What do you get the Ferrari fan who has everything? Not another Ferrari, they probably already have a few of those. They have everything, remember? But if you’re serious about the Italian car brand and happen to have a fair chunk of cash to throw about, you might want to get them a limited edition coffee table book for the sort of money you’d spend on a normal-person car.
The book — called ‘Il Fascino Ferrari’ and published by a art-book specialists Taschen — offers limited edition works of varying natures in addition to more conventional literary fare. The hand-bound, leather-stitched book tells the story “…behind Ferrari’s victories, its protagonists, and its legacy” through the lens of information from the company’s own archives as well as those from collectors (and there are a lot of those) around the world. Photographs, sketches, and just about any other original documentation from one of the most iconic motoring companies have been collected in one place — for the serious fan and collector, of course.
There are two versions of the book coming. The standard version has an aluminium casing as well as the gigantic book (signed by Piero Ferrari) itself and will set buyers back about R82,000. It is limited to a run of just 1,697 books. The Art Edition makes up the first 250 copies of that run and features the book, the aluminium case inspired by a Ferrari engine as well as a stand that continues with the general motoring theme — oh, and each of the Art Edition books is signed by Sergio Marchionne, John Elkann, and Piero Ferrari. Must be why buying one will cost you a little over R400,000. No, there are no extra zeroes in that number.
If you simply must have one, you can pre-order your copy at the Taschen website. It looks like a must-have for Ferrari fans who can actually afford one of the cars. Sadly, we’ll likely never see one of these in person ourselves. Ah, well, we can dream…