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Crashed and Byrned: The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw Paperback – 6 May 2010

by Mark Hughes (Author), Tommy Byrne (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 85 ratings
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This is the thrilling, warts-engine-oil-and-all autobiography of the only racing driver Ayrton Senna ever feared - the 200mph flawed genius of Tommy Byrne.





It tells the surreal tale of a poverty-stricken Dundalk kid's rise to become the only racing driver the great Ayrton Senna ever feared - and how it all went wrong from there. For a brief moment Tommy Byrne was arguably the world's greatest driver, the motor racing equivalent of George Best and Muhammad Ali rolled into one - A racer, a thief, a raconteur.This is the story of his improbable escape, his rapid rise and his spectacular and bizarre fall from grace. Peppered with dark humour and a cast of ridiculous characters, it is the antithesis of a fairytale - and it's all true. 







Hold on tight, the tale of Tommy Byrne is quite a ride - from fending for himself as the runt of a big Catholic litter in the '60s, running the gauntlet of the sectarian violence in the '70s, troubling Ayrton Senna and making it to F1 in the '80s, resorting to drugs in the aftermath and driving for a deluded billionaire madman and then gun-toting Mexicans in the '90s. It's raw, passionate, and - with Byrne's ability to tell it like it is - not for the faint-hearted.

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  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Corinthian
  4. Publication date
    6 May 2010
  5. Dimensions
    12.7 x 1.27 x 20.32 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1906850186
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1906850180
  8. See all details
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Product description

Review

Forget Senna and Schuey. Tommy Byrne was the best of them all. -- Eddie Jordan

One of the most extraordinary sporting autobiographies you are likely to come across. -- Andrew Baker, Daily Telegraph

It's told in a breathless, raw style, and had me astonished and appalled in equal measure. -- Bookseller

The most exciting petrol-head release of this year. A high octane guilty pleasure. -- Bookseller

Motor racing is a great sport for 'what ifs' and 'if onlys,' and Byrne must have had many a rueful glance back. But this rip-roaring autobiography rarely indulges in self-pity. There isn't time. In between the racing there are girls, guns, billionaires, fights, parties and orgies. It would be a tremendous book with the sport left out - and there aren't many sporting books of which you can say that. -- Andrew Baker, Daily Telegraph

For all the rollicking yarns, this is a tale of talent wasted, but in spite (or perhaps because) of that, it is far more honest - and funny - than the anodyne autobiographies of many more successful drivers. -- Simon Redfern, Independent on Sunday

A riveting read. -- Financial Times

I'd be amazed if you didn't enjoy this book. -- F1 Fanatic

It's a remarkable, colourful, at times scarcely believable tale which unravels at a breakneck pace. -- F1 Fanatic

...I challenge you to put it down. It might just be the greatest book you've never read. -- Simon Arron, Daily Telegraph

Quite simply the best motor racing book I've ever read. -- 2009 Irish Motorsport Annual

You won't be able to put it down. -- Times

One of the best racing books you'll read this decade. -- AUTOSPORT

An essential read ... brilliantly told. -- Observer

Witty and shocking ... a must for anyone who has the constitution to handle it. -- Motor Sport Magazine

Incredibly entertaining. -- Ireland AM

A real pleasure and provides massive insight into what makes racers do what they do. -- International Herald Tribune

Absolutely brilliant. -- RTÉ

Book Description

The autobiography of the racing driver, Tommy Byrne, whose rise was meteoric and fall spectacular. Now the subject of a feature-length documentary released in cinemas in late December 2016.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Corinthian (6 May 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1906850186
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1906850180
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.7 x 1.27 x 20.32 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 85 ratings

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Tommy Byrne

Tommy Byrne

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
85 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Noel J Silver
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read by ALL motor racing fans
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2017
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This is a book that must be read by all Motor Racing Fans. It puts into perspective the various machinations that occurred between various Drivers and Team Owners and their reactions to each event through Tommy's eyes. This book provides great clarity about the "injustice " of team owners who made driver choices to not employ Tommy when he was absolutely the "best of the then current crop" just because they did not like him and his cockiness, and as a result they actually "sabotaged" their own teams efforts to win more Grand Prix, which should have been their sole focus. Anyone who watched the Tommy/Ayrton battles on the track in formula ford and formula 3 and removed the money equation of, no money Tommy to well sponsored Ayrton would have selected Tommy ahead of Ayrton for promotion ON MERIT to Formula 1. This became one of life's injustices that was not put right, and which Tommy has had to live with and us fans were robbed of watching titanic battles by two gladiators in Formula One.
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AK
4.0 out of 5 stars An angry but often amusing autobiography
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 March 2010
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The book follows the life and racing career of Tommy Byrne, an Irish racing driver with plenty of raw driving talent but who due to his personality (it comes across as the primary issue) never truly makes it. From winning all the feeder championships in the first year of contesting them, he joins a third rate F1 team, where there was no perspective, he flies in tests for McLaren but fails the Ron Dennis test (in some ways much like Montoya and Alonso in that respect) and then goes through a slow motion train crash and byrne over the next 10 years or so, partly in Europe, partly in the US and Mexico.

