Topic: MASERATI - Catalogue Raisonné - Automobilia

[Paul Jaray]

This is a book from a collection of 13, that covers all the story of the featured marque. The edition dedicated to the Maserati is a 2-volume set in a box, but there is an updated version.
Volume I - more than 200 pages
Volume II -200 pages
There is the full story of the Maserati family, pilots, cars, projects, engines.
Thousands and thousands of pictures, all the technical specs for each model and all of this in 3 languages: Italiano, English and French.

[Allemano]

I admit that I'm envious of you about each of this wonderful Catalougue Raisonnés..
You hardly get those for less than 110,-€.
I doubt that I'm patient enough to wait 5-7 years to get the complete collection.

[Paul Jaray]

I'll post other pics for each one next days. I like these books very much and I've read each one of them, page by page.
Some of them are quite expensive (Ferrari, Pininfarina, Mercedes....) other are extremely rare (the Porsche and the Jaguar). I found some of them in some markets at a very reasonable price.. (I paid 50.000 Lire -25Euro circa- the Cisitalia volume in 1998 and the Lamborghini at 40euros few years ago!).

[pnegyesi]

I am just reading this book. It is thoroughly researched, superb photography, great stories, but still, I feel it is lacking something.

It is perhaps just me, but I like the comprehensive history books by The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide. I have one on Lamborghini, which is written in a casual, but in-depth manner and illustrated perfectly.

Don't get me wrong, this Maserati book is still fantastic - full of exciting details, background, photos etc. but maybe it is a bit overwhelming

[Paul Jaray]

Some of these catalogs give this impression.
I found few cars missing in the Pininfarina's one, and the Porsche and Jaguar one are far to be complete.
This one is one of the best, if you want all the models listed, year by year, with technical specs and pictures.
Here you will find almost every single car. Some cars are missing, like the V831 of the Scuderia Subalpina, the 4CLT V12 'Bira Special', and some coachbuilt cars (a version of the 1500 by Pininfarina, the A6 g54 by Allemano and Zagato, some 3500gt) the production of Karts and the 3500GT\GTis etc story is not very accurate.
It depends on what you are looking for. I took them for what they are, catalogs of the production of the featured marque, some of them are very accurate, others leave some black spots.

[cmetisse]

I have the 2003 edition, and it was my first Catalogue Raisonné. And, to be honest, I found it a little bit disappointing... I expected it to be the absolute bible about Maserati, and in my opinion, it could be better...

For example, there is no "family picture" of all the Maserati brothers, or even some informations of their heirs... No pictures too of that "famous" Neptune statue in Bologna which gave inspiration to Mario Maserati for the brand Trident.
The text is very "politically correct", too : not much about the shortcomings of the De Tomaso-era ! In fact, there is more pictures for the launch of the Biturbo than for the original Ghibli or the Khamsin !
I was hoping more pictures of the assembly line at different periods, technical drawings or even photos of Maserati stands at Motorshows.
No more production figures after the Indy, why ?

The text doesn't tell much about the technical study of each car.
And this book doesn't show at all the "side projects" (not a single picture of a SM or even the (awful !) Chrysler TC by Maserati) or the Maserati-engined show-cars (for example, Medici I and II by Giugiaro...).

It still a "must have", but it could have been much better. In my humble opinion, you'll still need another book, like the one by Maurizio Tabbuchi.