The Last Open Road

When I attended the Mitty this year I noticed several of the older vintage cars had a sticker on the rear end that said The Last Open Road. About a month later at Barber Motorsports Park for a vintage event I noticed the same stickers on other cars. I finally googled "The Last Open Road" and found out it was a book by BS Levy. I ordered the book and really enjoyed reading it on a weeks vacation over the 4th holiday. The book is the first in a series of four or five that takes place in the early 50's about the life of a 19 year old mechanic, racing that is historically and technical accurate. I mentioned the book to some of my friend and many had read it. I guess I have been living under a rock or something. How many of all of you has read the book?

You have been living under a rock or something.

Good book. Everyone enjoys it. Highly recommended.

I've read the first five books. I have a Finzio's Sinclair decal on my Miata. Once or twice someone has noticed it and asked if buddy still works there. I saw the same one on a Morris Minor at the Rolling Sculpture car show in Ann Arbor. The car owner said I was the only person all day who understood it.

Had a Last Open Road sticker on my dearly departed E30 M3. Yes, a cult following. I'll be at Road America later this week for the BRIC where there is quite a following and some years autograph sessions.

Maybe I should read the whole series.

BS Levy was our guest speaker one year at our Brits in the Ozarks car show. We had another guest speaker y'all might have heard of as well. Also involved in writtin' stuff.

I have them all. They are self edited and the editions after the first one are a very hard slog. But I finished the latest one not too long ago and Burt appears to have got the message. Way better and an easier read. And he left it on a cliff hanger so looking forward to the continuing adventures.

^^^ GRM / CMS will be at Road America this weekend as well. Look for me, Carl Heideman, and his kids Chris and Jack to be helping out in the booth. We'll be set up right across from the "Gear Box" food stand. Come on by, I'll have stickers, discounted subscriptions, T-Shirts and all kinds of GRM / CMS goodies!

Good Ole' Burt will be at Road America selling his books and telling racing stories. (some of which are even true!) Burt's a longtime friend of GRM / CMS, and a heck of a storyteller. He's always at this event, as he lives in Chicagoland. Little know fact---he was actually one of the stunt drivers in the Blues Brothers!

Oh, and the event at R/A is one of the year's best--- it's always a great time. Over the years it's gone from being called the BRIC to the KIC, to the HAWK, and this year it is the "Weathertech International Challenge with Brian Redmond, presented by HAWK" man that's a mouthful! So, this year I guess it's the WIC.

We hope to see you there!

http://lastopenroad.com/

Burt BS Levy used to write for GRM/CM, actually. And he's a schmoozer who lives to drive other people's cars. He's the one who wrote the Locost vs Atom article in GRM a few years back with my car. We had a highly entertaining evening after that trading stories, the man's a great storyteller in person.

If you're at a vintage event, Burt will be there.

I have a Finzio's Garage sticker on the Targa Miata. It's the only non-sponsor sticker on it.

I have a signed copy of the 200 mph Steamroller. He laughingly gave me a hard time because I had purchased the previous books on my Kindle. Pretty good stories, I like the way he includes some real characters, and some characters that are based on real characters.

I've just finished the first two, planning to finish the series at my own, slow pace. Entertaining, so far! I've been looking up photos of the cars and events mentioned as I go.

Dr. Hess wrote: BS Levy was our guest speaker one year at our Brits in the Ozarks car show. We had another guest speaker y'all might have heard of as well. Also involved in writtin' stuff.

So, who was the other person?

The Last Open Road is probably the best because it was professionally edited. They progressively get more and more difficult to read. I stopped trying around volume 4 or so.

Also, Burt accosted a friend of mine that was wearing a "Freedom Isn't Free" T-shirt at a race and told my friend he didn't like his politics based on the T-shirt. Considering that my friend had those T-Shirts made up to give to the WW2 veterans that my friend was sponsoring on trips to see the new WW2 memorial in DC, I thought that was a crappy way to treat someone that was standing in line to buy one of his books. I haven't bought anything Levy since.

You guys reading the edited version of "The Last Open Road" missed out. He had one self published, too, which my copy is.

I really enjoyed reading all of them.

