Looking for the DEFINITIVE book on Ferrari Cars and their Variants prior to 1970 | FerrariChat
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Looking for the DEFINITIVE book on Ferrari Cars and their Variants prior to 1970

Discussion in 'Collectables, Literature, & Models' started by Long Beach Pride, Sep 24, 2014.

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  1. Long Beach Pride

    Long Beach Pride Karting

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    #1 Long Beach Pride, Sep 24, 2014
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2014
    Good day, can someone suggest a book or book(s) that can give me an insight to all Ferrari's from the beginning of the manufacture of their consumer cars and all variants therein up to about 1970? I wish to become more familiar of all the crazy ultra small run cars Ferrari made since back before the 70's and going back to the early 50's Ferrari's were Hand Made cars and that is something I really, really respect. And one of the reasons some of those pre 70's Ferrari's are worth a fortune. Hell the very early Ferrari cars, some of the panels were made out Road signs that were commandeered back in the early days of Ferrari manufacturing! Just like US Marines you Adapt and Overcome. If you run out of mild steel, well there just happens to be some denoting a 10 KPH Curve just around the corner from the workshop.
     
  2. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ
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    #2 Gatorrari, Sep 24, 2014
  3. vrooom

    vrooom Formula Junior

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    #3 vrooom, Sep 24, 2014
    try and get a copy of FERRARI - THE SPORTS AND GRAN TURISMO CARS
    warren fitzgerald & richard merritt copyright 1968
    to my knowledge this is perhaps the very first ferrari book published in this country . in any case no longer in print but can be found on ebay etc.
    dan
     
  4. bigodino

    bigodino F1 World Champ
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    #4 bigodino, Sep 24, 2014
    Antoine Prunet's Ferrari The Road Cars. Out of print though.
     
  5. Jack-the-lad

    Jack-the-lad Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    #5 Jack-the-lad, Sep 24, 2014
    No single book is really going to be "definitive" on this broad a subject.
     
  6. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    #6 jm2, Sep 24, 2014
    +1
     
  7. Long Beach Pride

    Long Beach Pride Karting

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    #7 Long Beach Pride, Sep 24, 2014
    That is why I did write "book(s)"!

    It looks like I now have a start. I will start with a local Library search for the older books. I'm not too concerned with what came after the Daytona, such as the Dino and anything Boxster related. Wonder what gave Ferrari that idea... Maybe the Dominance of the 917? I could only imagine what type of a Monster Porsche would make with a Flat 12? But there is a flat 4 and flat 8 and another flat 6, besides the replacement for the Metzger; the 9A1 in development (since VW still wants to slot in another car below the Boxster slash Cayman for Porsche!). But all this chatter is off topic for this posting!

    Thank you all for your input this far.
     
  8. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ
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    #8 Gatorrari, Sep 24, 2014
    I think the biggest influence on the Boxer being mid-engined was not a Porsche, but rather the Lamborghini Miura.
     
  9. moretti

    moretti Five Time F1 World Champ
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    #9 moretti, Sep 24, 2014
  10. bigodino

    bigodino F1 World Champ
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    #10 bigodino, Sep 25, 2014
    The biggest influence IMHO was Pininfarina, who tried to persuade Ferrari in the early sixties to go mid-engined already. Ferrari first gave in with the Dino (which was not considered a Ferrari by Enzo for marketing purposes*, sorry to say). The Boxer came quite late to the mid-engined party.

    *Already in the fifties Enzo Ferrari wanted to raise money with a relatively "mass produced" car, but it was not to have any connections with the Ferrari models, which were V12s. Several attempts were stillborn or faded (like the ASA). Finally, with FIAT's help, the Dino line fullfilled Enzo's wishes.
     
  11. JazzyO

    JazzyO F1 World Champ

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    #11 JazzyO, Sep 25, 2014
    The Boxer is a fantastic car to drive, better than the Daytona in fact. Yes, it has its faults, as anything does - especially built in '70s - but if you're uninterested in them then you haven't driven one properly. The same goes for the Dino.

    Onno
     
  12. Long Beach Pride

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    #12 Long Beach Pride, Sep 25, 2014
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2014
    Good point.

