Official book collectors thread

It's self-published. Has an ISBN 978-1-5272-9389-2. Available from Chaters etc.
Nathan

 

Thanks, Nathan. Sounds promising. Thought it might be a Porter job.

 

This was a lockdown project for me and I have to say that I really have enjoyed putting it together. I have researched, written and self published it and worked together with my old chocolate company studio head, Cathy Watson to design the book - which is a first for the both of us. I also have to say that once is quite enough on the book front! It’s hard work. Dario Franchitti has written the foreword, and there are chapters from Sir William Lyons’ grandson Michael Quinn, Lord Bamford, Carol Spagg, Willie Green, Ian Callum, Gregor Fisken, Jonathan Turner plus so many others who have owned or worked with the car over the years.Loads of great Ferrari pictures in it too which I’m sure not many of you will have seen, particularly lovely ones of the Monzanapolis race against the Indy cars with the 412MI and 296MI . Just 603 (appropriately) standard editions plus 100 slip cased editions.

 

New updated edition of Talacrest's Classic Ferrari Book released.

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Here's all the information you need.

https://talacrest.com/talacrest-classic-ferrari-book/

Anyone have the first edition, and thoughts on buying either ?

I've heard the first was a bit of a gloried advertisement and mainly just a back catalogue of Talacrest so didn't really pursue it, but happy get some other expert opinions on the book.

 

I have the first edition. It is basically John Collins' comments on the deals he did buying and selling various classic Ferraris along with articles taken from Auto Italia magazine driving them etc. I liked it as something a bit different. Naturally it is John Collins' side of the story but you expect the same with any autobiography (there is a bit of background autobiography but that's not really the point of the book). I won't be buying the updated version though as I have better things to do with the money than buy basically the same book with some extra pages. There are random pages of Talacrest adverts throughout the book which seem a bit unnecessary but not a major issue.

 

For those with a chinese girlfriend willing to translate it for you.

Hardbound.
328 pages, hundreds of color pix.
Chinese text only.
Published by China Machine Press.

Marcel Massini

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First edition was a declaration of love by and for John Collins.

 

So worth buying either/ both ?

 

Not me, I’m afraid.

 

Excessively priced for what it is/was.

 

I too ordered and bought the book through Chaters last week and received it the next day in perfect condition with high quality cover and wonderfully lustrous 200 gsm paper.

As Nathan above has said, it's about one D Type, XKD 603, one of the world's greatest, most successful and original racing cars from the 1950s and its fantastic full 4 year racing career at the very top level, from being a Jaguar Works car in 1956, then passing to Ecurie Ecosse from 1957 through to 1959 and then with its 5 owners after its period racing career to the present time.

The D Type for me has been a mythical and legendary car since I was a very young boy in the 1960s. My father was a car fanatic and he would speak about cars such as Jaguar's D Type and Bluebird, years before telling me about Ferraris. With that amazing rear fin and beautifully curvaceous body, the D Type was a wondrous thing to me in my formative years of a magnitude like the NASA Apollo 11 Saturn V Space Rocket and Concorde were.

The author of XKD 603 'Through the Lens of Time' The Storied Journey of a D Type Jaguar, the car's owner Clive Beecham, has thoroughly researched the full history of "603" from its beginning, and has shared her with many genuine car enthusiasts along his journey with her, reuniting people with her such as Aussie Jaguar works mechanic Ron Gaudion and time keeper Hugh Langrishe from the car's period racing history who contribute to the book.

The book contains many previously unpublished pictures by the World's greatest photographers, pieces by Michael Quinn, the grandson of Jaguar's founder Sir William Lyons, covers all of its 19 races including its 4 races at Le Mans (2nd in 1957) with images of 603's Factory Works Book detailing what the factory did to the car, information on all its drivers, 7 of whom were Le Mans winners from its period racing history, some interesting and amusing stories by Innes Ireland and Masten Gregory of whom there is a great close up picture, how it was wrongfully sold as the 1957 Le Mans winner by David Murray of Ecurie Ecosse to its first owner in America after its period racing career.

Among others such as former Jaguar Designer Ian Callum, there are very interesting and humorous interviews with Lord Bamford, owner of "603" for 36 years and Willie Green, who raced "603" in historic racing in Bamford's ownership from 1973, who gives an insightful comparison between the D Type and its period competitors, as does Gregor Fisken in his excellent contribution to the book. Pleasingly revealing to me was how the book helped me understand why the D Type was such a focused and successful Le Mans weapon, but not so good at other tracks such as the Nurburgring. There is also a chapter by engineer David Brazell, who has looked after the car for around 25 years, where he guides us around the wonderful originality and details of the car.

