Books and Models A four-door 1:43 Porsche 928 and the tale of when Enzo met Luigi
Sam Dawson reviews the latest releases and a quartet of new miniature masterpieces
33 Years of Porsche By Peter Falk & Wilfried Müller, £60, mcklein.de, ISBN 978 3 927458 87 1 Despite the plethora of Porsche books, this monolithic 407-page memoir will add something new to any library on Zuffenhausen’s finest.
Falk joined the company in the Sixties, fresh from an apprenticeship with Daimler, and was intimately involved with the development of every Porsche road and race car (plus a bizarre mid- engined VW Beetle replacement), as well as the running of works teams in racing, rallying and hillclimbing.
What comes through strongly is the warmth and close-knit humanity of a company that can often seem overly slick. Falk shares his experience in meticulous detail, and the story is more akin to that of a charmingly shambolic garagiste than an industrial giant; all japes, bodges and whisky bottles in filing cabinets.
It reads in a slightly odd way though. Rather than telling the story chronologically, Falk opts for a subject-by-subject analysis, resulting in a tale that pings between the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties with abandon. But it doesn’t matter – the book reveals a side of Porsche you probably didn’t think existed. Trans-am Era By Daniel Lipetz, £60, bullpublishing.com, ISBN 978 1 935007 20 3 The subheading, ‘ The Golden Years In Photographs’ somewhat undersells the culmination of several years’ research on Daniel Lipetz’s part. This is a comprehensive history of the short-lived, meteoric series that began in 1966 with amateurs pitting pony cars against European sportssaloons and came to a spectacular end just six years later, bowing out as one of motor racing’s all-time great spectacles.
The whole story of Trans-am is here, including anecdotes from the drivers and revelations about the outrageous cheating. Cars with bodyshells acid- dipped to the point of falling apart, fuel tanks loaded with ball-bearings on cool- down laps and all manner of engine cheats are rife, making for great entertainment.
However, the photos are the making of this book. Lipetz has collated candid shots taken away from the PR puppetmasters, and ends up highlighting the grit instead of the glamour. These races were brutal, their safety measures nonexistent and the drivers genuine tough guys who blended stubborn resilience with real racecraft. An unflinching document of a lost era. Ferrari 70 Years By Dennis Adler, £24.99, quartoknows.com, ISBN 978 0 7603 5189 5 ‘ When Enzo Met Luigi’ might have been a better title. Adler is one of America’s leading automotive historians, and built up a strong rapport with ex-racing driver and Ferrari’s original US importer Luigi Chinetti. As a result, this book tells the Ferrari story from Chinetti’s perspective, while never neglecting the Italian view. The relationship between the two men, a meeting of motor sport passion and US commercial savvy, is fascinating, and shows how Ferrari succeeded where others failed.