The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World (Harper Collins, ISBN 9780061227936)

I'm about 80 pages into the book.

Alex takes some serious artistic license (especially with the whole "Driver" concept, which he admitted as fiction. The disturbing thing about it is that he shamelessly interweaves this fiction directly into the story of the deathbed wishes of his father. In my opinion, this is a sickening lack of respect for ones parents and the dying.), and I would recommend people do some back research on Alex and the Gumball Rally before they delve into the book, because it presents a lot of the events as if they were somehow more than just personal ambition. "The Driver" comes off as being one of the most self-centered excuses for his road racing, comparable to being pulled over for a DUI and telling the cop that "the alcohol made me do ossifer..." Most of the first 40 pages is just a somewhat insulting attempt to arouse the reader's suspension of disbelief that what he is describing in the book is anything but illegal road racing. Unfortunately, since his character is so poorly veiled, it's not hard to come to the conclusion that he is nothing more than an average, clever-minded thrill-junkie with a larger-than-average bank account.

One thing that's interesting though is that you get the sense that Alex isn't particularly well-heeled, at least, not in the sense that other Gumballers seem to be. He's not like a Kim Schmitz, a Tony Hawk, or an Adrien Brody, with millions in the bank. I get the sort of feeling, reading the book, that Alex is a somewhat wealthier version of that one son who never got out of the house, a "Failure to Launch" - so that an average salary coupled with free housing, food and utilities allows him to live beyond ordinary means. After all, given his choice of cars, he doesn't buy a Bentley, a Lamborghini, a Rolls Royce Phantom or anything like that. He simply buys a used E39 M5.

What is sort of unique about the book is that it does clearly convey the kind of "behind the scenes" planning required to run in an event like the Gumball 3000, or execute a transcontinental speed record. If you ignore the author's petulant disregard for the law and his retrograde storytelling , the book is actually fairly informative on a truly unorthodox subject - driving at ridiculously high speeds for an extended period of time.

Anyways, the book is worth a read, if only to read a piece of hardcover fiction that mentions a "Subaru WRX" and a "Porsche 930". Just don't pay $28.00 for it.

 

What's unique about it? Inquiring minds want to know.