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Faster
Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best | Neal Bascomb
4 posts | 4 read | 3 to read
For fans of The Boys in the Boat and In the Garden of Beasts, a pulse-pounding tale of triumph by an improbable team of upstarts over Hitlers fearsome Silver Arrows during the golden age of auto racing. They were the unlikeliest of heroes. Rene Dreyfus, a former top driver on the international racecar circuit, had been banned from the best European teamsand fastest carsby the mid-1930s because of his Jewish heritage. Charles Weiffenbach, head of the down-on-its-luck automaker Delahaye, was desperately trying to save his company as the world teetered toward the brink. And Lucy Schell, the adventurous daughter of an American multi-millionaire, yearned to reclaim the glory of her rally-driving days. As Nazi Germany launched its campaign of racial terror and pushed the world toward war, these three misfits banded together to challenge Hitlers dominance at the apex of motorsport: the Grand Prix. Their quest for redemption culminated in a remarkable race that is still talked about in racing circles to this daybut which, soon after it ended, Hitler attempted to completely erase from history. Bringing to life this glamorous era and the sport that defined it, Faster chronicles one of the most inspiring, death-defying upsets of all time: a symbolic blow against the Nazis during historys darkest hour.
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TheBookgeekFrau
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Pickpick

This has been on my #TBR shelf for 3years and I'm so glad #BookedInTime #WWII lit a fire under me to read it 😊
Yes, it's a history of Grand Prix racing.But it's also the history of the rearmament of Germany through Hitler's deal with Daimler-Benz for state money to develop their racing team as long as they also produced motorized military equipment as well.
Fascinating stuff! But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't interested in racing.

Cuilin Well I am intrigued, WWII ✅🎉 1y
TheBookgeekFrau @Cuilin You're an F1 fan and you like WWII history - this book is right up your ally 😁 1y
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TheBookgeekFrau
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Whoops it's actually non-fiction, but I'm hoping it reads like a novel 🤞🏼🤞🏼

Anyhoo, starting this for September #BookedInTime #WWII

Cuilin It sounds fabulous, and totally fits for WWII prompt (stacked as I hadn‘t heard of this and I like F1) @dabbe 1y
TheBookgeekFrau @Cuilin Oh you'll like this then. I'm a handful of pages in and I'm fascinated. I used love MotioGP (motorcycle racing) until the demise of the Speed channel and it became impossible to watch 😣 It came out in 2020 smack in the middle of lockdown and I happened across it once Barnes and Noble reopened. 1y
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SW-T
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Pickpick

The history was interesting. If you like movies such as Ford Vs Ferrari or Rush it might be of interest. Driver against driver, manufacturer against manufacturer. But the stakes here are an heiress working with a car designer and a Jewish driver to upset Hitler‘s dominance of the Grand Prix.

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Erynecki
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My completed shelter in place reading stack is growing. Just finished FASTER by Neal Bascomb. I‘m not much of a race car enthusiast, but after recently seeing Ford v Ferrari and thinking about the lyrics from the Cake song, The Distance, I gotta confess that the last few chapters of this book were page turners for me.
Plus, what‘s not to love about “How a Jewish driver, an American heiress, and a legendary car beat Hitler‘s best”?!

Cinfhen Sounds great!!! 5y
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