Ferrari: The Road from Maranello

by Dennis Adler

In 1945, Enzo Ferrari, the onetime director of Scuderia Ferrari, Alfa Romeo’s fabled racing program, emerged from Alfa’s shadow to create his own legend. Out of the rubble of World War II, Ferrari established an auto works whose products would surpass anything before seen. Demand for handcrafted racing cars in postwar Italy, however, was slight. At the urging of a former colleague, Ferrari found a profitable niche for his creations in America–which still remains Ferrari’s biggest market.

Now esteemed automotive journalist, historian, and photographer Dennis Adler presents The Road from Maranello– the stunningly illustrated story of one of the most coveted and recognized automobile lines in the world. Written with the full cooperation of the Ferrari works, this sumptuous book is illuminated throughout with more than 200 color and one hundred fifty archival black-and-white photos, some of which have never before been published. Featured are many legendary Ferraris from road and the Tipo 125, Ferrari’s debut production racer; the Farina Cabriolet, the first Ferrari for consumers; the 212 coupe (the Inter); the 365 GTB/4 Daytona; the 312 series cars that dominated world endurance racing in the early 1970s; the incomparable Testa Rossa and Berlinetta Boxer series; the brutally powerful F50, “the fastest road car ever”; and Ferrari’s Grand Prix and Formula One cars, driven by champions from Alberto Ascari to Niki Lauda to Michael Schumacher.

Chronicled in interviews with racing legends including Dan Gurney, Carroll Shelby, and Phil Hill, as well as renowned Ferrari designers Sergio Pininfarina, Sergio Scaglietti, and many others is the fascinating history of Ferrari through its successes and failures, setbacks and triumphs. Here are first-person stories of legendary battles pitting Ferrari against Ford, Porsche, and other marques on race circuits from Monaco and Monza to Daytona and Le Mans.

Stylishly written and highlighted by magnificent photography, Ferrari is a fitting tribute to the ultimate expressions of automotive excellence.

344 pages, Hardcover

First published December 5, 2006

About the author

Dennis Adler is the editor in chief of Car Collector magazine and consultant/historian/author for four publishers and organizations, including senior contributing editor of The Star -- the official publication of the Mercedes-Benz Club of America. He serves on the Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance Selection Committee and as a chief class judge at the Meadow Brook and Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. He is a noted portraitist of automotive collectors and their collections and is the author of twenty automotive books, including The Art of the Sports Car and The Art of the Automobile.

In addition to his works on automobiles Award-winning author Dennis Adler is one of America’s most published historians on western guns and collectible firearms. Author and photographer for more than three dozen books and thousands of magazine articles, Dennis has published work in such publications as American Rifleman, Guns of the Old West, and The Robb Report.


He lives in western Pennsylvania.