Cover Notes: They were the loudest, fastest, most exhilarating racing machines on earth.

The Formula F5000 was evil, wicked, mean and nasty, and as such, captured the imagination of motor racing crowds in the USA, England, Europe, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. They – at one point – even challenged the superiority of Formula One machines, and at times were the fastest cars around, but sadly, their reign was short lived.

Today however, these Titans of road racing haven’t been forgotten by the hundreds of thousands of motor racing fans world-wide who will never forget their Chevrolet - powered, fuel- injected scream, and in Australia, New Zealand and the other aforementioned countries, they are enjoying a resurgence that has the crowds flocking back to remember the ‘good’ times of the ‘70s and early ‘80s.

Formula 5000 expert Ray Bell and author Tony Loxley have assembled some of the biggest names from those heady days of Formula F5000 racing, to tell their stories of what it was like to drive, work on and publicise this incredible division: Adding to this, local and international drivers such as Kevin Bartlett, Vern Schuppan, Jon Davison, John Wright, Alan Jones, Larry Perkins, John Bowe, Alf Costanzo, John Walker, Peter Gethin, Bob Muir, Niel Allen, Sam Posey, Teddy Pilette, John Goss, Graeme Lawrence, Chris Amon, Derek Bell, John Surtees and many more, have given their impressions in their own words of the head-snapping power, excitement and atmosphere from those F5000 days of Thunder that will never be forgotten.