By Dave McClure

Certain books and authors have that certain something that I could only describe as the "wow" factor and this book is the rare combination of both! The past works of Luigi Orsini and Franco Zagari speak for themselves; "The Scuderia Ferrari 1929-1939" "Maserati: Una Storia Nella Storia' and "Osca La Rivincita Dei Maserati". These books established fairly high benchmarks as prerequisite inclusions in any Italian automotive enthusiasts library. Also, just in case it escaped your notice, secondary market pricing for these titles continues to increase at a fairly rapid pace. Not to give you any silly ideas that purchasing a copy of the Stanguellini book today while it is still in print will put the kids through college later, but who knows?

What sets this book apart from the previous offerings of Orsini & Zagari is the decision made by Giorgio Nada to publish this book in English. What a great deal for all etceterini fans, finally we do not have to stumble through another Italian language Stanguellini book or hope for a translated version that never arrives. And what a great book this is, a whopping 384 pages, with 700 illustrations (or possibly 800 depending on how you count multiple images in a single illustration) many of them in color.

The Delfino Formula Junior is first in a line-up of impressive Stanguellins at the Museum. Photo by Lorenzo Marchesini.

The book opens with an easy to read contents list that allows the reader to select either a time period or specific model of car that is their particular interest. The first chapter, the major portion of the book at 248 pages, starts with a brief 12-page overview of the history of the company. The balance of the chapter is split into 6 significant time periods of the company's evolution, 1937-46, 1947-49, 1950-54, 1955-58, 1959-71 and from 1972 onwards.

Each time period is dealt with in detail and profusely illustrated; in fact we estimate that this chapter includes almost 500 illustrations, an average of 2 per page! Chapter two is a full color, 28 page photographic tour of the Stanguellini Museum and includes approximately 77 illustrations. Chapter three is an intensive technical section consisting of 58 pages. It includes full technical specifications for each model, design sketches, copies of original factory blueprints, cutaways, period photographs of the cars both stationary and in action, a total of 154 illustrations. Chapter 4 consists of 34 pages of appendices that include production details by chassis and engine numbers complete with owner history wherever available. This is followed by a 20 page, extensive race result section with race data from 1937 through and including the 1967 season. The book closes with a nicely detailed index and a listing of "Friends and clients".

Stang FJr was the most popular car made by the tiny factory, and was the ultimate front engined Junior.

Truthfully the book would be worth every penny just to get all the data from Chapters three and four in English! A high quality production, typical of what we have come to expect from Nada published books, nicely bound in dark blue cloth, with a substantial red protective dust jacket. Book is oversize at 10" x 11" but this is not destined for your coffee table. This is the ultimate Stanguellini reference book, and our bet is that if you are an etceterini fan you will be unable to put it down until you have at least thumbed through every page. It will take a mammoth effort for someone to eclipse the research and detail that Orsini & Zagari have put into this book and it is sure to become a bench mark reference for many years to come. We are not aware of any other book that even comes close to putting all this together in a single publication ~ and it has just the right mix of technical and non-technical data to keep your attention, and just in case you skipped through this review it's important that I remind you that it's in English!