Every year many books are published all over the world about Enzo Ferrari and Ferrari’s cars, but very few contribute new information about Ferrari’s history. These books present the chronology of the cars with many pictures, very often of restored cars, in improbable pastel colors, the technical specifications and little else.
It is with great satifaction, then, to come upon a book which tells us something new about Ferrari. “Making a Difference”, is a detailed story of Ferrari’s production models, the odd numbered chassis cars (mostly), from the beginning of the Ferrari make until the early 60s.
The two authors warranty the quality of the book: Angelo Tito Anselmi and Marcel Massini.
Both of them are well-known experts of Ferrari’s history and have already written very high quality books about the Maranello factory, including “Tipo 166” by Anselmi and Massini’s books about the 250LM and Vignale’s Ferrari.
The originality of the book is in its layout. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the coach builders who have worked with Ferrari to dress his chassis. The only one missing is Pininfarina, who would have required a huge work and is already the subject of well known and appreciated books (for example Wiss’s “Ferrari Pininfarina 1952-1996 Photo Archive” and Cornil’s “Ferrari Pininfarina”).
Rare coachbuilders such as Fontana are giving due credit in "Making a Difference".
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The foreword is entitled “The Long Ride to Maranello” and is an unfinished article written by the late Griffith Borgeson a few years ago. It is a very precise profile of the young Enzo Ferrari from the age of 30 to the birth of his first car, the 815, going through the complex relationship with Alfa Romeo.
The first chapter is a careful critical analysis about Ferrari’s choices of the different body makers in his first ten years of activity, those years which witnessed a great flowering of Italian coach building. This is followed by the analysis of the coach builders and their models arranged in alphabetical order: Allemano, Bertone, Boano, Ca.Mo., Campana, Fantuzzi, Farina, Fontana, Ghia, Neri & Bonacini, Scaglietti, Sports Car, Touring, Vignale and finally, Zagato.
For each of them there is a critical analysis of their activity and a detailed list of the models.
Adding to the history are contributions from Felice Bianchi Anderloni, Bizzarrini, Boano, Busso, Fontana, Marzotto, Scaglietti e Zagato, plus a story of the Vignale’s production written by Alfredo Zanellato Vignale with an inside view of the relationship between Vignale and Ferrari.
One of the great artists, Giovanni Michelotti, at work.
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The exceptional aspect of the book is the quality of the black and white vintage photos, mostly coming from Ferrari’s and coachbuilder’s archives and very often unpublished.
There are also really fascinating views of the Ferrari workshop as it was: a group of craftsmen manually assembling sport and Gran Turismo cars.
Ferrari factory in the early 1950s.
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The work is bilingual (English and Italian) and is presented in two volumes with a nice yellow bookcase: the editor is “Le Edizioni dell’Opificio” of Milano (Italy) and has been printed in a limited number of copies (999). There is also a very precious edition bounded in Sghedoni leather (99 copies).
The price of the book is rather high (220 euros, $300.00 U.S.), but the book is worth every Euro.
Mr Massini has told us that the new book is only available from the following sources:
In the U.S:
Ferrari Market Letter .
In Europe:
Monza Automobile Library.
In Great Britain:
Mike Horton, Horton’s Booksellers. Try Mike at ben@hortonbooks.fsnet.co.uk.
