Can anyone refer any good books/manuals/guides on car tuning and/or mechanics? I hear a lot of good things about Hyper Rev but it's in Japanese.

 

Start with the bibles:

Prepare to Win
http://www.amazon.com/Prepare-Win-Carroll-...h/dp/0965160033

Tune to Win
http://www.amazon.com/Tune-Win-science-dev...88021034&sr=1-4

Power Secrets
http://www.amazon.com/Smokey-Yunicks-Power.../ref=pd_sim_b_2

Andrew

 

I would strongly recommend Race Car Engineering. You can by it through their website in ezine form. Grassroots Motorsports is another favorite.

I second the above books as well.

If you have a specific area of focus I can probably give your some better recommendations.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm not looking for anything specific (yet). I have some pretty broad knowledge right now but wanted to learn more about how different parts work and how changing the variables affect performance.

I'll start with these and then ask about more specific areas afterwards.

Thanks again!

 

I want to preface by saying that I do not mean this in any way to be offensive or demeaning, but if you are that new to the game, maybe what I recommended may be a little too hardcore.

There are a million "How and engine works" type books but I'd recommend going through the How Stuff Works website and the Autozine website where you can learn a great deal of the basics for free. Take a lot of it with a grain of salt because both have a few mistakes in the way they explain things.

Once you get the basics down then you should by Maximum Boost by Corky Bell. It is all about turbo charging and is a great next step.

Racecar Engineering may just sound like gibberish if you;re not familiar with the basics. They make that magazine for people who pretend like they know what they're talking about, like me.

 

Here's a link with some great stuff, although, like Mr. E.G. said, you probably don't want to start with it.

http://buddyfey.blogspot.com/2009/06/recom...ed-reading.html

 

You've got good taste. I own all but a couple of those.

 

GoingFaster from the Skip Barber school and Speed Secrets by Bentley are good driving technique books.

Race Car Aerodynamics by Katz is simple and concise but kinda shallow in a lot of ways (specific sizing and testing methods are left out).

Auto Fundamentals by Stockel is a good all around techschool/mechanics primer.

 

I should also add that anyone interested in vehicle aerodynamics should definitely check out Simon McBeath's book but should start with the NASA website in the kid's section. They explain aerodynamic basics based on the higher level math-based theories rather than the conventional and wrong high school science theories.

Most racing aerodynamic books make reference to the wrong theories, which has no real implications in explaining the aerodynamics of race cars but certainly will leave anyone with a good understanding of physics scratching their head based on the book's explanation of the "how" behind lift.

 

Katz does a good job (I am an aero guy by education), but just doesnt hit the depth i wanted from a "textbook." The whole thing kinda stops at the defining the terms level. I am lookin forward to checking out McBeath