The book seems to have been written during two periods, as there are two clearly definable styles in there. The early chapters, which describe his childhood and adolescence in Ireland, are written pretty much like an Irvine Welsh novel ( If You Liked School, You'll Love Work  for example), full of raw anger, associated bad spelling and language but somehow engaging and gripping. Part Two of the book, which then focuses more on the racing has either been written at a different time period or has been edited completely differently - the style is night and day. It is a bit more typical sports personality biography, in some way more polished (the language cleans up for sure) but no longer so gripping and engaging. The anger gives way to some sense of deep disappointment over the lack of respect the author is faced with most of the time in spite of the unmistakable pace he can deliver on track, often with not exactly stellar machinery and support. It seems his burning ambition got somewhat satiated by knowing he was excellent and could win, and the hunger for doing everything and keeping the eye on the ball to keep on winning and make it in F1 was not fully there. The co-author (Mark Hughes), who inserts explanatory passages throughout the text claims that all it would take for Byrne to really make it was getting under the aegis of a good manager, something lacking throughout. As it is, Byrne never really made it big in F1 - at least he seems to have made his peace with it and is now a dedicated and seemingly relatively happy racing school instructor in the US. Potentially the name will return, with at least one of his sons rising up through the ranks in karting now.
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Christopher Neely
5.0 out of 5 stars A very different view of motor racing and F1
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 February 2010
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Excellent read - one of those books you have to read from start to finish. Tommy tells it like it was - albeit I think there are a lot of tales left untold here - but a sobering tale for all F1 fans of normal means or below that make it clear that, no matter how fast you are, if your face don't fit and you don't come from a monied background your chances of making it in motor racing are very very slim. Having said that, Tommy's achievements in motor racing as someone with no money are astonishing, and the list of names who went on to make names for themselves in F1 or Indycar who didn't see him for dust is very long. Thoroughly recommend this.
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jay lazy
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn’t put it down
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 February 2020
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Read it one sitting. Amazing story.
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Ken O'Neill
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant read...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 April 2020
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...highly recommended.
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John Pitchers
4.0 out of 5 stars A Penchant for Self-destruction
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 January 2010
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I find it difficult to rate this half biography, half autobiography.

I have a friend named Jackie who wrote and self-published a book about dogs. On the back cover the first commendation reads `"The best book I have ever read" - Jackies Mum'

Was Tommy Bryne as good as he constantly tells us he was ("the best driver in the world.")? Or was he even more obnoxious than he, equally constantly, reveals? Certainly the latter prevented him from proving the former one way or the other. The record book certainly suggests that Byrne's early Formula Ford and F3 results were exceptionally good, but his penchant for self-destruction again and again ruined any opportunity to move up to F1 where, he convinced himself, his deserved millions awaited him.

For most jobbing professional racing drivers Bryne's career would have been considered successful, but not for Tommy who was destined for bigger things - so he tells us. However, as one contributor says, he was never really dedicated enough (unlike the equally un-successful Perry McCarthy) preferring to wallow in being borne down by the massive chips on both shoulders about his upbringing "I never received the respect I deserved", "Nobody tells me what to do".

Anyone who knows that being a really top professional racing driver requires more than just being a good performer on the track, will realise that the apparently constantly foul-mouthed Bryne was his own worst enemy.

On the plus side, Tommy Byrne tells his story with self deprecating humour and the book is an amusing read - providing you can stand the constant stream of bad language. There are very few photos in this book, and none of Tommy's face - perhaps a psychoanalyst might read something revealing into this!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 July 2017
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The best motor racing book I have ever read!
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Top reviews from other countries

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Julian G Halliday
5.0 out of 5 stars An odd, somewhat sad, but ultimately amiable memoir.
Reviewed in the United States on 8 December 2022
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In the fall of this year (2022) I took my car up to a Sports Car Course to attend a track day, featuring Course School trainers. Between sessions, I struck up a conversation with a short Irishman, who was friendly and amusing -- I think he overheard me speak and heard my English accent. We talked about this and that, chiefly cars, and he then mentioned that he'd been in Formula One. After I got my breath back he explained when and how, and told me some anecdotes about the experience (with Theodore, in a car bad enough that it never qualified to race). He introduced himself as Tommy Byrne -- that's him in the blue shirt. I felt deeply stupid for not knowing who he was; but he was kind to me, and mentioned this book (its subtitle is "The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw"). There's also a film, he said, though I've had trouble tracking that down.

