Alfa Romeo All the Cars
Author: Lorenzo Ardizio
Illustrator: Michele Leonello
Hardcover, 594 pages, 6.3 x 8.3 in.
Item Number: 214567
EAN (ISBN-13): 978-8879115902
Publisher: Giorgio Nada Editore
http://www.giorgionadaeditore.it/ for Italian edition
Price: $44.95 USD €25
Distributor:http://www.motorbooks.com/books/Alfa-Romeo-All-the-Cars/9788879115902/4192 for English edition
Review by Wallace Wyss
We in the U.S. only see a small sliver of what the Italian automakers make. Thus, if you want to be an expert on an Italian marque, it behooves you to buy a book that covers all the models made by your favorite marque. Fortunately there is an Italian book publisher, Giorgio Nada, a well-respected Italian automobile publisher, who now has a series of one-marque guides, this being one of them.
It is hard to believe they can pack this much information into a hardbound 592-page book that is so compact. There is a little summary of each car on the right, and on the left facing page a box of specifications and a picture. On the opening page of each mini-chapter is a painting of the car. Now only having two illustrations per car is a problem that, for instance if they have just the side of the Alfa 4C and a front ¾ view you don’t know what the back looks like, hence if you spot an unidentified car in someone’s garage as you drive down the road, this book won’t help you if all if the only view you have of the car is not in this book. Nevertheless once you know what model it is it is a place to start gathering facts on a given car.
Alfa history has a long span, hence more pages and higher price.
The book covers a broad reach of history, going back in Alfa’s history even back to 1910 with the 24 hp. model. It really is made to be a reference source, not something that tells entertaining stories. It’s wham-bam-thank you ma’am and on to the next car.
But if you do get a hint what kind of car it is you can look it up and it will tell you all about the car, the engine, the market for the car, etc. It even includes race cars like the Type 179 of 1979 thus crosses across almost all models of whatever genre they pick. My favorite by the way is the 33 Stradale coupe. It gives the production number for that delectable race car turned street car as 18, just what I expected.
When it comes to collecting and ascertaining the relative value of a car I found in writing my Incredible Barn Finds series that the total number of a given model made is just about the most important number. For instance, this book says 3,925 Alfa Montreals were made. With that number in hand, you can then compare it to other low production Italian cars, say the Mangusta, where about 400 were made. I would say the rarer the car, the more it is potentially worth, so if you have the choice of two collector cars I would check the production numbers first to see which is rarer.
To be useful, these guides have to be accurate. Having just said that I looked up the TZ sports car, where I knew some were fiberglass and it did have in there that some were fiberglass bodied, (they say the last 10 were so bodied out of 112 made) so in my spot check I saw they got that right.
And I was surprised they even chose to feature some prototypes like the 33 Stradale Concept car done in 1968 by Scaglione.
Art in the Alfa book is not quite as good as that in the Ferrari effort.
This book also covers the prewar period and I think it’s especially valuable to artists, writers, model car collectors and the like because it seems like most car books either concentrate on prewar or postwar but don’t have both. To me the audience that will value this book most is the car dealers and barn finders, who have to know right away how rare the car is in front of them…before they open their wallets.
And one more important thing about this book—when I go to shows like the French and Italian car show in Woodland Hills, CA, I see various non-U.S. spec. Alfa models that were either legalized by a conversion shop or “snuck” into the U.S. as gray market cars. I am not sure if the rule about a car being 25 years old means those cars that were not converted no longer have to be “upgraded” to U.S. specs now that all these years have passed, but at least with a book like this, when you see an Alfa model you know is a former gray market car, you will know how rare that car is and you can decide if it’s worth investing in it based on its rarity.
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Ferrari All the cars A complete guide form 1947 to the present – New updated edition
Author: Leonardo Acerbi
Illustrator: Giorgio Alisi
Publisher: Giorgio Nada
Hardcover, 454 pages, 6.3 in. x 8.27 in.
Illustrations: color & b/w photos
EAN (ISBN-13): 978-8879116084
Price: 26.95 USD, €20
http://www.motorbooks.com/books/Ferrari-All-the-Cars/9788879116084/4228 for English edition
This book is in effect a Spotter’s Guide like bird lovers have so when they see a new bird they can identify it. But like the similar book on Alfas, it only has one or two views of each car, so for instance in the 365GTC/4 they only have the side view so if you saw one only from the back or direct front, you wouldn’t be able to identify it with this book. [Note that this is an updated edition of the original and extremely useful book first published in 2005. Ed.]
Contents include almost all of the Ferraris constructed, but not every different coachbuilt car.
But it does offer a good capsule summary of each car, telling the horsepower, the engine displacement, gearbox, and sometimes, but not always, how many they made. I think if they revise the book they should put that information in for each car because it is important to know, did they make 5,000 246GT Dino coupes or half that? (Wikipedia says 3,761 produced in total, including 246GTS) The smaller the production number, the rarer the car is. One good example where they do give the number is the 365GTS, only 14 made. It is not a particularly great car but its small production number will help propel it continuously upward in value.
One odd thing about the book is that the headline heading each chapter is on a right hand page yet the next page pertaining to that same car is on the left where in most books in Western society you read from front to back, so I would even recommend when they do the next edition, switching pages in each layout so each subsequent page of each chapter follows the introductory lead page.
They also have a pretty good specifications page on each car, with things like length, width, horsepower , etc. which helps you compare one car to another.
As far as the illustration style, I find it so-so, not photographically realistic but at least not interpretive in style. I do think each illustration should be representative of the breed so thought it odd on the Ferrari 365GTS/4 Daytona they have a painting of a one off “targa” Daytona . Why show that one-off when all the rest of the 127 spiders built did not have that permanent targa roof bar?
They explain that car is a one off but for someone looking to see what a Daytona looks like that one-off shouldn’t have been the car chosen for the main illustration (though they do have a color picture of a fully open spider opposite it).
The picture should be representative of the majority of the cars, there is simply not enough space to discuss odd one-offs.
In spite of these nitpicks I find it a useful reference book. Even someone like me – who has been around Ferraris since 1970 – can benefit from having a handy reference source that gives me a clue to what car I am looking at. For instance, can you tell me the difference between the 458 Speciale and 458 Special A? This book at least gives you a clue or two and if Ferrari is your marque to collect reference material on, this book should be considered.
I also would like to request that they consider doing it in softbound, with a plasticized cover because this could be a reference book one could take to car events, so, as you spot a car that mystifies you, you could take out the book and identify it. For that purpose I would even add a few extra blank ruled line pages to the “notes” section (they have a couple but need more) and thus the book can be a more important part of your collection, a working “tool” so to speak so you can record your own spottings of rare Ferraris.
Both books are also available on Amazon.com.
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THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is the author of The Baroness and the Mercedes and 49 Other Stories, available from Enthusiast Books, Hudson, WI