I remember reading most of one when I was sick at home.

Also, Burt accosted a friend of mine that was wearing a "Freedom Isn't Free" T-shirt at a race and told my friend he didn't like his politics based on the T-shirt.

I'm fully aware of how wrongly that could go, but without anything to go off of but those 3 words i'd assume i didn't like their politics either.

Also, i've been living under a rock and didn't know anything about this guy or his books.

I have "The Last Open Road" stickers on the back of my Miata and my Spitfire. I also have a "Montezuma's Ferrari" prancing hot pepper sticker on each front fender of the Spitfire where the prancing horse would normally be on a Ferrari. The Spitfire is red, naturally. I happen to like Burt. I've talked with him many times at various events over the past 15 years or so. He was the guest speaker at the Thompson vintage race weekend dinner in 2015. I have all his books (signed) and have read them more than once. Unedited, he has a tendency to use more words than necessary, be redundant within the same paragraph, and use too many exclamation points. But his research and knowledge of "ze oldt dayz" of sports car road racing is phenomenal and his story telling superb. (There's a reason he's called "BS" Levy).

Incidentally, he's had a monthly column in Vintage Motorsport and received numerous automotive journalism awards since he departed CMS years ago (edited pieces, no doubt).

stuart in mn wrote:

Dr. Hess wrote: BS Levy was our guest speaker one year at our Brits in the Ozarks car show. We had another guest speaker y'all might have heard of as well. Also involved in writtin' stuff.

So, who was the other person?

You read his column, what? 8 times a year? Is it up to 10 now? And his boy did the powerpoint.

I met BS at Road America one year - what a character. I did like his writing in GRM/CM and the one book I read was good.

This weekend at Road America is the best. Racing, vintage cars, good food, the vendors, the paddock, and the track?

World class.

Unfortunately I have three bedrooms to clear and carpet to take up for the flooring guy.

I've read a few of his books and enjoyed them, but I've not finished the set.

After reading this, I'm worried. Maybe somebody can point out which editions are better to read than others?

Burt is a super nice guy from my experience, he was at my wedding (at Limerock), he stopped by and gave us a bunch of books.

Basil Exposition wrote: Also, Burt accosted a friend of mine that was wearing a "Freedom Isn't Free" T-shirt at a race and told my friend he didn't like his politics based on the T-shirt. Considering that my friend had those T-Shirts made up to give to the WW2 veterans that my friend was sponsoring on trips to see the new WW2 memorial in DC, I thought that was a crappy way to treat someone that was standing in line to buy one of his books. I haven't bought anything Levy since.

I'm thinking there is more to the story we aren't hearing. I've known Burt for years, and he's smart enough not to "accost" people about their politics. Chances are he was trying to make a joke, and your buddy took it the wrong way. Misunderstandings happen.

I met Burt at Road Atlanta for the Mitty and we had a nice chat about TLOR getting young people interested in the classic sports cars.

Brett_Murphy wrote: I've read a few of his books and enjoyed them, but I've not finished the set. After reading this, I'm worried. Maybe somebody can point out which editions are better to read than others?

I think it only applies to the first one - but drop Burt a line, he'd be happy to tell you.

I met Burt at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix in Schenley Park a few years ago (might have been 10 years ago) as my time scale of memory seems to keep getting compressed..... Had him sign my copy of Montezuma's Ferrari (guess that tells me this was back in 1999 or 2000). A good read, as he mixes fact and fiction into the stories. I also enjoyed his column in British Car magazine back in the day before it became CMS. One of us!

Just went to find my books, looks like he signed both Montezuma's Ferrari and Toly's Ghost, so 2006, so it was 10 years ago!

Brett_Murphy wrote: I've read a few of his books and enjoyed them, but I've not finished the set. After reading this, I'm worried. Maybe somebody can point out which editions are better to read than others?

I think you're fine with Last Open Road, Montezuma's Ferrari, and The Fabulous Trashwagon (you need to read them in that order). However, I bought the next installment, Toly's Ghost, tried to read the wall of text in the first two pages and quit. After that, I didn't buy any more books, so I don't know if they get better.

This thread reminded me that I should do this: