Beschreibung: 

Klaus Klaffenböck is one of Austria’s most successful motorsport competitors. He won the Sidecar World Championship in 2001 before going on to claim three victories in the legendary Isle of Man TT, widely regarded as the world’s most dangerous motorcycle race and one that has claimed almost 160 lives.

Now fifty-eight and a successful entrepreneur, Klaffenböck recounts experiences that lie far beyond most people’s imagination. He writes about living in constant proximity to death and confronts the question everyone always asks: why would you choose to do something like that?

The result is a fascinating insight into the mind of a daredevil who became hopelessly addicted to the intoxicating lure of racing. At the same time, this autobiography traces his journey from childhood to the pinnacle of his sport while offering an unsparing reckoning with the selfishness that drove him to pursue his dream, regardless of the fear and anguish it caused those closest to him.


But I couldn’t stop. I was addicted. I needed those days of absolute intensity at the very limit like the first deep breath after an eternity underwater.
(Klaus Klaffenböck)

Klaus Klaffenböck and his inspired collaborator Kurt Molzer take their readers on a devil’s ride into the world of sidecars. Hold on tight every time you turn the page! Still, for all its depth and uncompromising honesty, this is a work of motorsport literature that transcends its genre.
(David Staretz, Autorevue)

Even people who couldn’t care less about motorsport will throw out their True Crime collection after Kurt Molzer takes them on the ride of their lives through Klaus Klaffenböck’s life story.
Required reading!
(Franz J. Sauer, WIENER)


Klaus Klaffenböck, born in 1968 in Grieskirchen, Upper Austria; sidecar racer from 1988 to 2011; the only Austrian since Rupert Hollaus in 1954 to have won a World Championship in motorcycle racing; today lives on the Isle of Man, the scene of his greatest triumphs.

Co-autor Kurt Molzer, born in Vienna in 1968; former chief reporter at Bild and Bunte and editorin-chief of the German edition of Penthouse; achieved cult status as a columnist for GQ Germany; lives and works in Vienna as a freelance journalist.