When I was at Le Mans, Lennart told me about a new book on Matra Sports Cars by Ed McDonough and checked it out at Chater's books, who had a large booth at Le Mans. It looked good, and even featured a few of Lennarts photos, so I bought it.
McDonough witnessed the Matra sportscars during some of the races they participated in, and even has received a permanent record of the cars on his hearing! I have never witnessed a Matra V12 myself, but they should be magnificent in both tone and volume.
The book covers each year, every race, and every driver in detail, and it's really fascinating to read about. Racing was a dangeours job then, and it is somewhat grotesque to read about some of the horrible fates of drivers, e.g. crashing and getting killed few weeks before getting married - a lot has happened in terms of safety since then!
The last chapter is a personal record from the McDonough about his round on Goodwood of the MS670B-05 (must have been last year?).
The many original photos of the cars during actual races really adds to it.
I would have liked to read interviews with drivers and others involved in Matra Sports - the book gives a spectators view, and it would have been fun to get the inside perspective. More technical details about the cars, e.g. as fact sheets, would have been nice to have too. But the book is very recommended, and reading about the struggles the Matra Sports prototypes faced in racing, and comparing it to this years' Le Mans break downs, nothing has changed in racing - what Matra achieved back then in the late 60's and early 70's was really incredible!
http://www.chaters.co.uk/book_details.cfm/bks_id/8673http://www.veloce.co.uk/shop/products/productDetail.php?prod_id=V4261&prod_group=Motorsport&
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