Starting Your Ferrari Library 101

The books I would suggest in my humble opinion are:

Yearbooks and Brochures by the factory.
They make them, so they know them........

Ferrari The roadcars by Antoine Prunet.
Ferrari, sportscars and protype competitioncars By Antoine Prunet.
A collection of Cavallino-magazine(not everybody agrees)
The Ferrari Market letter.
The factoryset of omnia Opera.
Ferrari by Vignale (Marcel Massini, a former contibutor of the forum, who is one of the best experts in the Field)
Ferrari By Zagato.
The Pinin-Farina book.
Ferrarissima books

I don't buy all the magazines in which they testdrive or cover the cars.
Neither do I buy all the books with pretty pictures and no research. (coffeetable-books).

The books I am suggesting are mostly covering the early years of the company. Nowadays everything about the recent cars can be found in magazines like Cavallino etc.

And the most important way of research:........... Ferrarichat!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is allways someone on this Forum who knows, or can advise you on whatever you want to know.

 

Origins of the Ferrari Legend - Gioachino Colombo, for the early cars
Ferrari Tipo 166 - Angelo Tito Anselmi, again, for the early cars
The Ferrari Legend 250 GT Competition - Jess G. Pourret, the 250 race cars
Le Ferrari di Pininfarina - Angelo Tito Anselmi, for PF coachwork
Making a Difference - Massini & Anselmi, for the non PF coachwork
Ferrari V12 Testa Rossa - Joel E. Finn - the title says it all.

That's a good start!

T308

 

Illustrated Ferrari Buyers Guide - Dean Batchelor

 

Doug Nye, Nathan Beehl and Marcel Massini have all done excellent books on various marques. (Marcel's book is awesome).
I would also highly recommend the Red Arrows book by the Marzotto family.
A fascinating insight into the Ferrari entries of the Mille Miglia.

 

here are some ideas. start by picking your favorate car[250 SWB or the 308/328]. what ever turns you on.then go to amazon, T E Warth, A B E Books and ebay and start shopping around. there is alot of good second hand stuff out there. you can then branch out into models, factory literature, photpgraphs. competition reports, show and auction records, the histories of the individual cars, and restoration/maintenance articles and manuals. another idea is to pick a period, say 1945-1950, or a type of car, say the V-12 mid engine cars. don't try to do it all. there is so much stuff out there you will never be able to collect it all and if you do you try to you will send yourself into a totally confused state of bankruptcy. also go to Ferrarichat.com. there are alot of us out there doing what you have in mind and they can help you . good luck tongascrew

 

hi again. don't forget Barchetta.com as a source. tongascrew

 

Since I moved recently I had a chance to reorganize my library. Here are the sections I divided it into:

- Ferrari in general
- 2 sections for my fav Ferrari types
- Ferrari racing
- Racing in general
- F1
- Ferrari subscriptions (Forza, PH, Cavallino)


So all in all 7 equally sized sections and guess what, my books and materials filled them up equally as well.

 

Hi Gary
I have more than 450 Ferrari books, so there's plenty out there. My suggestions would be;
General company history. - "Ferrari Opera Omnia" - an excellent 3 volume (therefore expensive) Ferrari encyclopaedia
Road car history with good photos and accurate model stats. - "Ferrari 40yrs on the Road" + "Ferrari All the Cars"
F1 racing history. - "Formula Ferrari"
Sports car racing history. - "Ferrari 50yrs on the Track" - some of the chassis numbers are dubious, but it's mostly correct.
These offer a good over-view. Which are the best books for specific tipos is another question, but post that question if/when you want to.
Happy book hunting and reading
Nathan
PS - Don't forget a MUST HAVE - "Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer - The Road & Race Legends" by a certain Nathan Beehl - Due to ship. at the end of May.
See it here - http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144542
Buy it here - http://www.fchatstuff.com/servlet/Categories?category=Books+and+Videos