I need help from anyone with a Ferrari Database...

Chris -

Before getting too deep into the individual fields, I think you should concentrate on the specific tables you'll need, and what key fields will go accross all of them.

In the simplest terms, the VIN should be your primary key. You'd have a single "Base Configuration" record for each car, but multiple records in the other tables for each car. Maybe establish tables such as:

Base Configuration
------------------
VIN
Year
Model
Original Color

Owner History
-----------------
VIN
Date Acquired
Mileage Upon Acquisition
Owner Name
Owner Location

Attributes
-----------------
VIN
Attribute Notes
Date Noted

Race History
-----------------
VIN
Track
Race Date
Driver
Start Position
Finish Position
Race Comments

Service History
-------------------
VIN
Service Date
Service Work Performed
Service Performed by
Mileage


and so forth....

 

Don't know nothing about Access, but generally speaking if you set the purchase date in the history table as one of your keys (along with the VIN) - you are going to be OK. You can always sort using this field (most databases end-user databases will display tables using the primary key as the default sort order).

Ron.

 

Still after many years I use simple Word documents to list most of my data (maybe 10.000 pages as plain text or so). I list cars per model sorted by chassis number. I then list all known history in chronological order. Plain documents are very easy to go through (joyfull reading too!) and it is very easy to locate keywords like names, places... etc.

I also use some Excel-files to list purely 2-dimensional data: this allows me to sort cars per model or chassis number and so on. I also maintain separate files for assembly numbers, engine numbers, some technical data, around 500 paint colors used over the years and so on.

Sofar I have deliberately decided not to use a "real" database. I am quite certain that I would only run into problems before I could create system that would outperform the way I run things at the moment.

My advice: start simple and easy. Start using a proper database only when you know what you are going to do and how. I'm convinced that this way you will save many many hours of work; maybe more than you ever realize!

Best wishes, Kare

 

Chris, I invite you to take a look at my registry's info submission page to help give you an idea of how I've arranged mine. I'm simply looking for basic vehicle details and ownership history and leave it up to the submitter to go into any more detail about the car. I'm pleased with this set-up. When I receive the info, I go through it, confirm it with other sources (if I already have it in my files) and add it manually (straight HTML code) to my online database. Not the way most computer-people would do it, then again, I ain't one and this way works for me.

Please visit:
http://www.dino-gt4-registry.com/Reg-Submit.htm