BOOKREVIEW
THE PERFECT CAR
The case of legendary designer John Barnard is one that demonstrates the limitations of statistics. Pure numbers of races and titles won by his cars suggest a good career, but not necessarily a great one.
Yet in technical achievements Barnard is possibly unparalleled. Something made plain in his recently released biography, The Perfect Car, written by Nick Skeens.
Skeens describes the carbon monocoque of Barnard’s Mclaren MP4/1 as “the greatest innovation in motorsport since the engine was moved behind the driver”, and it’s hard to argue. Barnard also introduced into Formula 1 the paddleshift gearbox and coke-bottle chassis that remain in use by all teams three decades on.
These landmark developments are but a few examples of his relentless inventions, which this book and its appended list of his milestones make clear. Barnard’s perfectionism raised technical standards wherever he went.
This is a biography written with the subject’s close involvement. Yet crucially it is no hagiography, as there is another side to Barnard, about as readily associated with him as his innovation: a short and volcanic fuse, a brusque manner and uncompromising ‘my (perfect) way or the highway’ stubbornness – encapsulated by his ‘Prince of Darkness’ nickname. He also, at points of his career, seemed – justified or not – quick to mistrust and perceive slights, and was needy of acknowledgement.
Together they contributed to many broken relationships and opportunities lost. Some career decisions seem oddly, or quickly, motivated. He regrets more than one of them and they all go some way to explaining the relative shortage of statistical success.
As does Barnard’s appetite for step- changes; constant refinery did not motivate him. “I found tweaking really boring,”he says. That restlessness also manifested itself in his moving teams often too early as he pursued the next ground-up challenge. When reminiscing about leaving Ferrari in 1989 on the eve of its upturn in form, he says: “I never follow it through to the end.”
This, Skeens suggests, is “the cost of progress”. A more conciliatory character likely would not have forced such vast strides. Therein lies Barnard’s paradox.
The Perfect Car is immensely detailed, searching and comprehensive – aided by Barnard’s photographic recall as well as by no corner cutting in Skeens’ research. It covers each stage of Barnard’s life and how they relate to each other forensically, including his childhood years, an early career that included a successful stint in America, when Barnard appeared his most content, then F1.
Skeens’ background is not in racing but in design, yet you’d never know it as he explores each subject with authority and enthusiasm. In a weighty tome – nearly 600 pages – Motorsport News only spotted three minor factual errors. The book contains a vast range of contributing voices, including from the ‘other side’ of disputes. Contentious issues are dissected unflinchingly, including those wherein Barnard does not emerge flattered. The prose is engaging and the necessary technical sections rarely feel inaccessible.
Plenty will endear you to Barnard. He is open and reflective about his own shortcomings and mistakes.
His commitment to family is a running theme. He is willing to concede when others have better solutions. He works constructively on the ‘big picture’ – noting that it’s sloppiness on small things that incites his temper. He is loyal to close colleagues and many talk of their invaluable learning as they worked for him.
The book also details that Barnard had more than his fair share of genuinely unpleasant experiences. One criticism is related to the book’s weight, however – it could have benefited from greater editing. Some of the anecdotes, digressions and explanations seem wandering and unnecessary, though the latter group, MN imagines, was included with a nonmotorsport audience in mind. Perhaps, too, the addition of diagrams and sketches could have aided the understanding of technical passages.
Yet these are minor points. The Perfect Car is a fitting record of the life and career of one of motorsport’s most complex, and most vital, contributors.