Online Catalogue last updated 15th of September 2008
This book was first published as a 3 volume collectors edition, but now a much better priced "Pocket Smokey" edition has been published, being 7.5" x 9" and 650 pages. Not really "pocket sized" but much closer to pocket size than the original.
In 2 years over 10,000 copies of the Racer's and Collector's Editions have been sold. The book has taken the real stories of racing to a lot of people - but due to the cost of these special editions the bookstores didn't like them. So, the bookstore friendly "pocket" version was published, it has all the same stories, the type was a little smaller and some of the photos were left out.
From the New York Times Book Recommendation 9th December 2001 by Robert Lipsyte
After a Year at Speed, These Books Offer Chance for Reflection. Many of the pages I turned in 2001 are marked by oil, beer or barbecue sauce, reminders of my Year at Speed. An unusually high percentage of those stained auto racing books will remain on my shelf, and some I will even recommend for the gift giving season.
Most idiosyncratic of the books is Henry ("Smokey") Yunick's delightful three-volume set, "Best Damn Garage in Town" (Carbon Press, $US275 hardcover Collector's Edition, $US95 softcover Racer's Edition). Yunick, who died in May just before the his 78th birthday, was a legendary motor sports insider, owner, mechanic and inventor. His hilarious, profane, opinionated, informative and wise memoirs/history/techno manual runs 1,100 highly readable pages. There are 400 wonderful pictures.
Smokey was a one-man Greatest Generation whose World War II adventures seem divided between hot planes and hot nurses. Because of his garage language, he is hard to quote here, but his rant after Dale Earnhardt's death is a taste of his style.
Yunick writes: "Moveable walls, concrete tracks, fuelling by computer, air jacks `stead of the 30 pound flying sledge hammers they use, mandatory retirement age, etc. When the hell they gonna get to doing something? Maybe after next ace gets killed? When they gonna get rid of the [deleted] restrictor plates and go to smaller engines? Don't give me the [deleted] answer you can get killed in bathtub. It's this simple: whose ever's running NASCAR has got his head up his [deleted]."
Many years ago, Smokey was asked to introduce racing to a group of under-privileged kids at Charlotte. It was at that point that he realized that a whole generation (kids and race fans) was coming along without knowing how racing got started. More importantly, he realized that most of the people who knew were not around any more. In 1996, Smokey sat down and started writing his history of racing to make sure that it would be preserved. What he ended up with is an 1,100 page, three-volume set that covers a history of his life, stock car racing, his years at Indy and all of his inventions.
Code No. 010563, 651 pages, ISBN 0972437835, $40.00