Ferrari 288 GTO book

Is there anything to read? IIRC it's mostly pictures and pages taken from factory brochures/manuals. One of the worst publications of late. Just created to generate income!

 

Dear, It's true the Sackey book sucks!
This is the one to have, though way more pricey...

Author: Jürgen Lewandowski
1987 / text G.E. / pp. 160 / ill. c. 141, b&w 22 / cloth binding, 326x275mm
(slip case with fine linen covering and embossed printing of the book's title and the
publishing company's name on its frontside; limited edition, copy N° XXXX of in all
2500 books; attached is a sectional drawing, a topview of the 288 GTO-engine type
F114 B 000 with site measuring data but not in a ratio of 1:1)

Ferrari GTO, the second publication from the Art & Car series introduces to the reader, all
the facts about one of Enzo Ferrari's outstanding creations. A luxory volume comprising in
addition to the precise technical details chapters about the car's development stages, on
its ancestor named Ferrari 250 GTO and to the descendant F40. Further contents are expert
conversations with the responsible personalities from the Ferrari development departments
and an interview with Sergio Pininfarina unveiling the GTO's progression. Penned by the
world champion Niki Lauda the views on his Gran Turismo Omologato. A test report was
written by the Formula One driver Gerhard Berger. Not many literary works released on
Ferrari can hold a candle to this one presented by Jürgen Lewandowski and the contri-
buting authors and photographers!
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+1

 

The 'Lewandowski' book is everything the 'Sackey' book is not!

 

This book got 3 5 star reviews

16: Pictorial History of Cizeta Automobili: Brian Wiklem, Carrie Cowan: 9780578099460: Amazon.com: Books

 

Its good to see how others feel about the same subject matter, in order to have a more balanced perspective. Here are a few comments from other book buyers, some of whom are actually GTO owners, from the (Prancing) horse's mouth, so to speak:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/142710705-post7528.html
"What I already described, Joe - it´s an absolutely perfect masterpiece!"

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/142762631-post7614.html
"Really a super book, there is so much information, pictures and the whole layout is just so nice. Well done Joe."

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/142721520-post7564.html
"Book arrived and it is fantastic! Joe, thanks a lot for this masterpiece! It is in my personal top 3! Greetings Christian"

"Wow, What can I say... I always felt privileged that I had the opportunity to meet yourself and your wife, but now I can say I know the Author of the most amazing book ever…… Superb…...Hope everything is great with you guys. All the Best, Paul"

"I just received your excellent GTO book from Veloce! Just in time for Christmas ... I know it was a long and arduous task writing the book, dealing with Ferrari, and getting it published. But, I can see that it was definitely worth all the effort. I hope it is very successful for you. Henry"

"Dear Joe, Today I received your book on the GTO. In one word: awesome!! A great job, extensive research, well documented and a masterpiece for a stunning car. Well done and happy to see that you where able to use many pictures of my former GTO. You can imagine I have big regrets of selling… as much as I have not bought the Miura SV you offered me a few years ago. In future I should listen more carefully to you. Again congratulations, and I hope one day to have the GTO and Miura Bible signed by you. Many Greetings - Paul"

I literally have dozens of these, but in the interest of space (& not being too tedious with text!) I thought the above would suffice.

 

As mentioned above, my 288 GTO book set out to have its own identity, and over 25 years later is a good buy.

Speedmonkey: Book Review - The Book Of The Ferrari 288 GTO by Joe Sackay
" ...This book is a completists paradise."

Someone posted a response which I though contained some good humor:
"Joe Sackey knows his stuff. He might be the most knowledgeable person on the planet when it comes to the 288GTO and F40. I don't know if I need to see a detailed list of every cow specially selected to craft the 288 luggage, but I'd love to have a copy of this book. 11/08/13 4:06pm"

Holiday Gift Idea: A Look at the Ferrari 288 GTO | Articles

Racingwebshop > Book > new books  >  The Book of the Ferrari 288 GTO

Veloce Publishing - Automotive stuff: REVIEW: THE BOOK OF THE FERRARI 288 GTO
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Its true, the GTO book is very different from the Miura book, and that was the plan all along! Its interesting that you seem to prefer the Miura book, because I received a fair amount of commentary that the text was a little bit too tedious, almost too wordy. I didn't want the GTO book to be a historical tome, so full of facts & figures that it bored the reader to tears. I intended it to be replete with imagery that captured the car in its standard state, usefull illustrations, and a resource to GTO owners. That's quite different from the Miura book, and in this regard I think I succeeded.
Speedreaders seems to get the message in their review:
The Book of the Ferrari 288 GTO - Speedreaders.info

"If you recognize the author’s name as that of the man behind this same publisher’s Miura book—the self-styled but deservedly so “Bible”—you’ll need to recalibrate your expectations for this 288 GTO book. It has different goals and employs different tools ... since the 288 is way up there on the food chain of collectible Ferraris, much ink has been spilled on it already anyway. What none of the other writers have done, and what will delight all those who bleed not just red but Ferrari Red, is that Sackey has reproduced, for instance, on some 13 pages the actual homologation papers (better brush up on your Italian!). You’d be hard-pressed to find those, or the production specs Ferrari submitted to the government, anywhere on your own. What you could find are, say, the owner’s manual (even reducing it to fit two of its pages on one book page this consumes 54 pages!) or even the several pages of magazine covers, but Sackey includes such material here simply to round out the picture and put everything all conveniently at the reader’s fingertips ... So, don’t think of this as 288 GTO bible but a resource book and certainly as a tribute to a truly important and delectable automobile."