The book is soulful and very well written by all its contributors and the modern photography of the latter sections is wonderful. Of course there is much more to the book than I have written above. It's a beautiful book that fans of the D and its period competitors, of which there are well over 25 full page period Ferrari portraits, many I've never seen before (hence my posting on Fchat), will certainly take great pleasure in reading and viewing, as I have.

Highly recommended.

 

Gents, what category does this fit? More money than brains or worthy addition to a quality motoring library?
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Two words: Brad. Spurgeon.

Not exactly Doug Nye, Richard Williams or Denis Jenkinson.

 

Complete waste of paper, this book should be in the bin!

 

I haven't seen it and I've never heard of Brad Spurgeon (apparently he has covered F1 for the New York Times and International Herald Tribune for 20 years), who says Jean Todt suggested him for the project!!! However, whilst I wouldn't dream of buying it at that stupid price, it does say the photos were selected by Bernard Asset who is, to my mind, one of the greatest photographers to have covered Formula 1 over the years, so it does have that going for it.

 

As he had the Bernard Asset photo archive to choose from why is the cover so naff?
I like these high-lights (from the website)
Highlights

• paper
• 228 pages
• over 175 illustrations

Made in Italy

ONLY 175 photos! It won't be added to my Ferrari library.
Nathan

 

Me neither

Nearly 1,000 UK Pound !!

I never realised until recently how you need to be a multi millionaire to collect quality motoring books these days.

 

I would be remiss if I didn't say something about Brad Spurgeon.

When I was producing, pioneering, innovating, programming, blah, blah, the first digital automotive publication Alfa Romeo: View from the Mouth of the Dragon between 1993 and 1996, I came to know Brad. He was working at the Herald Tribune. Having been a TV producer before coming up with combining the depth of a book and the film, animation, audio of broadcast on, yes, CD-ROM, I had access to the old film archives in London, Paris and Rome. As such I was able to acquire the actual 24fps film I wanted in the late 1980s. We were developing shows on high 16. Anyway, so I had the film of the French GP at Lyon of 1924 which I was programming. But I wanted more detail of the actual social activity surrounding the race so I could know it, and summarize with insight. Everything from how many people showed up for the race, the impact on local businesses, how many were detained for drunk and disorderly, all through the actual period editorial observations of the Herald Trib writers on the scene…as well as who did they take seriously, who were the favorites on the sporting pages.

To do this I called the Herald Trib office one night, I was on the West Coast, morning in Paris. And I was put on to Brad. I told him the kind of full scope Herald Trib editorial material I was after.

A little over a week later I received a DHL filled with clippings, covering the entire regional news and sports reporting from the Thursday before to the Monday after.

It was a treasure trove of material. And Brad handled it with the same depth I have received when making requests of the Library of Congress researchers. One of my favorite descriptions was of the veritable 'Hooverville' Ettore Bugatti built; big tent structures, with full wood floors, fully staffed service kitchens and chefs, formal dinning rooms, fully furnished suites…I laughed out loud at the editorial perspective. And oh, yeah, nobody took Alfa Romeo seriously. They were merely mentioned in passing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday…not so on Monday.

Brad and I stayed in touch. He ended up with the NYTimes after NYT's acquisition of the Herald and its Euro operation.

As to the book, I, like so many, would have to wait for the competent review of someone like Nathan, but as to Brad, must give the man his due.

 

I think we as potential buyers should send a "stop" signal to this price inflation. As good as it is (bar its manufacturing issues) the "ultimate GTO" book was already bordering insanity, so this €990 price tag should be rejected no matter what.
That's my position anyway, but as long as some people will be ready to pay it will go on in spite of my willpower

 

And what happens if heaven forbid you miss out on buying a book the first time around and decide to buy it once sold out or ten years down the track ?!

Some of these booksellers out there will make you pay financially for that error with a mimimim of two mortgage repayments in profit.

 

In this case nothing will happen. I’ve seen the book recently in Paris, and can assure you that this is a Taschen ‘light’ kind of book. Publisher Assouline is appealing to the ‘blingbling’ audience for most of what they produce. Anyone seriously interested will see for themselves in a second or two. Terrible waste of trees (Doug Nye)!

 

And not exactly Steve Wakefield either, for that matter!

 

Hahaha, more of a general comment then on that specific book.

 

The preview for this book on Dalton Watson's website looks pretty good:

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Hey Mr. Scott nice you could join us. Regards, Vern
Re; post no. 3794