This is a very nice copy!  First edition, first printing.

"In My Years With Ferrari two-tome World Driving Champion Niki Lauda shatters his computer image with an open and articulate telling of his ascendancy to the top of the racing world--a career that has been constantly unpredictable. here's the unobtrusive, outwardly calm Lauda who within possesses an almost inhuman determination. So strong was his compulsion to get into a Formula One car that he did so on borrowed money; yet at a later date he literally threw away his world's championship by unexpectedly dropping out of the Japanese Grand Prix.  The following year, with the coveted title won, he refused to race in the season's last two events--all actions without precedence.  Niki Lauda is also the only top-class racing driver to be seriously injured in an accident with a garden tractor--an incident which, fortunately, was nowhere near as tragic and agonizing as his recovery from the fiery Nurburgring crash.  It is no exaggeration to say that at every turn Lauda found himself the center of drama and controversy.  Even his courship and wedding were different.  Niki Lauda has little interest in following traditions. 

Central to My Years With Ferrari are Laud's feeling about those who surrounded him--like Enzo Ferrari, for whom he held a great respect when dealing directly.  But within the clutches of the Byzantine Ferrari racing team Niki had many problems, especially with chief engineer Mauro Forghieri, a genius with "the psychological finesse of a sand viper." About his Ferrari teammates, Clay Regazzoni and Carlos Reutemann, Lau is as candid as he is about the likes of Jody Scheckter, Mario Andretti and James Hunt.  Lauda describes his dealings with the press, especially the hysterical Italian press, and the promotion gimmicks he went through, including his disturbing meeting with Muhammad Ali: "Is is part of a show or--electrifying thought--is it real?"

Niki Lauda is a man capable of great passion: passion for love, passion for racing, passion for flying (at mach 1.4, no less) and most of all he has a passion for being alive, for few have survived an encounter with death as close and painful as Niki Lauda's.

All these events, and much more, are detailed here in Lauda's own intelligent, highly readable and thoughtful style.  Illustrated with 33 pages of black & white and color photographs, My Years With Ferrari is teh ultimate "statement" that Niki Lauda is not a computer, not a machine, but a singularly unique human being."