As Sir Jackie Stewart states in his Foreword, “Pete Lyons was one of the best journalists in Formula 1 at the time I was racing.” Lyons himself writes that when he became obsessed with motor racing, “It felt like my true road.” This memoir retraces his steps along that road, focusing on the days when he wrote about and photographed the Can-Am sportscar series in his native America during its finest period from 1966 to 1972, then switched to Formula 1 for four great seasons from 1973 to 1976. Lyons witnessed Chaparral, Lola, McLaren and Porsche create ever-more-monstrous Can-Am beasts to be tamed by the likes of Jim Hall, John Surtees, Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, Mario Andretti and Mark Donohue. His cameras, notebooks and typewriter also were there when Tyrrell, Lotus, McLaren and Ferrari were the dominant forces in Formula 1, with Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda and James Hunt the World Champion drivers. Immersed in this golden age of racing, Lyons brought a unique blend of evocative description and fastidious factual detail to his craft, putting his devoted readers at the heart of the action. This captivating memoir will transport you back to those times.....

The rocket for the road

The name Max Valier is well known in the rocket scene, as the man born in Bolzano in 1895 is considered a driving force in rocket research, particularly in relation to research into liquid rocket engines. In January 1930, Max Valier, now 35 years old, moved into a workshop at the Heylandt company. As a test vehicle, he used a car that was not designed with visual and technical aspects in mind, but only for the fastest possible propulsion and high speed. On April 17, 1930, he launched a car with liquid rocket propulsion for the first time, but on May 17, 1930, the researcher was killed in an accident.Following the death of the pioneer, Walter Riedel, together with Heylandt engineers Alfons Pietsch and Arthur Rudolph, attempted to further develop the liquid gas engine, and the team created another rocket car, which was nicknamed the “Hellhound.” In May 1931, a test driver undertook the first test drives at Tempelhof Airport. The entire drive system was encased in a wooden frame and covered with a sheet metal body, which also featured wind deflectors on all four wheels. Nothing is known about the success of the very loud rocket car, which was emblazoned with the Heylandt company logo on the front, and it is likely that the single test run in May 1931 was the only one ever conducted. No other automotive activities from the Berlin factory are known. Instead, the military approached the factory, recognized the great potential of rocket propulsion, and developed it further for their own (destructive) purposes.

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