Driving Forces: The Grand Prix Racing World Caught in the Maelstrom of the Third Reich
  Grand Prix racing in the late 1920s through the early 1930s was "owned" by the powerful, state-backed Italian teams with drivers like Nuvolari and Varzi, but by the end of the '30s, the Germans dominated. Driving Forces by Peter Stevenson tells the human story of the men, their women, and their machines that made the German dominance possible. It is the classic story of daring individuals facing the ultimate challenge both physically and morally as these racing drivers drove under the Nazi swastika, but for themselves.
Driving Forces focuses on the lives of two of the world's greatest racing drivers: Rudolph ("Rudi" the "Rain Master") Caracciola and Bernd Rosemeyer. The cast of characters reads like the European roll call of the Grand Prix greats: Louis Chiron (France), Achille Varzi (Italy), Giuseppe Campari (Italy), Dick Seaman (Great Britain), Hans Stuck (Germany), and, the greatest of them all, the "Maestro" Tazio Nuvolari (Italy). Peter Stevenson follows the career of Rudi Caracciola from his youthful "great escape" from the occupying Belgian forces to his first ride with Mercedes and then on to greatness as the top driver for that German team. Caracciola's life is intertwined with that of his greatest rival Bernd Rosemeyer of the Auto Union team. Rosemeyer's story is a tragic one of a youthful, talented, and well-loved racer who's love affair with racing, and Germany's outstanding aviatrix, Elly Beinhorn (the Amelia Earhart of Germany), led to his death in 1938.
Driving Forces is also the story of the rivalry between Mercedes Benz and Auto Union, led by the brilliant designs of Dr. Porsche, for the Grand Prix championship of Germany and the world. The ultra-sophisticated supercharged machines of Mercedes, Germany's premier automaker, faced Porsche's ingeniously designed rear-engined V-12 and V-16 behemoths. Capable of between 500 and 600 horsepower the cars easily reached speeds of over 200 miles an hour and in 1938, at speed record attempts on the Autobahn in Germany, the German cars reached speeds of over 270 miles per hour on a regular paved road.
But this is not merely a story about race cars. It is primarily a tale of individual courage—the drivers and their wives and lovers who faced death on and off the race course, for this was a time in Europe when facism was on the rise sweeping up a continent and then the world. These racing drivers and their loved ones dealt with the risks of racing such powerful machines and of dealing with one of history's most terrifying dictators—Adolf Hitler. That they survived either of these challenges is a testament to their courage and fortitude—some, however, did not.
Driving Forces is the story of those challenges, those successes, and those losses—it is a human story, brilliantly told against the exciting background of international Grand Prix racing and the growing maelstrom of the Third Reich.
Table of Contents
- A Tale of Two Drivers
- Tyrant on a Tightrope
- The Round-Table Gang
- The Motor Show Speech
- Charly
- Casting Call
- Celebrity Status
- Italian Interlude
- Come to Tea
- The Reich Goes Car Racing
- Rebirth
- Teething Problems
- A Tale of Two Drivers II
- Blitzrennen
- Hell On Wheels
- Hammer and Tongs
- New Horizons
- A Glimpse of the Gods
- Tomorrow, The World
- Swords Are Drawn
- Totentanz
- The "Sippenhaft Effect"
- Berlin Surprise
- Aftermath
About the Author
Born a Navy brat while his father worked at the Pentagon in 1941, Stevenson was whisked away to New Zealand where the family got a ringside seat for the war in the Pacific. Back in the States after the war with a bit of an English accent, Stevenson and his older brothers had become fascinated with the sportscars that the G.I.s were bringing back from England. Stevenson was able to tag along to some of the earliest roadraces on the West Coast where Allards did battle against the big American Cunninghams. Later Stevenson did volunteer work at the Briggs Cunningham Automotive Museum where he was able to talk with some of the visiting racing greats like Juan Fangio, Sterling Moss, Reid Railton, and Innes Ireland, as well as interview one of the characters in Driving Forces, Rene Dreyfus in New York. At the museum Stevenson was also able to get the cockpit feel and handling characteristics of vintage race cars before they became precious icons Stevenson has written vintage motoring features for national magazines including Road & Track as well as in his book The Greatest Days of Racing with an introduction by Grand Prix champion Phil Hill. Stevenson lives with his wife Susie in California where he continues to hand-build replicas of his favorite historic cars.
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