So I instantly got his book and read it more or less in one gulp. If you are interested in racing, and how people learn things and what they do when they've learned them, and the politics of racing teams, you will enjoy this book. If you are interested in life stories that begin in difficult circumstances and overcome obstacle after obstacle to achieve a goal -- albeit only to have the final prize unjustly denied -- then you, too, will enjoy this book. There are some repetitions and some odd constructions, but I take this to be a sign of Tommy's actual input to the book -- that it was not simply ghosted by his co-author Mark Hughes (F1 editor for Motor Sport Magazine, and thus a significant collaborator), and it does not detract from the value of the read.

In fact, having heard Tommy's spiel, and his ability to tell gripping (also ripping!) stories in person on the fly (I hesitate to say that this is an Irish attribute, but I must say my experiences with Irishmen suggest they tend to have a strongly developed sense of narrative, and a dramatic flair), I can say that this book sounded as if he were telling it to me. I recommend it, though it is not without heart-wrenching disappointments for its author which, since one becomes fond of him, are difficult to take.
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Julian G Halliday
5.0 out of 5 stars An odd, somewhat sad, but ultimately amiable memoir.
Reviewed in the United States on 8 December 2022
In the fall of this year (2022) I took my car up to a Sports Car Course to attend a track day, featuring Course School trainers. Between sessions, I struck up a conversation with a short Irishman, who was friendly and amusing -- I think he overheard me speak and heard my English accent. We talked about this and that, chiefly cars, and he then mentioned that he'd been in Formula One. After I got my breath back he explained when and how, and told me some anecdotes about the experience (with Theodore, in a car bad enough that it never qualified to race). He introduced himself as Tommy Byrne -- that's him in the blue shirt. I felt deeply stupid for not knowing who he was; but he was kind to me, and mentioned this book (its subtitle is "The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw"). There's also a film, he said, though I've had trouble tracking that down.

So I instantly got his book and read it more or less in one gulp. If you are interested in racing, and how people learn things and what they do when they've learned them, and the politics of racing teams, you will enjoy this book. If you are interested in life stories that begin in difficult circumstances and overcome obstacle after obstacle to achieve a goal -- albeit only to have the final prize unjustly denied -- then you, too, will enjoy this book. There are some repetitions and some odd constructions, but I take this to be a sign of Tommy's actual input to the book -- that it was not simply ghosted by his co-author Mark Hughes (F1 editor for Motor Sport Magazine, and thus a significant collaborator), and it does not detract from the value of the read.

In fact, having heard Tommy's spiel, and his ability to tell gripping (also ripping!) stories in person on the fly (I hesitate to say that this is an Irish attribute, but I must say my experiences with Irishmen suggest they tend to have a strongly developed sense of narrative, and a dramatic flair), I can say that this book sounded as if he were telling it to me. I recommend it, though it is not without heart-wrenching disappointments for its author which, since one becomes fond of him, are difficult to take.
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BD
4.0 out of 5 stars lasst sich gut lesen
Reviewed in Germany on 30 December 2017
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Tolles Buch für alle, die sich für die ungeschriebene Geschichte der verlorenen Talente der Formel 1 interessieren. Ein unglaubliches Talent, das nie der Top erreicht hat.
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Mono mars
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended.
Reviewed in Canada on 4 August 2016
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A wonderful and memorable book. Loved it. I barely remember Byrne from a short foray into F1 but those who knew rated him as one of the greats. On a par with Senna with whom he had a needling relationship. His book - and Mark Hugh's always wonderful contributions - detail how all this was squandered in an almost too weird/funny to believe spiral. Ends upbeat though. Crashed and Byrned indeed. Highly recommended.
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XrayCafe
5.0 out of 5 stars Put on your racing harness for a ride with Tommy Byrne...
Reviewed in the United States on 20 July 2010
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I have a habit of not finishing books when I read them, but this book had me hooked. Not only did I read it cover to cover, but I'm also reading it again after finishing it a couple of weeks ago. Honest to a fault, Tommy Byrne tells his story as it happened; growing up in a poor family in 1960s Ireland, criminal mischief as a teenager, his various ways of procuring parts for his race car, his dissent for rich brats buying their way to the podium, extravagant women, not-so extravagant women, fighting on (and off) the track. I can't help but feel bad for Tommy, winning race after race after race but no big team ever picked him up. Wtf were they thinking!! I very highly recommend this book, excellent read!!!
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Jennifer Cate
4.0 out of 5 stars ... met Tommy Byrne and this book is written just like he talks
Reviewed in the United States on 11 August 2014
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I met Tommy Byrne and this book is written just like he talks! I wanted to read about how he got to where he is today. Interesting read!
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