esteem both inside and outside the Grand Prix paddock. Here is his personal account of his life in motor racing, told with humor, warmth and joy, and providing an honest insight into the highs and lows of a career that saw him work with many of the sport's greatest heroes, although he is perhaps best known for his many years as Team Co-ordinator at McLaren, including the legendary Prost/Senna era. A compelling story that will delight all fans of motor racing.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 5 stars for what it is, not for what it's not February 19, 2008
Yes, it's too little a book to cover so much time but I'd rather have what have what Jo's written than not have it at all. It's not the best racing book I've read but I'm very glad to have it. Jo could've written a 5 volume set of books this size (but the problem would likely be recollection, not lack of subject matter) and the complaints would be "there's too much detail" and "we need a condensed version"... that's this book.
Jo's career in a nutshell September 13, 2007
As some others had suggested, contents in this book could easily be elaborated much to the readers' satisfaction. But it was a nice to get a closer glimpse on the players in the sport beyond the media .. and nice to know this nice guy can ride his Harley to the sunset .. a Harley given to him from Coulthard and Hakkinen's own pocket.
Well told insider's view of racing over 40 years August 29, 2007
This is a fun, informative look inside auto racing a 40 year period, starting in Mexico but mostly in Europe. It's properly titled memoirs rather than autobiography. Ramirez is generous and amusing in his tales about almost everyone in the book. He's too modest about what his own role. For many pages in the 2nd half of the book I wanted to know more of what Jo was doing. The 2nd half also drifts too far into celebrities & parties. That plus too little introspection held the book short of 5 stars to me. Jo lived through a level of fatalities in the first 20 years of the book that thankfully dropped greatly in the next 20 years.
Ramirez's focus is on personalities, anecdotes and memorable events. I don't think anyone else could deal honestly with the Prost-Senna conflicts from up so close and sympathetically with both sides. Even the biggest names here come across as regular people -- but I think it's a reflection of the author's personality that he enjoyed his life in racing and written a book that carries that enjoyment with it.
 Disappointed July 9, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought the book before Mr Cook's review came out. I just finished it and my thoughts are similar to his.
I was disappointed. The book covers a long span of time and I thought it lacked too many details of the inner workings of Formula 1, both from a technical and people/team chemistry point of view. He spent many pages on the Prost/Senna era and gave alot of inside details on the relations between the two. I wish the rest of the book was more of the same. I get the impression that he was either protecting people, particularly in the recent era, or else he was constrained by the publisher as to how many pages the book had to be.
I read John Horsman's " Racing in the Rain", a similar racing biography and chronology of the Ford GT and Porsche sports car era of the 60s and 70s earlier this year, and that book was miles ahead of this one. I couldn't put it down, while Ramirez' would sit for days between readings.
Good behind the scenes book, but.......... May 28, 2007
Bottom line is, Jo Ramirez's 40+ years in racing needs more than one book to adequately tell the stories he has experienced. In this 340 page book, he averages covering an entire racing year in the span of about eight pages or fewer. This is an author who worked for Dan Gurney with Indy cars, Trans-Am, and Can-Am cars; worked with Jackie Stewart and Francios Cevert at Tyrrell during the championship and tragic 1973 F1 season; worked with the legendary Wyer Gulf Porsche 917 team; managed the Shadow, Fittipaldi, ATS, and Theodore mid-level F1 teams; and then spends 18 years at the top with Team McLaren! And all this is "crammed" into 340 pages! Honestly, I enjoyed the book. It is good reading for any road racing fan, but it comes across more as an "overview," although in my opinion through no intended fault of Jo Ramirez. He just has way too many good stories needing to be told in much more detail for just one book. It is still enjoyable and worth buying, but wouldn't it be nice to have two sequels: "Memoirs: Stories From The Early Years" and "Memoirs: Stories From the McLaren Years?"
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