Description

Detailed history of the team and its drivers – Jim Clark, Richard Attwood, Innes Ireland, Wilkie Willkinson and many more.

Softbound (never published as a hardback). In good condition. One or two scuffs to corners.

This book is not simply a tale about a private Scottish motor racing team which was remarkably successful in 1950s sports car racing, but gives a rare insight into how the sport of motor racing was conducted and how a private team could even survive against the factory teams. It also chronicles the decline of Ecurie Ecosse through the 1960s despite the fact they had developed one of the greatest motor racing talents the world has ever seen; Jackie Stewart.

Then, the teams founder, David Murray, disappeared leaving their Supporters Club to go into Formula 2 in the 1970s, underfinanced, and ill-equipped to cope with the growing hard-nosed commercialism of motor racing in those days and ultimately led to the demise of the original Ecurie Ecosse team in 1971. Twelve years later, in 1983, the team was re-formed by one of the former junior members of the Ecurie Ecosse Association, Hugh McCaig, and once more Ecurie Ecosse repeated what the original team had done by going into world class sports car racing considerably under-financed but able, in 1986, to become Group C2 World Sports Car Champions.

In turn the new Ecurie Ecosse faced the realities of a changing world leading up to an association with Aston Martin in 1989. Few, if any, private motor racing teams have survived 40 years of motor racing and the comparisons between the first Ecosse team and the more recent team make fascinating reading. Essentially this is a book about people, how they sought and reached their own goals or else faded out of the picture whilst trying.