Speed : Stories of Survival from Behind the Wheel

by Hardcastle, Nate

• ISBN13: 9781560253914
• ISBN10: 1560253916
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-07
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

Adrenaline offers all the thrills and power of speed with exhilarating writing about NASCAR, speed records, third-world road trips, driving in war zones, getaways, "pick-up" competitions (drag races and games of chicken), and all the other activities that offer adventure on wheels. Speed includes passages from Road Fever by erstwhile adventurer Tim Cahill; a selection from Charles Portis's anarchic The Dog of the South; a description of driving across Africa from Stuart Stephens's Malaria Dreams; E. B. White's elegiac essay on the Model T; a piece from Roads by Larry McMurtry; a selection from The Wildest Ride: A History of NASCAR; and more. 16 black-and-white photos heighten these pulse-pounding stories.

Table of Contents

photographs	viii
introduction	ix
from A Little Bit Sideways	1	(24)
Scott Huler
from Indy---The World's Fastest Carnival Ride	25	(42)
Dan Gerber
from Riding the Demon	67	(14)
Peter Chilson
from Malaria Dreams:An African Adventure	81	(34)
Stuart Stevens
from the Last American Hero	115	(26)
Tom Wolfe
from On the Road	141	(20)
Jack Kerouac
from Road Fever:A High-Speed Travelogue	161	(26)
Tim Cahill
A.J.---as in Foyt	187	(14)
William Neely
from A Boot Full of Right Arms	201	(18)
Evan Green
from The Sweet Hereafter	219	(16)
Russell Banks
from The Dog of the South	235	(30)
Charles Portis
Many Miles Per Hour	265	(10)
William Saroyan
Driver	275	(14)
Frederick Barthelme
from The Bonfire of the Vanities	289	(32)
Tom Wolfe
The Car	321	(6)
Harry Crews
Acknowledgments	327	(1)
permissions	328	(2)
bibliography	330