SHIFTING GEARS: A PHOTO ESSAY ON MEN AND MACHINES OF THE INDY 500

The Indy race car is a somewhat faster method of getting around—and around and around—than the hot-air balloon, or the motorcycle, for that matter. And it is the subject of a worthy candidate for most beautiful book of the year: Speed! Indy Car Racing by photographer Chet Jezierski (Harry N. Abrams, $37.50). Jezierski, a much decorated helicopter pilot in Vietnam, has been shooting Indy-car racing for more than 10 years. For Speed! he has chosen 267 of his most spectacular illustrations, including two eight-page gatefolds, which follow the cars from designer sketches through wind-tunnel tests to track testing and the climactic races themselves. He has also interviewed many of the top drivers—Andretti, Foyt, Rutherford, the Unsers, Mears, Sneva, Johncock and others—on what it's like to pilot and, yes, crash those machines. But it's the action photographs that will most enthrall Indy aficionados; this book is the perfect gift for members of that club. There is speed galore here, imaginatively portrayed with the help of much high-tech photographic equipment. Some of the sensitively wrought portraits are equally effective. And Paul Newman has written an admiring introduction.