Forget Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart. They're celebrities. This guy is the real deal. Curtis Turner, Smokey Yunick, Fireball Roberts, they're what made you watch. They're what made the sport.

Who were these crazy guys that partied all night, then risked their lives in these dangerous machines just for the thrill of it? Read this book and find out, 'cause Curtis Turner was one of the craziest.

Bogs down in the middle, but so did his life. Never mess with Bill France!!

For better or worse, this is not a typical sports biography. It is well researched and competently written but doesn't seem to be written for its natural audience - NASCAR fans. The book is short on technical details and long on character analysis. It reads like a movie script, full of conversation and the inner feelings of the main character.

The book is written in present tense which is annoying and leads to many jolting sentences. Things that happened 40 years ago are presented as happening in the future, Holly farms is mentioned as the only NASCAR sponsor selling consumer products, while quotes from old newspaper stories, written in past tense, are surrounded by sentences in present tense.

Curtis Turner was a multi-faceted person whose life story is complex. Telling his entire story takesa book about more than driving race cars. I would have preferred a wider focus on the sport and less depth about Turner business and personal affairs.

Bought this book for my NASCAR fan boyfriend, who doesn't read unless he just has to. This book has grabbed him and he's actually reading and enjoying it! He keeps telling me how interesting it is. So, I'm saying it's a great book.

Even though I am a NASCAR fan, I would recommend this book to anyone, a racing fan or not. The life of Curtis Turner was full of ups and downs, whether in his racing career or personal life. All of this is chronicled in the book, which focuses on the very beginning of Turner's life running moonshine to the end of his (short) life. The man was always up for adventure, whether wrecking rental cars, intimidating competitors on the track, or trying to land a plane around a residential area. Full of details and reflections by NASCAR greats of an earlier era, this book never fails to keep a reader's attention. I must admit, I had never heard of Curtis Turner before reading this biography, but I wasn't able to put it down once I started reading it, and neither will you!

Let me preface this review by stating that I don't consider myself a fan of NASCAR or car racing in general. So when a friend suggested I read "Full Throttle" I was reluctant. My reading preference is usually fictional narrative with occasional reference books. My friend insisted that I would enjoy the read though, and since I trust him I took the plunge. And I am so glad I did.

From the opening scene it's clear that the author not only knows his subject but is a superb storyteller. Until reading this book I frankly had no idea of the existence of Curtis Turner but I feel now that I have intimate knowledge of this interesting figure. His life was full of passion and adventure and Edelstein does a masterful job of giving us a firsthand view of the man, from the perspective of family and friends as well as sitting in the passenger seat through several thrilling races and crazy side trips. From his early days behind the wheel of bootlegging vehicles to the creation of NASCAR and beyond this is a great read and it's obvious that it was exhaustively researched.

Whether you have a love of the subject matter or simply enjoy a great read, "Full Throttle" is well worth your time and money. One of my favorite books of the year...

Let me preface this review by stating that I don't consider myself a fan of NASCAR or car racing in general. So when a friend suggested I read "Full Throttle" I was reluctant. My reading preference is usually fictional narrative with occasional reference books. My friend insisted that I would enjoy the read though, and since I trust him I took the plunge. And I am so glad I did.

From the opening scene it's clear that the author not only knows his subject but is a superb storyteller. Until reading this book I frankly had no idea of the existence of Curtis Turner but I feel now that I have intimate knowledge of this interesting figure. His life was full of passion and adventure and Edelstein does a masterful job of giving us a firsthand view of the man, from the perspective of family and friends as well as sitting in the passenger seat through several thrilling races and crazy side trips. From his early days behind the wheel of bootlegging vehicles to the creation of NASCAR and beyond this is a great read and it's obvious that it was exhaustively researched.

Whether you have a love of the subject matter or simply enjoy a great read, "Full Throttle" is well worth your time and money. One of my favorite books of the year...

While Turner's name is revered in the USA, it's a non-entity elsewhere, so it's easier for me to be objective. For an avid motor-racing fan it lacks insight and depth on the racing side, but there's a lot of research into the man. I can imagine he'd rub me up the wrong way as an overconfident careless larrikin, but get my admiration for his obvious courage and skill. The author lacks the story-telling knack that should enthrall and entertain, and believe me, Turner had a life full of retellable tales. Wish someone more entertaining wrote it. Dismissing the first ever "car-in-swimming-pool" feat in a few lines is a sin! These yarns could be spun out for hours!

An excellent book if you are interested in the history of NASCAR. Curtis Turner was one of the great drivers of the 50s, and played an important role in the growth of NASCAR. He lived life hard.

An excellent book if you are interested in the history of NASCAR. Curtis Turner was one of the great drivers of the 50s, and played an important role in the growth of NASCAR. He lived life hard.

Fans of car racing in general and NASCAR in particular won't want to miss Robert Edelstein's biography of driver Curtis Turner in Full Throttle: The Life And Fast Times Of Nascar Legend Curtis Turner. Racing fans receive a fast page-turner about one of the most dynamic stock car racers in history. Access to the files of Turner's widow supplement motorsports writer Robert Edelstein's fascinating coverage, adding depth to his survey of Turner's legendary life and many achievements.

