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 enlarge | Author: Smokey Yunick
Publisher: Carbon Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $21.86
You Save: $3.09 (12%)
New (5) Used (7) from $17.74
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 32346
Media: Paperback
Pages: 650
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 7.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0972437835
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780972437837
ASIN: 0972437835
Publication Date: July 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: 100% Brand New! - Ships Today! Identical to Amazon's book in every way. Flawless! Not a cheap Remainder or Book Club Copy! *We recommend Expedited Shipping option for much faster mail delivery
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| Customer Reviews:
 Smokey's Smokin January 22, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Best Damn Garage is one of the better books I've read on a racing personalty. I have a couple dozen books on NASCAR and the people who raced from the 40's till the present. This book and Fireball by Godwin Kelly are must reads for the diehard fan.
The History of Nascar (using four letter words) January 6, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The book starts with Smokey's rough childhood in rural PA and then a very graphic view of WWII as a bomber pilot in Europe and how he ends up with the Flying Tigers working for Chiang Kai-Shek(pretty wild life!).
Next Smokey gives an insiders look at the history of early NASCAR and his relationship with Detroit automakers. Nothing is sugar coated and I'm sure offended a few people. Also many details about automotive engineering, rules bending and his experience with INDY cars.
If you're a car guy this book belongs on your shelf.
 If you like this sort of book, this is the sort of book you'll like November 8, 2005
11 out of 16 found this review helpful
Smokey Yunick lived a long and interesting life, and damn near ALL of it is in this book. It's a great story, but I hesitate to call it a great book.
It's a chore to read - figure on devoting about 24 hours to read it, and to do that the Smokey way, it should be in one sitting ;-) He's cranky and repetitive, he digresses and loses his narrative thread. He's a self-admitted cheater, so you wonder how much of the story you can even believe.
But I must say it got me by the short hairs, the story did, and there is a hell of a lot of story there. Drilling for oil in Ecuador, running the Carrera Panamerica, bringing the wildest car ever seen at Indy to fruition. The World War II stories alone would make a fine book on their own. He was a constant experimenter, making use of the Scientific Principle at a time when most racing was by guess and by gosh, and he was largely self-taught. I also read Mark Donahue's book "Unfair Advantage" at the same time, and Mark, coming up 15 years later, with a degree in engineering, didn't do any better in systematically developing cars as Smokey, and for a long time did far worse.
One of the things that bothers me about Smokey, as he describes himself, is what a hypocrite he seeems to be. He decries the destruction of the jungle as he witnessed it in Ecuador, but seems to be oblivious of his own complicity (road building, mining, oil drilling) in bringing it on. He peppers the whole book with shots at Clinton, but he clearly did himself everything Clinton did and worse. His attitude towards minorities and women is, to my sensibilities, flat out repugnant. He tells a racist "welfare queen" story about a woman in a Cadillac shopping with food stamps, but his WWII stories described in detail the scams he was running on Uncle. I've enjoyed reading about him, but I'm flat grateful I didn't know him.
If you, like me, grew up on Smokey in Popular Science, and loved racing from, say, 1950 to 1975, it's a worthwhile investment. If that doesn't describe you, you maybe oughta pick up another book.
Best Damn Garage in Town:My Life and Adventures September 11, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A great read by one of my heros! I have never laughed so much than at Smokey's homespun sayings and observations. I also learned a lot about other people of his era that I admire.
 Smokey was certainly his own man... August 10, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I lived in Daytona in the late 60's and stopped by his garage on occasion. Smokey didn't usually have much to say to you and kept all the "good stuff" in the back room. This book is an honest account of the way the man was...vulgar, straight from the hip and due,I suppose,to his age and recollection rather rambling. All in all an entertaining read especially if you were around and interested in racing during his era...
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