Shopping for Autocrossers

I figure that there's lots of wifes, husbands, girlfriends, friends and kids who have no idea what to get the autocrosser in their lives.  This page contains many links in association with amazon.com that will provide you with the perfect gift for the car nut in your life.  This thing started when I decided early this season that I wasn't going to go to the mall this year, that I would do all my shopping online.  Well, so far I've been to the mall once (to buy a suit) and have done all my shopping online!  Boy do I feel great!

By ordering from my site, or entering amazon.com from the link above, you will also be adding to my next years tire fund!  You get the same great prices and service while helping out a fellow autocrosser... how great is the Internet, eh?
 

Books about Cars
	Carroll Smith's "Drive To Win" - one of the latest in the "To Win" series.  An excellent book on driving technique (apexes, throttle control, etc.) and a decent section on the mental aspects too.  The whole "To Win" series is an awesome must have!   Also available is "Engineer To Win", a great guide to building right from the start including chassis design..  Also "Prepare To Win" that discusses getting the car and driver ready to go long before and up to immediately before a race.  "Tune To Win" covers making small calulated changes to a car during design, testing and race days.  Finally, "Nuts, Bolts and Fasteners" tells all about the components used to build a car including a section on plumbing!  All four books are an absolute must have for anyone serious about their cars!  I'm only missing "Nuts & Bolts"
	Apparently not directly related to the Carroll Smith, "Think To Win" by Don Alexander covers in great depths the mental aspects of preparing for and driving in a race.  This is a very important part of autocross that is usually overlooked by all but the best.  If you can cain a mental edge over your competetors with all else equal, you will be the one with the trophy.  I don't have this book yet, so that's obviously why I'm losing :)
	"Winning" by George A. Anderson covers all aspects of competition driving in an easy reading format.  I have not yet purchased this book but it comes highly recommended!
	An absolute must have for Formula 1 and Ayrton Senna fans!  "Principles of Race Driving" also has a ton of great driving advice that covers a wide range of car and track types.  Ayrton is arguably one of the best natural drivers of all time and his book manages to convey his knowledge in an exciting and captivating way.
	"Volkswagen Sport Tuning" is a VW enthusiast book written by fellow autocrosser Per Schroeder.  We should all buy this book just to support his racing efforts!  This book has gotten great reviews from all the magazines and from random readers at amazon.com!  Their biggest complaint is that it is too focused on autocross... can that be?  For all you water-cooled Veedub guys out there, this book is a must!
	I don't much care for NASCAR but I purchased this book because I was having a problem in my arms when driving my Formula 440.  "Strength Training" by Mark Martin and others covers getting and staying fit.  It has an explanation of exactly which muscles are used for the tasks we know and sample exercises to enhance them.  There's four main book types presented here: engineering, driving, thinking and this is one of the most important, conditioning.
	"Secrets of Solo Racing" by Henry (Hank) A. Watts is widely regarded as the best (if not only) book on autocross technique.  This book covers basic to intermediate skills as well as explaining the autocross event itself.  While Henry's words can be a little boring at times, this book is well worth it's wait in gold!  I keep a copy in my glove box just so I can hear him shouting "look ahead!" while I'm driving.
	"Speed Secrets" by Ross Bentley was suggested to me by my friend Ben Martinez.  Ben is like me in that he reads anything he can get his hands on.  This book grabbed both of us though.  I liked it for it's in depth analysis of smoothness and weight transfer as well as for it's coverage of real racing situations.  Ben found it great in that is was the only book he's read that talks about how to properly give up a corner for a bigger gain on the next.  Very easy and exciting to read and extremely helpful!  Includes a list of all of Ross' 20 some "Speed Secrets".
	When people talk about designing and tuning a car, one book always gets a mention, and deservedly so.  "How To Make Your Car Handle" by Fred Puhn is the absolute guide to basic handling principles as well as how to correct them.  It includes a bunch of formulas and very little discussion of the driver so this is a book for you pure mechanics out there.  Even though it's slightly outdated now, you must have this book if you are going to change anything on your car!
	"Going Faster" also comes highly recommended.  This book by Carl Lopez is actually used at the Skip Barber racing schools to teach basic principles of car control and race driving.