From the first page straight through to the last this book is a thrilling page-turner that just cannot be put down. You will lose sleep. The dishes will pile up and the bills go unpaid. And you may never drive responsibly again...

Three cheers and five stars for Curtis Turner, Robert Edelstein, and "Full Throttle" -- a great, great book.

From the first page straight through to the last this book is a thrilling page-turner that just cannot be put down. You will lose sleep. The dishes will pile up and the bills go unpaid. And you may never drive responsibly again...

Three cheers and five stars for Curtis Turner, Robert Edelstein, and "Full Throttle" -- a great, great book.

I've been around this sport my whole life, and I've eagerly snatched up and read every book on the sport I could find.

And out of all of those, this book is without a doubt the best. Curtis Turner had a life that would take 4 Hollywood films to document. It was complex, it was wild, it was, in a word, unbelievable. Edelstein's book was 5 years in the making. It was painstakingly researched, and was very, very well written. Edelstein puts the reader in the race car with Turner, as well as in the seat next to him aboard his Aero Commander, where Curtis was equally as fearless. From the highs, such as his 1956 Southern 500 victory, to the lows, such as the ultimate betrayal of a business partner that lost him his beloved Charlotte Motor Speedway, the book continues to work at a professional, even keel.

It's not a book about racing. It's a book about a legend. It was long overdue. Thank you, Mr. Edelstein, for finally bringing Curtis Turner back to life.

You don't have to be a NASCAR entusiast to love this book. Edelstein's opus brings us back to the middle 50's and allows us to experience the growth of stock car racing while learning about the characters involved. It is a thrilling chronicle of racing action, personalities, and the birth of a purely American sport.

I, for one, hope that Mr. Edelstein will continue to provide us with these entrhalling and captivating works.

There's always been the instinct in mankind to see if their horses, cars, airplanes or boats were faster than the other guys. In the days long before NASCAR was the most popular sport in the country there was still racing.

The early training in what was to become NASCAR was running illegal liquor during prohibition. That's how Curtis Turner got his start. And from what he learned there, combined with a natural showmanship he all but defined what NASCAR racing was all about. In his day he was bigger than any star you can name today. This is his story. From running liquor to winning millions, constantly living life close to the edge his story is an interesting one.

Mr. Edelstein has carefully researched this book, talking to a large number of people who knew him personally and makes this a fascinating tale.

With December's "Vukovich" and an almost simultaneous release of books on Turner, Tim Richmond and Fireball Roberts, this seems to be a golden season of sorts for overdue racing biographies.
They're all great reads, but "Full Throttle" is the best written of the bunch.
Having said that, any book on Turner was bound to be fun. Turner was a true wild man, a gifted and brilliant driver--of any kind of car--a daring pilot who was stripped at times of his license by the FAA; a skirt chaser extrodinaire; wildly successfull business man; a moonshine runner; friend of almost everyone, including a President; NASCAR founding star; talented timber merchant and legendary party animal.
If the word "legend" could be applied to any NASCAR driver, it would be Turner. Even Dale Earnhardt's story pales in comparison.
This is a real biography, heavy on Curtis' character, motivations, family, and friends. With all of his private successes, failures, triumphs and tragedies. Not just a record of race results, as most sports biographies turn out to be. I thought I knew Turner's story well, but this proved me wrong. Assumptions I had about the sequence of events that led to his death in a fatal airplane crash, were wrong and corrected by this book.
As an aside, I don't accept any conspiracy theroies regarding the crash, I had a brother-in-law who died several years ago in a very similar crash and I believe that as hard as it is to accept, these sorts of accidents do happen.
Excellent book, I loved it. Now all we need is a some books on Lorenzen, Lockhart and Mays...

I found this book to be very enjoyable, reading about the life of Curtis Turner. It was very informative in the areas of his life that are normally shielded from racing fans. This book will give today's racing fans a look into what it took for a driver to make it in racing, long before they were making the level of money the drivers are now. Unlike some of the biographies of todays drivers, this one is very well researched. This book gives you the true story, the good and the bad, not just a glorification of someones experiences molded by public relations representatives.

If you're a huge NASCAR fan, just skip to the last sentence in my review. For the rest of us, here's why you should run out and buy this awesome book. I'm a huge sports fan, though not a huge auto racing fan. A friend of mine that is a big NASCAR fan recommended this book to me. He knows that I love sports books and that I love biographies. This book was awesome on both counts. As a biography: Curtis Turner's story is incredible. The stuff he did is unbelievable. As a sports book: Yes, there were exciting race scenes; but the coolest thing that happened to me was that this book completely changed my view of race car drivers. Before reading this book, I definitely leaned toward the view that auto racers are not athletes. Now that I've read Full Throttle, a book that made me feel that I was in the car, a book that helped me feel the power and the skill of these drivers, I now know that these guys are unquestionably athletes. And speaking of feeling that I was in the car, this book made me feel like I was watching a movie - I'm sure we'll be seeing this book as a movie before long - just like Seabiscuit (a similar experience for me - a book I loved without having previously been a horse racing fan). I loved this book - and I think everyone else who reads it will as well. Get this book fast so you can be the one telling everyone else about it.