For all his fame as one of Hollywood's great
actors, a world-class humanitarian, and the proprietor of a natural food
empire, the late Paul Newman had another intriguing facet that was less
known and perhaps closer to his heart than all the rest of his
well-chronicled life. He was an avid, successful and well respected car
racer and team owner. This book tells that story?from Newman's racing
career, begun in earnest at an age when many race car drivers
contemplate retirement; to the partnership he formed in 1983 with
Chicago racing entrepreneur and team owner Carl Haas; to the impressive
stable of automobiles he owned, from the Porsches and Ferraris to
quirkier modified VWs and Volvos. This is the tale of a life full of
passion and skill, of someone who entered the 24 Hours of Daytona at the
age of seventy and made his last professional race outing at eighty-two;
whose roster of drivers for Newman/Hass reads as a who's who of open
wheel racing; and whose interest in cars extended from the likely
suspects to old trucks and new hybrids. And then there's the charming
pal who, when the incorrigible prankster Robert Redford had a miserably
wrecked Ferrari dropped at his front door, returned the favor by having
the car, crushed into a cube, delivered to Redford's living room. The
anecdotes, the races, the cars?all are here, adding up to what for many
would be a full life, but for Paul Newman was simply another side of a
man of talent, conviction, and enduring spirit.
