Tuesday 11th October 2022

BOOK REVIEW By Peter Baker 

Raoul ‘Sonny’ Balcaen: My exciting true-life story In motor racing from Top-Fuel drag-racing pioneer to Jim Hall, Reventlow Scarab, Carroll Shelby and beyond 

I really enjoyed reviewing this book. Actually, more than that. I really, really enjoyed reviewing this book. You could say Raoul ‘Sonny’ Balcaen was born in the right place, Los Angeles, at the right time, 1936, and seemed to have worked for simply everybody that mattered in U.S. motorsport. He is the sort of guy you’d be happy sitting next to on a long-haul flight, maybe between London and Australia. That would be just enough time for his story to unravel. And he writes well, an added bonus. So, even if alone on the plane, at 320 pages, it makes a great read. More, the book is compact enough to fit into any average sized cabin bag.

Some flavour of what to expect. Turn straight to page 196. Peter Brock, Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350, and Le Mans, all in one line. Okay, two pages. Sonny was running a dedicated performance parts supply business, and also flew the Shelby company plane. Plenty of fun and games there then, especially when Shelby took over the Cessna controls. The reader should know that, during WWII, Mr. Shelby was a flight instructor on heavy bombers.

In the mid-seventies Sonny sold up and moved on, studying wine and diving headlong into the tasty world of gastronomy. ‘My wife, Franziska, and I made a pledge to try out premium restaurants all around the world. We would focus on those awarded three stars by the series of Michelin Guides.’ Did he succeed? Not saying….

Then Sonny got involved with setting up The Petersen Automotive Museum in the mid-late eighties, where today 700,000 enthusiasts from around the world visit this world-beating collection based on Wiltshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. Current attraction; ‘James Bond in Motion’.

There is so much history included in this book, a super story, written by a man with dirt under his fingernails, who has been there and done that; having had a great ride, with wonderful memories.

Available now from Evro Publishing for the ridiculously low price of just £30.00. Buy it. Five stars. Could well be my Book of the Year.

RAOUL ‘SONNY’ BALCAEN: My exciting true-life story In motor racing from Top-Fuel drag-racing pioneer to Jim Hall, Reventlow Scarab, Carroll Shelby and beyond
Written by Raoul F. Balcaen, III
ISBN 978-1-910505-77-9
Published by Evro Publishing

Price £30.00 (standard edition) £40.00 (signed edition)