    I was thinking more on the lines of how long it took Ferrari to come to the Boxster Party. Could have done so much earlier - I wasn't thinking about pinninfarina and mid engines at all. Besides by the time they came to the flat 12 game Porsche had already done their LeMans Shuffle and moved on.

    Have really have no malice against early 70's and beyond, Dino and Daytona though I will admit that I can't figure out why people would get "The Daytona Fever" and want to spend too much on buying one. And yes I have driven one, probably about 50's times even coming back home from Pebble Beach to Nevada City where the owner was too liquored up to drive - but I got about a 1000 total miles driving one, and I didn't even own it.

    But since there was so much going on in Ferrari in the Early Years and there were many, many runs of smaller numbered cars I just want to focus on that instead of the non mass production years of the 70s. By the oil crisis in.the US it seems everything all over the world had to bend to US emission standards and at that same time a good portion of companies lost that sparkle that made them special in the 50s-60s.
     
  13. 375+

    375+ F1 World Champ
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    #13 375+, Sep 25, 2014
    By "Boxster" do you mean "Boxer"? The term "boxer" refers to the 180 degree engine configuration--the original Volkswagen Beetle, Porsche 911 and Subaru all have boxer engines.
    If you are referring the mid engine design of the BB, it was merely time to make the switch. Mid-engine was state of the art in the 1970's. Although the Lamborghini Miura provided a strong push to go in that direction, the Daytona was a much better car than the Miura in every respect except aesthetics.
    IMO the BB was a fantastic car but the placement of the engine so high in the chassis killed the center of gravity. Daytona was the last classic 12 cylinder Berlinetta conceived during the reign of Enzo Ferrari.
     
  14. Long Beach Pride

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    #14 Long Beach Pride, Sep 25, 2014
    Yes if you wish to use the English writing and annunciation for the configuration.

    I am more of a Porsche nut and in their Literature and annunciations the word has an S in it. Not only in tje spelling in the name of the car, "Boxster". All of their engines, Porsche, that have the Flat configurationare called and spelled Boxster.
     
  15. gt4me

    gt4me F1 Veteran

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    #15 gt4me, Sep 25, 2014
    I have never seen a Porsche Brochure where they refer to the flat 6 engine as a Boxster.
     
  16. spirot

    spirot F1 World Champ

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    #16 spirot, Sep 25, 2014
    this is about as definitive a book you can get on road car production. has chassis numbers etc in the appendix.
     
  17. spirot

    spirot F1 World Champ

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    #17 spirot, Sep 25, 2014
    Maybe you mean "boxer"? ... I grew up with a Porsche 356 Boxer... never a Boxter.. that did not come along till the 90's

    Ferrari's influence on the BB was from Pinninafarina... the Muira put some pressure on them but if you remember Ferrari was building rear engined racing cars in the early 60's...
    206SP, 250LM ( won LeMans outght right in 65 - last year for Ferrari ) and the astonishing P-3/4 series as well as the 512S series before the Berlinetta Boxer came to market.

    Enzo argued that road car drivers were not good enough to handle the power and handling characteristics of a mid engined car...


    BTW... Porsche never considered making a road car with a Flat 12 boxer... but did make a 917 "road legal - in Alabama " for Count Rossi ( Martini & Rossi fame)....
     
  18. F1tommy

    F1tommy F1 World Champ
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    #18 F1tommy, Sep 25, 2014
    For the Italian's the first 12 cyliner Boxer motors were in Alfa Romeo race cars just before WWII. The Ferrari boxer design that ended up in the production cars started really with the F1 1512 design dating back to the mid 1960's and kept being upgraded in design until they had many race winning F1 engines in 312 form(many more than Porsche ever dreamed of).


    They wrote a good book about the boxer Ferrari's called Boxer, the Ferrari Flat 12 racing and GT cars by the great writer Jonathan Thompson.
     
  19. piloti

    piloti Formula 3
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    #19 piloti, Sep 27, 2014
    I agree. This appears to be the book you want, as it features photos of the many one-offs that were a feature of the 1950/1960s production.
    Nathan
     

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