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The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World
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Withoutabox Submit to Film Festivals. To make matters worse, Roy has the audacity to cast himself as this outlaw hero, this brooding figure who is aware of all the risks, aware that all his family and friends think him a fool He is a "racer," a "competitor," and the call of the open road is bigger than anything else, bigger than the lives at stake, the potential felonies awaiting him and his "crew.
He is a Douche. View all 3 comments. Sep 13, Samuel Kordik rated it really liked it Shelves: Alex Roy is borderline-insane, and yet is one of the most careful, detail-obsessed people I've ever read about. He took enormous risks, but they were calculated risks, not reckless. And this story is a fantastic one—so outlandish, so over-the-top, so unlikely that I wouldn't believe it was true unless it was thoroughly documented by other sources! I first read about Roy in a Wired article published after the statute of limitations had run out on his last big race: Setting the rally record driving Alex Roy is borderline-insane, and yet is one of the most careful, detail-obsessed people I've ever read about.
Setting the rally record driving from New York to Los Angeles, in a dangerous run that averaged over 90 mph which meant doing much of it much, much faster. I was fascinated then by this crazy man and his attention to detail. I found a kindred love of spreadsheets and fancy gizmos and fast driving, and I filed it away mentally under "that's awesome" and that was it. Until recently, when I discovered he had written a book—and I had to read it.
Roy writes well, and his stories are incredible, especially if you're a car nut or a driving enthusiast. He chronicles a very unique kind of driving: Racing in traffic, on normal roads, over long distances. It requires a special kind of skill set and a different kind of vehicle than track racing. And in the specialized world of underground, illegal rally racing, it also requires equipment and talent at avoiding the law, tickets, and arrest. After breaking the cross-country record, Roy has indicated that he won't be attempting it again.
However, rumors abound that someone else—a Hollywood film writer, some suggest—has done so already and is waiting for the statute of limitations to run out before going public. All in all, this was an enjoyable, entertaining read that I'd recommend. I thought this was a great book that really gives a person some insight into the life of an underground rally racer. It all starts when Alex Roy's father is on his deathbed and he tells alex about some old files in his house that talk about a mysterious racer named "The Driver".
He then digs up some information on a mock "race" of the old cannonball races called the gumball rally. At first he enlists an aquaintance named David Maher to participate in the rally as his "co-pilot", and he does not I thought this was a great book that really gives a person some insight into the life of an underground rally racer. At first he enlists an aquaintance named David Maher to participate in the rally as his "co-pilot", and he does not place very well. He then updates his police avoidance equipment and gets better at racing. He enters many more rally races in foreign countries and in the United States, and starts placing better as he goes.
He has different co-pilots every time, and can not keep a relationship with a girl because he is so into the races. Racing engulfs his life. He starts to realize that he is not the same man he was before. He now knows why he does these races, and the reasoning was to get something that money can not buy. To continue, in one of his foreign rally races, he meets two drivers, Richard Rawlings and Dennis Collins, who take the rallies as seriously as he does.
After gaining their friendship, Rawlings asks Alex to race with them cross country, no stops, just a race from coast to coast. He meets a cross country racing specialist named Cory Wells. Cory tells him about the most recent unknown record of 34 hours and 46 minutes, along with an even more recent record of 32 hours and 7 minutes.
He declines Rawlings and decides to make a run with one of his best friends known as "Nine" and Cory. They end up breaking down half way, but will they make another run? Will he beat the cross country record? Will he find The Driver? I dont know, you must read the book to find out. Overall it is a great book that got me researching all about rally racing. This was Russian roulette with five out of six chambers loaded. This is the message of Rendezvous - it's not what you have, it's what you do with it. Such second-rate decadence is worse than bad taste.
It is not a victimless crime. It's an insult to everyone who can't afford the option. Sometimes he inexplicably stopped midstory, then continued another from weeks or months earlier, and the stories would converge in an uncomfortable moment whose meaning remained unclear to me for years.
Only in my twenties did I grasp that their conclusions were withheld until I'd reached the age at which he'd lived them. I brought a full-size for just this eventuality.
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He reports car still closing, but at a slower rate, and congratulates you on finding your manhood. It was the only currency I counted anymore. Before my father died, I asked him how I was going to go on. He said someday I'd wake up and wouldn't be able to remember what life was like when he was alive. You always talk about him. Now all I know is that I can't. His answer was mine, distilled down to six words. I want something money can't buy. We dream of stopping time, relish in its rare capture, lie to ourselves about it inexorable advance, but time has no mercy.
Nor, in committing utterly to that for which our hearts yearn, should we. The costs of my journey were far higher and carried by many more than I could have known.
The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World by Alexander Roy
But I would do it again, if I didn't now know better. Someone, perhaps Rawlings, will inevitably make another run. But if anyone suggests I venture about out in response, they have much to learn about the underrated plasure of a full night's sleep, or a good book on a rainy Sunday, or ice cream in the beach.
Not one of these people will ever hunt, cave-dive or race, or attempt anything that would endanger their purebred dog, Italian navy diving watch, or custom-ordered car, let alone their own safety, unless well paid, forced, or shamed into it. It's left at 2: I lapped Manhattan in twenty-seven minutes. I beat my target by three minutes. I'd committed moving violations. I'd spotted two police cars. I'd earned a theoretical points against my license, sufficient for sixty-six license suspensions.