As with the Miura book, I welcome the critical acclaim, good, bad, or indifferent, its all part of the process. But its also important that criticism be constructive, or else it becomes irrelevant and nobody benefits. One thing about publishing a book is that it will never meet everyone's expectations, and the ultimate option for those who think a publication should be finished a certain way is to feel free to publish a book along those lines.

Books take many years to put together at huge time & expense. Accordingly, for someone whose main business is a time-consuming specialist endeavor, publishing a book is no recipe for increased income! If anything, its simply a labor of love.

The price of the book is what the market will bear, and even though early sales of the book indicate it'll easily outsell the Miura book many times over, I'd say at its current number its a bargain.

Contrary to the Lewandoski book of over a quarter century ago, in this book, the Homologation papers, the Reunion chapter, the Owners chapter with input form owners, and 75% of the images are hitherto unpublished. The layout is fresh & modern, with good-size image s rather than old-fasjoned post-it size items. Books are a dying art-form, but, I am very happy with this one, and proud to have published it.

Seasons Greetings to you & yours!

 

I agree, you are 100% correct about that!

I will use this thread to post any additional reviews, Private or Public, good, bad or indifferent, plus any other information about a future reprint, which looks like it might be sooner than expected. I think any discussion about the book is good, so far as it has a balanced basis, and I also think that this book appeals to people nowadays in a way that still allows them to enjoy what is essentially a dying format.

Merry Christmas to all!
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And i´m happy about that!

Lewandowskis book is great! I have all art&car books from him,
288 GTO, 959, 300SL, Lambo, Bentley, etc.

I love them!

But i love Joes book too because it goes a different way!

It shows more footage about the details, the brochures, the handbook,
the owners, the numbers, etc.

Much more pics from cars in the here and now!

Lewandowski shows some Ferrari pics, a pic from Nikis 288 GTO and
the cover and some footage in the book is from the Neuser GTO.

Lewandowski wrote up is a little more technic based, some more history details
and some non 288 GTO pics with 250 GTO, F40 and 288 Evo.

But at the end of the day i don´t want to miss one of these books!

In the first line i´m a Porsche book collector with over 250 books
and "only" 100 Ferrari books and that these both are in my top 3
is all i can say.

It is not the view of which is "better" it is more important to my
which book give me a pleasure while reading or looking at it and
Joes book give me a big pleasure!

Greetings Christian
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Oh my, I'm afraid I ruined Joe's Xmas holidays. He goes on and on to prove that this dud of a book is in fact a masterpiece, another 'Bible'. How pathetic!

 

That´s really rude bashing!

 

I would say very rude..

 

Merry Christmas Christian!

Excellent perspective, there is room for all the different books, and I didn't set out to create a nice book at the expense of another.

Glad you like it, many do, its selling very well indeed, and I'm proud of it.

 

No worries!

As I said already: "I welcome the critical acclaim, good, bad, or indifferent, its all part of the process. But its also important that criticism be constructive, or else it becomes irrelevant".

Meanwhile, Merry Christmas to you & yours!
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Joe,

Merry Christmas and I look forward to receiving your book and adding it to my collection, I have two copies on order from Amazon.

Thanks

Dave

 

Thanks Dave! I hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to review it here.
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Joe, you certainly can't please all the people all of the time. Enjoy the holidays and keep doing what you do best.
Lewis.

 

Hello Christian,

Would you like to sell me one of your 4 Lewandowski GTO books, as I already have Mr Sackey's one?

I must say I find all this criticism a bit too harsh when one can imagine all the time, love and money put into such a project. It's not all black or white or am I wrong?
This book was much awaited and seeing the DJ-cover (which I think is great) I thought this would be something to have. All in all I think it's a nice book, some of the captions made me laugh, I wished for more historical background and text, in replacement of the homologation papers and magazine covers, which gave me the first impression that the author had to find something to fill the book with. In fact I wished to spend some more time with the book, maybe I have to go through it again with a different eye. Anyway I'm pleased to have it on my shelves like many others...

 

Thanks Lewis.

Merry Christmas and I'll certainly take your kind words to heart!
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Seb,

I have the Lewandowski book on my shelf too, right next to my GTO book. I like them both! For different reasons.

At any rate, if sales are any indication of success, its doing very well.

And you are so right, the book was nothing more than a labor of love for me. I thought the material I had deserved to be shared.

Interestingly, like Christian, I have heard from several people who already have multiple copies of my book. Perhaps they are anticipating the future!

Seasons Greetings!
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