VOLUME ISSUE JANUARY , P99
These guys knew what they were
doing was incredibly dangerous, but
that still didn't stop them as throngs
of people lined the roads of Europe
to see the madness unfolding
before their eyes.
Oxley's account of happenings,
told mainly from the British side of
things (as one would expect, given
the title of the book), gives a brief
insight into life on the speed trail for
Fernihough. The former Isle of Man
TT racer became obsessed with
breaking whatever the new record
was at the time. From his workshop
right next to the famed Brookland's
circuit in Surrey, Fernihough would
modify his London-built JAP V-twin
to within an inch of its life as he
chased Henne and Taruffi across
the continent.
Some of the machines, especially
the early examples of streamlined
machines, are truly terrifying.
Henne's BMW looks at times like a
high-speed coffin, yet the German
somehow always managed to bring
the machine home on two wheels
despite engaging in such violent
tank slappers that it would leave its
rider's nerves shot to bits.
Yet despite the political tit-for-tat
between Germany, England, and
Italy, given the horrors that would
befall the world a few years later, it's
nice to read that Fernihough, Henne
and Taruffi had a genuine care
for each other. The love of speed
LIST PRICE: $35.60
WEBSITE: https://matoxley.bigcartel.com
• AN ENGROSSING READ ABOUT
THE FOREFATHERS OF SPEED
• PAINTS A SOBERING PICTURE OF
LIFE POST-WORLD WAR I
• THE EARLY EXAMPLES OF
STREAMLINING REALLY ARE
TERRIFYING
• AN ENGROSSING READ ABOUT
• THERE ARE A LOT MORE
PHOTOS OF HENNE AND TARUFFI
DURING THEIR ACTUAL SPEED
RUNS, BUT THEY HAD CAMERA
CREWS PAID FOR BY POLITICAL
PARTIES AT THEIR DISPOSAL.
POOR FERNIHOUGH DIDN'T HAVE
THAT LUXURY.
BY MAT OXLEY
STANDOUT FEATURE
Oxley's ability to tell a story quickly
and succinctly so well that the book
is hard to put down.
READER ANALYSIS
One has to admire people such as
Fernihough, Henne, and Taruffi.
Regardless of their political alliances
(forced or not), they are the forefa-
thers of every person who strapped
on a helmet and dreamed of winding
the throttle to the stop to see just
how fast they could go.
crossed political and social bound-
aries. These were the chosen few
doing something special, paving the
way for future generations of speed
freaks.
Racing Hitler is only 123 pages
long and so engrossing that you'll
probably finish it in one sitting. While
not as immediately engrossing as
Oxley's (in my opinion) piece de re-
sistance Stealing Speed, Racing Hit-
ler does an excellent job of showing
what real men these guys were, and
how with a bit of good old-fashioned
hard work and graft, you don't need
a Nazi or Fascist party behind you to
become a legend.
Rennie Scaysbrook
themselves over a decade.
Unlike his European coun-
terparts, the British political
hierarchy could not have been
less interested in Fernihough's
attempts to claim the land
speed record for England, a sen
-
timent that has sadly reverber-
ated through history almost to
the present day.
Racing Hitler provides a look
not just into a time when the
term "live fast and die young"
meant even more than it does
today but also a time when the
world was just recovering from
the bloodiest conflict in human
history, the insane inflation that
followed where the price of your
meal would change as you ate
it, and the camaraderie between
nations tentative and soon
would be again at each other's
throats.