And I'd never felt better. I felt something I hadn't felt since losing my virginity - a surreptitious, revelatory sense of awakening born of accomplishment - but this, unlike that, had been completed alone, and with skill. I'd failed, but even in failure everything was going according to plan. However little they believed in it, they believed in me , and would forgive any failure out of love, but Maher was here to win, and he wouldn't have come without the same faith in me that I had in him. The desert night's stars rose, first over the distant mountains, then in a vast twinkling curtain of welcome, whatever our speed, whatever out time.
After 10 hours, the storms were over. If anything befell me, my unborn children might yet pursue archaeology, or music, and wouldn't take foolish risks to fill holes in their hearts, or egos.
Jan 26, Monte rated it it was amazing Shelves: Inspired by his father's dying words, and against the advice of his loyal, lifelong friends, Roy enters the mysterious world of road rallies and underground races—trying both to find himself and to locate The Driver, the anonymous organizer of the w On his deathbed, Alex Roy's father dropped tantalizing hints about the notorious Cannonball Run of the s, the utterly illegal high-speed nonstop race from New York to L.
In this riveting memoir, Roy straps you into his highly modified BMW M5 and takes you on a terrifying mph lap of Manhattan his version of the French cult film Rendezvous , then tackles the Gumball and the Bull run—the two most infamous road rallies in the world. Out of the hundred-plus rally drivers, a select few—Alex Roy among them—compete as if these are full-on honest to-god road races, traveling from London to Morocco, from Budapest to Rome, from San Francisco to Miami at speeds approaching mph. With his M5 armed with a myriad of radar detectors, laser jammers, and police scanners, and his trunk crammed with a variety of fake uniforms, the obsessively prepared Roy evades arrest at almost every turn, wreaking havoc on his fiercest rivals, and gaining the admiration of police forces around the globe.
As Roy reveals in The Driver, there are reasons why no one has tried in twenty-four years. May 05, Ken rated it really liked it. Alex Roy is a competitor like no other. His thirst for speed leads him into a world that endangers himself and those around him, but boy is it a rush. This is more than a story about a super-cool guy that drives fast though and that's the pleasant surprise that "The Driver" gives us. Like all of us he is a man seeking some sort of greater meaning in his life. The death of his Father serve as his catalyst for a career in cross country racing that takes him around the world.
If life is a journey Alex Roy is a competitor like no other. If life is a journey then Alex Roy is taking that journey at an excessive speed. The great thing about this book is that Alex Roy's tale is worth reading about for various reasons. At first its a quest. But through his travels he meets a slew of colorful characters and ultimately discovers himself. Sure that sounds a bit cliche but this is still a journey like no other. Fortunately for us Roy's writing about last second finishes and being tailed by cops is heart-pounding.
He captures the moments perfectly. Many times I felt like I was right there in the car with him trying to hit the brake at mph. The bonus is that Roy has a great sense of humor too. Who else would enter a U. Gumball race as a German Police officer, uniform and all. So if you're looking for a pure thrill ride with something extra look no further.
If not, well the movie is due out very soon. Apr 12, Megan rated it it was amazing. This book makes me want to do something really exciting and different and adventurous. My boyfriend read it in sprinting spurts over two days, practically falling over himself to find out what happened, so I knew I would have to read it.
Yes, it is a little bit anti-climactic, because you know the end even before you get there, but Roy's writing is absolutely wonderful and kept me glued to the page for long stretches of time. Yes, he did things that I disagree with in theory, but I was willing t This book makes me want to do something really exciting and different and adventurous. Yes, he did things that I disagree with in theory, but I was willing to forgive him pretty much instantly, as sad as that is. If anyone has any suggestions for other books like this one, please give me a poke.
Dec 30, Nevercured rated it really liked it. This book will be appealing to a very limited audience. Alexander Roy, a well known driver in the semi-legal cross country rally race, includes a lot of detail about his car, and his strategies while driving. While that information may not be interesting to some, it isn't overwhelming in the book. He also offers history, and personal experiences with his father and friends that motivated him to challenge the standing record for driving from New York to Los Angeles. I loved the sense of urgency, a This book will be appealing to a very limited audience.
I loved the sense of urgency, and intensity his writing provided. Being that racing is a passion of mine, I really enjoyed the book. Aug 20, Bill rated it it was amazing Shelves: An incredible tale of one mans quest to fulfill his fathers deathbed wish to find a mysterious character, simply named 'The Driver' who organizes underground cross-country high speed races.
Some years later after traveling the globe at high speed in his BMW on quasi-legal road rallies such as the Gumball and Bullrun, Roy decideds to tackle the seemingly insermountble cross country speed record driving from the east-coast to the west-coast of America. It is only after that he realizes that he An incredible tale of one mans quest to fulfill his fathers deathbed wish to find a mysterious character, simply named 'The Driver' who organizes underground cross-country high speed races.
It is only after that he realizes that he has in effect become 'The Driver' his father had urged him to get in touch with. Sep 30, Lauren rated it it was amazing. The key to this great book is that the author was a writer before his "outlaw driving" experiences. The book reads like you're in the car, and the reader experiences an adrenelin rush as you turn the pages.
I would have never read a racing book, but I loved every page of this one. Definitely recommend for all adults, but a caveat: I won't let my year-old son read this, because of the glorification of extreme driving.