Think Fast: The Racer's Why-To Guide to Winning - Paperback

by Neil Roberts (Author)

If you are determined to WIN but you have more motivation than money, Think Fast is the book you have been looking for. Neil's clear and entertaining guidance will show you how to overcome your competitors' bigger budgets and finish ahead of them. Unlike any other auto racing technology book, Think Fast is not about the technology, but about WHY TO use some technologies and avoid others in your quest to WIN races. Think Fast can help any race car driver or race engineer tackle the big challenges and cross the finish line FIRST. Think Fast is a professional racing industry insider's detailed description of his unique process that makes racing drivers and race cars faster and work together more effectively. Both driver and car development techniques are covered, including very cost effective approaches to problems faced by every motorsports competitor. There are numerous ideas that will help any racer, from an autocrosser on a shoestring budget to a top echelon racing team engineer with extensive, state of the art engineering development resources. Both road course and oval track racers can benefit from the many original concepts that are included in Think Fast. Highly technical subjects are presented clearly, while mathematical equations are avoided entirely. Think Fast is intended to complement other racing technology books that are already on the reader's shelf. Think Fast is divided into two sections, Fast Fundamentals and Fast Physics. Fast Fundamentals presents the short list of challenges faced by the racer that matter the most and includes an extensive, clear discussion about each challenge. Fast Fundamentals includes an extensive chapter on highly innovative race car driver development techniques. Fast Physics is more technically oriented and presents hundreds of lessons learned, engineering concepts, tips, and tricks that have never been revealed in print until now.

Author Biography

Neil Roberts is an aerospace engineer, a 25 year member of the Sports Car Club of America, and a professional race car design engineer. Neil competed very successfully in autocross events and SCCA club racing for 20 years, then competed as a professional racing team engineer at Hall/VDS Racing for 4 years. In addition to working with Jim Hall, Neil worked with drivers John Andretti and Teo Fabi. Neil then joined Swift Engineering and designed 28% of the parts in Swift's first Champ car, the 007.i. That car won its debut race with Michael Andretti driving. Neil has also been a technical advisor to Texas A&M University's Formula SAE program and a design judge every year at the Formula SAE California competition. Additional projects that Neil has accomplished at Swift include chief engineering the design and construction of the Eclipse Concept Jet in 200 days, and working on projects for DARPA.