By Michael Cannell
I defer to your and Michael’s grasp of automotive history in most of these points. However, I think you’ve erred in some places and overreached in others. I’ve attached a handful of rebuttals. In some cases, you seem to treat my decision to not include a bit of information as a form of inaccuracy. Bear in mind that “The Limit” is meant to be narrative non-fiction, not exhaustive history.
Lynch: Hill’s father was a “lifelong civil servant”. Phil Hill, Sr. had been a corporate executive most of his life before becoming Postmaster of Santa Monica CA.
Cannell: He was a newspaper editor and a truck salesman before moving to California. The bulk of his adult life was spent as postmaster of Santa Monica. He was also foreman of the L.A. grand jury. I think “lifelong civil servant” is accurate. By the way, it’s how the family has described him.
Lynch: “GI’s bought MGs in England”. The value of the pound was 4.03 US dollars at the end of the war, making the $ cost of an MG about $2,200, plus the shipping to get it home. A new Chevrolet convertible was about $1,600 in the same period. Few, if any GIs had the wherewithal to buy and export an MG while they were on duty or buy a Chevrolet convertible when they got home.
Cannell: Nonetheless they did bring MGs home. Plenty of newspaper and magazine documentation to bear this out.
Lynch: Lina Lardi “worked in Ferrari’s factory “during the war.” Ferrari’s had known Piero’s mother since at least the early 1930s. She never worked at the factory. In a TV interview, she described their first meeting as taking place when she was posting a letter. He approached and said, “How did you get so beautiful, in so little time.”
Cannell: There are several conflicting account of how they met. Ferrari himself has described her as pretty girl who worked in his factory during the war. I believe that was the case.
Lynch: The buzzard bars on the 300SLs in Mexico were “soldered” to the area in front of the windshield. Bolted is correct.
Cannell:Mexican press and Carrera drivers have described the bars soldered.
Lynch: The book claims, “Americans viewed sports car drivers as suspect athletes engaged in a bastard sport like surfers or bull riders.” This is nonsense, as Fortune 500 executives as well as other wealthy community leaders took part in the sport. It was widely covered in the leading sporting weekly, Sports Illustrated, from the time of its founding in 1954. Local newspapers often reported the races and their ancillary events on the Society pages, because of the social prominence of the competitors.
Cannell:Phil Hill’s father described sport car racing as “a sport for dropouts,” and Hill seems to have agreed with him. He had a great deal of anxiety during this part of his life reconciling himself to a low-esteem pursuit. He has repeatedly described the revelation of racing in Europe where the drivers were treated with great respect.
Lynch: The story is told of Hill being invited to join the Ferrari team after a 2nd place drive in Buenos Aires early in 1956. It leaves out the fact that Hill was driving a team car there.
Cannell:He was driving a team car there, of course, but he was not offered a contract, thereby formalizing his standing, until after that particular race in 1956.
Lynch “…humble Italian workmen, like his father…” Ferrari’s father’s ironworks sometimes did work for the Italian railway and employed large crews on some jobs. He was a business owner, not a humble workman.
Cannell:No doubt Ferrari’s father was successful. But make no mistake: in the cast-oriented world of pre-war Italy, he self-identified as a workman. He spent his days in a metal working shop, not behind a desk.
Lynch: Denise McCluggage is referred to as, “…one of the first women drivers.” Denise was certainly one of the best, but there had been women in racing since the 1920s. Denise raced in the 50s and 60s.
Cannell:I think it’s fair to say that she was one of the first.
Lynch: Much is made of Trips win in the 1960 Syracuse Grand Prix without mentioning that it was not a full Grand Prix, but a Formula II event.
Cannell: I’m not sure the GP standing matters in the context of the story. It was a comeback win for von Trips regardless of its classification.
Lynch: The book fails to mention that Phil Hill attended the U.S. Grand Prix in 1961, despite Ferrari not sending cars to the race.
Cannell:I don’t feel any obligation to state where he was that day. The point is that Ferrari denied him the chance to race as a homecoming champion.
Lynch: After the disastrous seasons of 1963 and 1964, “Hill never regained his form.” This is ridiculous. Hill won World Championship victories in both 1966 and 1967 and also won a Can Am race in 1966. At that time, Can Am was the fastest road racing series in the world, with lap times on a given track were faster than Grand Prix cars.
Cannell:Yes, of course, but he nonetheless never regained his form. Given his overall record over those years, I think that’s a fair assessment.
Thank you for the comments by both Lynch and Vack, coupled with the response by author Cannell. I am no judge of who is correct in every instance, but I would be inclined to Lynch/Vack on most points, in good part because Cannell errors of what might seem trivial matters like confusing track temperatures with that of ambient air, and “brake rods” for hydraulic brakes, as well as who awarded the Monaco trophy.
Ultimately, I conclude what a treasure to have the mind of Mr. Lynch as a resource, and to wish that more writing was subjected to the same knowledgeable scrutiny on a great many matters. Special thanks must go to Veloce Today for providing the forum.
Cannell’s responses are pathetic.
The 1961 F1 season was a turning point in my personal automotive tastes. F1 became a my interest along with F.I.A. sports car racing over drags and Italian sports cars over hot rods. I think this era in F1 is interesting and I will pick up the book to add to my collection, even if a few liberties may of been taken.
Regarding Lina Lardi’s meeting with Ferrari, in Una Vita Per L’Automobile. Enzo Ferrari (Edited from Ferrari’s writings by Franco Gozzi). Conti Editore s.p.a., San Lazzaro di Savena. 1998 Ferrari said “Lina Lardi gave me a son who we called Piero. My relationship with Lina dated back to 1929 when I met her in the offices of my friend Orlandi’s bodyworks.”
Since Lardi was born in 1910, she would have been nineteen at the time.
Thanks much to Michael Lynch and Pete Vack.
Cannell’s responses were certainly predictable, and spun in the manner that would make most any politician proud. No matter how well written or entertaining this book might be, it means nothing if you don’t get the facts right, and then try to justify the goofs. The only person here who “erred in some places and overreached in others” was Cannell.
Messrs Lynch and Vack, doubtless you are correct in many of your objections to Michael Cannell BUT if you are going to nit-pick then it behooves you to make sure that you are correct.
Mike Hawthorn WAS driving a Mk1 Jaguar as all the photos of the wreck make obvious.
John,
That one was my error not Lynch’s. Tis’ hard being a critic ain’t it? We’ll have to start using bulletproof glass on our houses I guess. But thanks for the correction, you are the only one who caught it so far. We will fix the error, something that unfortunately book pubishers can’t do very easily.
I always knew him as Piero Bastards