Koen Vergeer writes on poetry and motor-racing in various magazines including Audi Profile and Esquire. In 1999 Vergeer published the highly acclaimed Formula 1 Fanatic. He is also the author of two novels, Sagrada familia (1996) and Dossier Delvaux (1997).
(Atlas, 1999, 256 pages)
What possesses a civilized and culture-loving man to get out of bed in the middle of the night to watch breathlessly a couple of racing cars zoom round in a circle? It’s one of the questions that Koen Vergeer tries to answer in his personal but informative book about the premier branch of car racing, the Formula One Race. The book reads like a report of a long-standing obsession, not so much with the danger of the race, but rather with the heroism and the character of the different drivers, the technique, tactics, esthetics, the powerful sound and the violence…
(Atlas, 2004, 256 pages)
‘Le Mans’ is, in every way, an exceptional car race. Every second Saturday in June, at exactly four o’clock in the afternoon, more than 90 vehicles set out to make as many laps as possible within the space of 24 hours. The fastest cars are manned by the most experienced drivers, who relieve each other at the wheel every couple of hours. But there are also lighter sports cars, driven by adventurers who have scraped together funding and do their best to complete the gruelling race with only a few friends acting as their mechanics. Therein lies the difference with Formula 1 racing: on the circuit at Le Mans, the love of motorsports still reigns supreme, and runs into far fewer commercial…