	"Autocross Racing" by Sallie Stephenson is the other book on autocrossing.  I have not read nor heard anything about this book.  If you buy this book, please email me your review.
	If you really like Bob Bondurant and his bright orange Rousch Racing/ Bob Bondurant Mustangs at his Bob Bondurant Race School you will certainly like his book, "Bob Bondurant on High Performance Driving".  While I think he's a great driver and his schools seem very useful, I could not stand the blatant self congratulating in this book.  It did have some interesting parts, including Bob's escapades in some of the most leading edge cars of the time!
Automotive Videos
	"NASCAR Video - One In a Million: Jeff Gordon's 1997 Championship Season".  Relive pretty-boys amazing accomplishments over and over and over again.
	"Super Bowl of Crashes".  You know you love 'em, now buy he video and give me commision! :)
	"World Rally Championship - Official Review '97".  If this is the video I think it is, there's an awesome scene where a rally car runs into a sheep and the sheep basically explodes!  There's also some really amazing driving too!
Car CDs (how's that for a strecth?)
	"The Best of Car Talk" is a collection of some of the funniest calls and humor pieces of the Car Talk radio program on NPR on Sunday mornings.  These guys are hilarious and they know there cars too!  If you love there show as much as I do, you have to own at least one of their CDs.
	"The Second Best of Car Talk" is the followup hit to Click and Clack's first album.  If you're going to get the first one you might as well buy the second one now! :)
	The third (actually first) CD from these guys is "Men Are From GM, Women Are From Ford" is a take off the Mars and venus book. This CD contains more relationship advice and humor but with an automotive twist and the humor style only Tom and Ray possess.
	"The Greatest Car Songs" as collected by Car & Driver a couple years ago.  Includes all those classics you love to hum on the autocross course!
	I was searching for a CD of Formula 1 engine sounds that my friend Ben has, I think it's called Mechanic's Symphony.  The only one I could find is "Trains, Planes & Automobiles".  Try it out and let me know (it's cheap!)...
Somewhat related Gifts
	The Sony Digital Mavica FD51 is one of the coolest digital cameras out there.  It uses a floppy drive to store the pictures which can then easily be put into any computer with a floppy drive.  No cables, now downloading software, just easy!  Amazon also has a decent price on it.  Check out Sony's web-site for more info.  Every autocrosser wants to take pictures of their cars at events, this is the cool way to do it and post your pics for all of team.net to see!
	The Leatherman SuperTool is like a swiss army knife except it has much more than just blades and a toothpick.  This is the biggest and best one, but there are others available.  Check the site.
	The Timex Ironman Watch is available in both men's and women's styles.  This is the watch I use and it is great because it can hold up to 99 laps, organized in diffrent sessions and will tell you the min/max/avg of each sessions!  Great for road-racers to compare lap times in practice and after a race.
	I believe Amazon is currently out of these Motorola TalkAbout Plus radios, but they are quickly becoming the autocross standard for walkie talkies.  They also work great for ski trips and other outdoor (or even indoor) activities.  We used them at the SEMA show in Las Vegas and had great success!!!  Josh & Mark Sirota also got good use of them covering both courses at Nationals.  You must buy these!!!  They are available in a range of colors and the reception is pretty good to about 1 mile or more.
	If you have a PlayStation, you need Gran Turismo!  This is the one everyone is talking about, including Car & Driver and Grassroots Motorsports.  In fact, GM had a couple playstations setup at Nationals withi this game.  Probably the most reaslistic driving game and the most fun as you can tune and build your cars!  Hundreds of different vehicles and tracks make this a game you won't wear out!
Other Gift Ideas
	JC Whitney covers almost everything automotive.  Check out their site and order a catalog.  All those little bits and pieces you could ever need... mmmmmm.....
	Crutchfield supplies car audio and home audio stuff at pretty reasonable prices.  Pretty much all upgrades are legal under comfort and convenience... besides, I know your race car needs a mini-disc player!
	I don't know what you order online, but I figured I'd do a blatant plug here for a great guy.  Bob Booth (who happens to be the grandfather of a friend of mine [Hi Viv!]) runs this great shop of automotive racing gear called Bell Motorsports.  He carries lots of helmets, gloves, boots, underwear, suits, the whole lot!  Aside from that, he's a really great guy and has really great prices!!!  A must visit for all bay area racers!
	Order other CDs and videos from CDNow and I also get a commision.  Their selection is a little better than Amazon as are their prices.

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