Best Damn Garage in Town: My Life & Adventures

by Smokey Yunick

Best Damn Garage in Town: My life and Adventures was originally published as a 3 volume boxed set of 1,100 pages with over 400 photographs. This version of the book combines all the stories and most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0972437835
• ISBN13: 9780972437837
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Carbon Press
• Length: 650 Pages
• Weight: 2.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.8" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book, couldn't put it down.

I consider Smokey to be one of the greatest things ever for automotive innovation. This book is somewhat hard to read. It almost seems like he dictated it to somebody and told them "Don't edit a thing!!" If you get your self into the right frame of mind while reading, you'll have a lot of fun reading. I thought I wouldn't be too interested in his WWII years, but it was one of the most interesting parts. He did some really cool stuff during the earl years of NASCAR, but he doesn't really get into too much detail until you get to the technical chapters. When he does get into the technical stuff, he warns readers that it's gonna get technical and if you don't like that sort of thing, skip ahead. He also has no problems talking about his failures, and thats nice to see. He is very repetitive. I guess the book was written over several years, and he must of forgotten he'd already told a story here or there. If you're a sensitive person, you might want to pass on this book. Lots of sex stories It blows me away that a 10th grade dropout was able to become a B17 aviator and one of the greatest automotive engineers ever. I personally think this book is good enough to be made into a movie. If you're a racing fan, you must read this book! I'm buying the hard bound version next for my library.

SMOKEY!!

Anyone who knows NASCAR should know who Smokey Yunick was. I thought I did till I read this book. Sure, he could build a bullet fast race car, sometimes stretch the rulebook alittle. I knew that. But I never knew what this guy had really done in his life. What a great story. The guy lived a life that would make just about any guy awful jealous. He lived by his own rulebook, and backed down to no one. Need someone to look up to? Need a hero? Read this book. You may hate him. But if you don't, you'll love him!!

Smokey's Smokin

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)

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.

Excellent book!

Being a longtime fan of racing and interested in the history of the sport, I expected this book to give readers a glimpse behind the scenes from one of it's most legendary and colorful characters. It exceeded any of my expectations. As noted in other reviews, the story is told first hand as if you were sitting and talking to Smokey, language and all. Not a drawback in my opinion but consider yourself warned. The book begins from Smokey's childhood and moves quickly through his bomber runs in WWII. Some of the most insightful war stories I've ever read! Then it's of to Daytona Beach and the establishment of the Best Damn Garage in Town. During this timeframe Smokey gets involved with NASCAR, the France family and the car manufacturers. It's refreshing to finally read stories about NASCAR that have not been censored in any way and are being told by somebody who was actually there. Smokey was very opinionated but 99% of the time he's right. Especially in aspects relating to safety. One very interesting chapter is devoted to the 50 or so drivers who drove for him, both in NASCAR and Indy. These included some of the biggest names in racing during this timeframe. A tremendous amount of information is passed along about the drivers, some good and some I'm sure they wished Smokey would have kept quiet about. All in all a great chapter. From there it's on to the Indy 500. This was during the glory days of the Indy 500 when creativity and a skinny rule book led to some of the most interesting racecars Indy has ever seen. Obviously, this was right up Smokey's alley. Let's just say that Smokey's Indy exploits, both on and off the track, could have comprised an entire second book. I especially enjoyed his thoughts on returning Indy to it's previous glory. The final section is devoted to his inventions. You'd better be fairly technical to understand it but the stories still carry it. One ongoing theme throughout the book is Smokey's relationship with the auto manufacturers. Not just with low end engineers, he was rubbing elbows with the heads of GM and Ford. A pleasant surprise was the insight into the auto industry as it existed during the time. All in all a very good book. Yes, it tends to be repetitve at times and Smokey's style takes some getting used to but the content more than makes up for it. Racing's history is slowly disappearing as the old timers leave us but at least one of them put his thoughts down on paper before he passed on. Racing lost one of it's most colorul characters in 2001 but his legacy lives on in this book.