Ferrari The Man and His Machines

Enzo Ferrari died on August 14th 1988, leaving a record of achievement unrivalled in the annals of motorsport. The checkered flag of international competition fell more often on his cars than on any others. FERRARI: The Machines and The Man is the compelling story of these automobiles and their controversial creator. Rare factory photographs and dozens of colour portraits team with incisive commentary to propel you through the Ferrari universe of glamour, speed, danger, and glory from the early days of his work with Alfa Romeo and Scuderia Ferrari, the production of the 815 sports car, onto the modern Testarossa and F40. The coachbuilders art is also portrayed amongst the illustrations with a superb array of special bodied cars of the 1950’s and 60’s. Side trips into every significant Ferrari engine and chassis published in the book come courtesy of detailed essays by a man who has put the spur to scores of prancing horses, Ferrari scholar Dean Batchelor. Go behind the scenes. Explore how Ferrari chose a V-12 as the engine that would make his name, yet why he didn't support the notion that the only true Ferrari has a V-12. Discover how a rivalry with the upstart Lamborghini affected the design of such Ferraris as the original Boxer. And read of Enzo's feud with the Pope himself, and of Ferrari's friendships with such immortals as race driver Tazio Nuvolari and master designer Battista "Pinin" Farina. Decide for yourself whether Ferrari was, as some contemporaries contend, petulant, rigid, manipulative, and cruel, or if history will remember him as a visionary genius. "I'm not sure he was a nice man," concluded journalist Nigel Roebuck, "but I know he was a great one." To his honour and credit, Ferrari acknowledged that his life was his work. He called the work of his life "La Ferrari," as though it lived on its own. FERRARI: The Machines and The Man explores this life in all its puzzling and passionate hues.