Next time you drive in wet weather, spare a thought to how your car copes with water on the road. Give the credit to motor racing, and to British Formula One driver Jackie Stewart, who went to a motor racing circuit in the Netherlands with dozens of tyres developed by Dunlop and thoroughly tested them in wet conditions. There to ensure it all went according to plan was New Zealand motor racing mechanic Max Rutherford, who ran the team of mechanics looking after Stewart's cars in the first season the Scot won the F1 world championship. Need mention of 'joint chief mechanic' with Roger Hill. The tyre story is one of hundreds of insightful anecdotes Max tells about the world of motor racing as it entered the modern age, the days of legends like Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Stewart, Jochen Rindt, Chris Amon, Denny Hulme and Bruce McLaren. Max Rutherford was mechanic to several and close quarters observer of them all, his experiences on the circuits of Europe, Britain and America culminating in an award as the best motor racing mechanic in the world. This extraordinary collection of photographs and precise narrative on what went on behind the public face of motor sport is a compelling read. It begins with Max's early escapades as a speedway driver in the small New Zealand city of New Plymouth - days I recall as a kid whose father owned one of the cars - and tells of his meteoric rise to be mechanic to motor racing's champions. Jim Tucker Editor and Journalism Lecturer

Reviews

While this is an autobiography on Max's life a great deal of the book is spent giving us some excellent detail about the years 1965 to 1970.  All the famous names were there then and Max knew them all — Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme, Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart plus many others. He worked on their cars, built some cars and made personal friends with many of them. This story is well worth telling and Max has a great way of telling it. Highly recommended to anyone of the racing car fraternity.  Beaded Wheels---Kevin Clarkson

Race mechanic Max Rutherford was part of the Antipodean presence in '60s motor racing, and eventually worked with Jackie Stewart during the Scot's title-winning '69 Fl campaign. He mines a rich seam of anecdotes about the likes of Charlie Crichton-Stuart, Jack Brabham and Ken Tyrrell, and he pulls no punches. The result is an entertaining read. 

Classic and Sports Car--- James Page

Max is very honest in his views of those he worked for and alongside: Messrs Tauranac and Brabham don't get any marks for man-management or appreciation of effort, although Max acknowledges Sir Jack as a very good race car developer. On the other hand, it's clear that he holds Stewart (who has written a delightful foreword) in high esteem; ditto - Ken Tyrrell and his wife Norah. Classic Driver—Mark Holman

Sir Jackie Stewart --"Ken's mechanics were the best - better at what they did than I ever was at what I did. Mechanics were the only true professionals in motor racing; they were artists at their work." Quote from Jackie’s own book.

Max prepared and built cars for drivers such as Brabham, Stirling Moss, Denny Hulme and, perhaps most famously, for Jackie Stewart. In an era when Kiwi mechanics ruled the roost in F1, Max remained at the heart of proceedings until he abruptly decided to forgo the international scene in order to return to New Zealand in 1969. Fittingly, just before he departed the UK, both he and Roger Hill were jointly awarded the Ken Taylor Memorial trophy for being the 'best mechanics in Formula One.' On returning to his homeland, Max became involved in the Tasman Series before branching out into the design and production of (of all things) sports bras!   Automobilia  -- Allan Walton

What particularly distinguishes this book from many others is that it has been written by someone who was there, in the thick of things, in his own words and supplemented with his own photographs. Max does not mince his words and has some fairly critical comments to make about certain individuals while clearly having a high regard for others. Anyone with an interest in international F1, F2 and F3 racing as it was in the 1960s should acquire this book and will not be disappointed.  British Racing Drivers Club—Ian Titchmarsh 

Self-published books have a certain look and feel - and some seem to surface through vanity rather than because there is a worthwhile tale to tell. This is not of that ilk. First-hand accounts of life with such as Brabham and Tyrrell paint a vivid account of the period, but it's the tales of road trips between continental races - living on prize money and cooking meals on a small stove at the roadside - that give this its charm.  Rutherford also pays tribute to the quality of Belgian chips as much a fact of life in 1967, apparently, as it is now.

Motorsport – Simon Arron.

Publisher: Max Rudderford

Status: New Sale Item

Number of pages: 225

Binding: SBD