Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine [Hardcover]

Brock Yates (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

To his legion of admirers, Italian auto titan Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) was a genius who personally created marvelous cars of advanced design. But as Car and Driver columnist Yates points out in this captivating, demythologizing biography, none of Ferrari's racing cars "was a glittering example of daring technology," and he had almost no hand in the making of the later road cars that bore his name. Revealed as a hot-tempered megalomaniac given to loud belching and countless amorous conquests, Ferrari fathered an illegitimate child and led a shadowy second life as a respite from the "simmering hatred" of his marriage. He portrayed himself as a loyal "motorized knight-errant," defending Italy's national honor, but in Yates's esimate he was interested solely in winning races and sometimes pushed his drivers to dangerous extremes. Yates deftly records the carnage of major races, business wheeling and dealing, and the political dimensions of motor racing from the pre-WW II Rome-Berlin Axis to today's ribbon-waving nationalism. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 465 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (May 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385263198
• ISBN-13: 978-0385263191
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #907,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars enzo ferrari, November 28, 2005

By 

Myron Berg "ferrari fan" (los angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine (Hardcover)

this is the most comprehensive book on the subject that i have read. it is a cross-section of the history, and growth of his dynamic company. a must read for anyone interested in ferrari, and formula one racing.

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a hatchet job, but also not hagiography, November 25, 2011

By 

Boyd "Boyd" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine (Hardcover)

Credit to Brock Yates for this one (and I am not usually his biggest fan). Blindly adoring Ferrari fans might object to the presentation of Mr. Ferrari as considerably less than a saint, but this is not a hatchet job. Yates has painstakingly researched the life of a talented and often ruthless man who was above all (and by his own admission) a master of manipulation--manipulation of people and images. Ferrari was an energetic and talented individualist who overcame humble origins to become a titan of sport and industry, and who carefully created a mystique that often contradicts reality. Without denigrating Ferrari's triumphs and accomplishments, Yates also describes the man's frequent resistance to necessary technological change (contrary to the myth of Ferrari as a cutting-edge company), his contempt for customers, his ruthlessness and stinginess with his personnel, and his often sordid personal life. Some reviewers have objected that the depiction of Ferrari as being peripherally involved with the Fascists and the Mafia is farfetched, but this objection ignores the realities of doing business on a sizable scale in the Italy of Enzo Ferrari's time. Ferrari was not a criminal and not a political man in any partisan way, but he did what he had to do in order to keep the business running--not always smoothly. As is usually the case, the truth is more interesting than a "lives of the saints" approach to a major figure from the overlapping worlds of sports and industry. Brock Yates isn't against Enzo Ferrari, but I think he is against the sort of thing I once witnessed at a gathering of American Formula One fans: Derek Bell, who spent one rather unsuccessful season with Ferrari early in his very long career before going on to win LeMans five times in other makes of car, was there as a guest speaker, and I heard the man next to me say to his wife, "Look, honey! That's Derek Bell! He drove for Ferrari!" If your outlook is similar to that man's, you won't like this book. If it isn't, you probably will.

5.0 out of 5 stars best, February 22, 2011

By 

redfazzaz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine (Hardcover)

this is the best of the 4 bio's I have read about Enzo Ferrari. This is a warts and all portrayal of a man all of us tifosi have come to love, read it.