Official book collectors thread

I loaned it out and never got it back. I will check to see if I can locate a few copies.

 

Thanks, but not necessary. I have one available.

 

It might sell but to completely sell out?

Just like with the Monza SP1/ SP2 book and the Taschen tome both are still available for sale today.

Only the Opus Ferrari is officially now sold out.

 

Fingers crossed for a Ferrari 499P maiden Lemans victory this weekend.

Maybe that might be the catalyst for a few good books to be written about the model (that are affordable )

 

No excuse now.

Forza Ferrari !!!!

 

And now it’s done

 

After this absolutely outstanding and fantastic victory at Le Mans, let's hope Ferrari does a book on it for less than 19,000 euros - for us, the fans ...

 

It's Jason Barlow...

 

Or release the official Endurance book in a "standard" sub 1,000 euro edition.

I'd be happy with that as a start.

 

Unfortunately the Endurance book is already missing a very significant chapter.

 

I was thinking the other day about @DWR46's comments in Vintage a few years ago. One of the late 1950's peak sports racing Fcars was being auctioned and he was making it clear in the discussion just how special these cars were.
I realized then and know now have much I have to learn, and therefore how great would it be if someone would write a quality book covering the group; 410 S, 290 MM, 315 S, 335 S, and 312 S/412 MI.

 

Before the book on 4381 SA, 4453 SA, 4619 SA, & 4725 SA...,
could we please see a book on the cars I see as siblings; 0808 and 3765 LM?
May this book also include a subchapter on 4561 SA,
and perhaps a page explaining why 250 GTO 4713 GT was clothed in the '250 LMB' body?
Is that too much to ask?

 

I fear it is ....

 

I was able to take a look at the Ferrari book at the Casa Ferrari during the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
A young girl prevented anyone from touching the expensive thing unless they wore white gloves (no thanks), but a demo version for poor readers was available. It's essentially a beautifully edited photo book, with text that probably none of the 99 buyers will ever read.
In short, a decorative object for those who don't know what to do with their money.


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Just as I thought, a trophy piece for some, a source of useful information for none.

 

Today, "Berlinetta Boxer - The Legend" arrived. I would like to give my first impressions.

The first impression when taking the book into my hands was very good, as it appears to be a well-produced book with a nice idea for the cover (the words "Berlinetta" and "Boxer" and the BB logo are cut out so that you look through them to the first page) and a well-done first double-page with part of a rear view of a BB. That good impression is not hindered by the fact that, to my taste, the paper appears to be slightly too thin and cheap for a 200-euro book.

The main four parts of the book feature excellent, really well-done photography which show 12 BB cars (3 x 365, BB512, BB512i and BB Le Mans cars, respectively).

But with these four parts, it really gets bad as far as graphic design / layout ist concerned. Because the layout of these 146 of the book's 258 pages looks exactly like one of these two double-pages!!!

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Can you image this? Almost 60 per cent of the book look like one of these two pages. Thus, it is the most dead-boring Ferrari book I ever had. And even as the photography itself is excellent, by arranging the images all the same way through the book makes it really dull to look though them.

The layout of the rest of the pages is, to put it mildly, old-fashioned and not very professional. And who on earth chose the image on page 9, which illustrates the preface by Piero Ferrari? There must be thousands of images which are ten times better than this poorly-produced, dark and foggy shot.

Right in the first part of the book, there is a chapter about Carlo Tazzioli and his views on BB customers. The interview with him is a good read. But this chapter is illustrated with 11 images, of which only 1 (!) shows Tazzioli with a BB (which is described in the caption as 308 GTB!!!) and its "customer" Didier Pironi . The other 10 pictures have absolutely nothing to do with the BB.

Artioli Editore boasts, that the book is "full of details and unpublished facts". But I wonder, where these are?! There is almost nothing about the race results of the BB cars - only Le Mans results are given. There are some small cover shots of BB brochures, but it is not mentioned, that there have been three slightly different print runs of the orange BB512 brochure. And none of the famous print numbers of the factory material is given. And the scope of the technical details about the development, launch and production of the BB cars is very, very limited.

I stop here, because my review is just about first impressions. But what I can say is that you really have to know that this book is mainly a picture book with some easy interviews and contributions by period witnesses, but no in-depth information. And it's better to take it just to look through some of the pages at once to enjoy the great images, before it gets a little bit boring.

 

The side view with the ‘gutter’ cutting the car in half is hard to look at.

 

Thanks for the thorough review.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post your review buddy.

As I was reading that review I felt a bit of de ja vue, like I knew what was going to be it's shortcomings even before I got past the first sentence.

A lot of what you wrote I predicted just with my gut feel from the publishers page.

From the multiple photos of similar cars, the average layout, specific details left out, many random images, etc.

It's hard to write a great book on a specific model especially when it's already been covered so well by other authors previously.

You really needed to bring something new to the party to justify another book.

When you've been buying motoring books like we both have for near over 30 years (many of them on Ferrari) you get a feeling as to which ones are going to be classics and which are just shelf fillers.

From your assessment and what I've already seen on other pages I'm putting this book is the later category.

 

From what I have seen, the material coming out of Artioli Editore just isn't at the highest level.

 

At least, you could expect them to employ a proof-reader who recognises that a BB512 is confused with a 308 GTB and that the late Helmut Becker is not called Elmuth (!) Becker ... (haven’t read much yet, but two heavy mistakes at first sight)

 

I guess this the charm of Italy: 'Signor Elmuth', instead of 'Helmut'. Remember this is the country where a felon like Berlusconi gets a state funeral!

 

550 Prodrive has now been postponed to July 26 (was due tomorrow after first delay).

 

They found new key players to interview - again???

 

Has it sold out?