Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best
For fans of The Boys in the Boat and In the Garden of Beasts, a pulse-pounding tale of triumph over Hitler’s fearsome Silver Arrows during the golden age of auto racing. They were the unlikeliest of heroes. René Dreyfus, a former top driver on the international race car circuit, had been banned from the best teams—and fastest cars—by the mid-1930s because of his Jewish heritage. Charles Weiffenbach, head of the down-on-its-luck automaker Delahaye, was desperately trying to save his company as the world teetered at the brink. And Lucy Schell, the adventurous daughter of an American multi-millionaire, yearned to reclaim the glory of her rally-driving days. As Nazi Germany launched its campaign of racial terror and pushed the world toward war, these three misfits banded together to challenge Hitler’s dominance at the apex of motorsport: the Grand Prix. Their quest for redemption culminated in a remarkable race that is still talked about in racing circles to this day—but which, soon after it ended, Hitler attempted to completely erase from history. Bringing to life this glamorous era and the sport that defined it, Faster chronicles one of the most inspiring, death-defying upsets of all time: a symbolic blow against the Nazis during history’s darkest hour.
