{"id":149630,"date":"2020-05-03T07:22:52","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T11:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.automoblog.com\/\/?p=149630"},"modified":"2022-06-23T16:59:33","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T20:59:33","slug":"inspired-to-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.automoblog.com\/inspired-to-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Automoblog Book Garage: Inspired to Design by Nigel Bennett"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Inspired<\/div>\t\t\t
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author <\/div>
Nigel Bennett<\/div><\/div>
publisher <\/div>
Veloce Publishing<\/div><\/div>
isbn<\/div>
978-1845845360<\/div><\/div>
where to get it<\/div>
Amazon<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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Affiliate Disclosure:<\/strong> As an Amazon Associate, Automoblog earns from qualifying purchases, including the books featured here. Our Book Garage series<\/a> showcases what every enthusiast should add to their library. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were to ask a person, “Name a racing engineer?” they’d probably come up blank. That’s a shame because they deserve more recognition. The latest book to land on my desk from Veloce Publishing, Inspired to Design: F1 Cars, Indycars & Racing Tyers: The Autobiography of Nigel Bennett<\/em>, is an excellent way to change that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Nigel Bennett is just the person to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first thing I noticed about Inspired to Design <\/em>was how there is no ghostwriter. This is usually a bad move. I’ve read books written solely by famous people, and they’re pretty much a trial to sort through. I needn’t have worried. Nigel is, among other things, a pretty damn good writer. He knows how to tell a story and not get bogged down in technical details. This is twice the trick since we’re talking about an engineer here, and tell me the last time you spoke with an engineer without getting bogged down in technical details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired To Design <\/em>walks this fine line with ease. The stories told within are exciting, but there are enough technical insights to keep the real gearheads turning the pages as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired to Design Shows How Engineers Think<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a lot of ways, Mr. Bennett comes off like every engineer I’ve ever met in a paddock. From large races like The Indy 500 to small regional events, seemingly every engineer comes from the same place, with the same sort of background story. They were the “fiddly kids,” always making and creating things. They later went to college, got a degree in fiddling with things, then got a job working for a car company to fiddle with things. Eventually, they made the jump to working for a racing team but still got to fiddle with mechanical things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is, basically, Nigel Bennett, but there’s nothing really basic about the guy at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bennett wouldn’t have gotten as far in this ultra-competitive game as he did if he wasn’t fantastically talented and creative. Bennett was a British guy with a fascination for cars. Like so many of us, he played around with his own cars, and couldn’t stop coming up with better ideas, building the proverbial better mousetrap, as it were. Next thing you know, he’s building his own race cars<\/a> and up the long ladder, he goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he worked for Firestone (the basic knowledge of tires being instrumental to his later success) and Lotus under the great Colin Chapman, it was his career with Roger Penske in IndyCar where he really left his mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n