Sometime in the 1950s, Dick Merritt began taking notes on every Ferrari he encountered, to include chassis number, owner, etc. Dick had compiled all of this information in a single notebook, which he took with him on a trip to Maranello in the 1960s. He had hoped to gain access to the Ferrari Factory records, but that request was denied. However, Dick was permitted to leave the notebook with one of the factory reps. The rep went through the notebook and filled in much of the missing data by hand. Dick's notebook became famous among the Ferraristi and its contents formed the basis of what was "known" about the early Ferraris for the next 30 years. Dick and others like him (Stan Nowak, Gerald Roush, etc.), were maintaining individual databases, yet openly sharing information among them. I have a great deal of respect for all of these men. When I first became interested in tracking and documenting Ferraris, Stan's On the Road book was one of the best resources available.
But Hilary Raab surprised us all when he published his Ferrari Serial Numbers books in 2001. Hil had been granted full access to the factory records and permission to publish that information. Of course, the factory records themselves are not 100% complete and accurate, so the same is true of Hil's books. Even so, they're much more complete/accurate than the published sources that preceded them and they're invaluable tool for anyone just beginning to build their own register/database.
By the way, looking at that Nowak excerpt:
0196/A
- Completed on 15 Apr 1952, not 23 Jul 1952. (It competed in the Mille Miglia, Bern GP, Le Mans, and the Targa Florio -- all before 23 July.)
- Originally a Vignale spyder, not a coupe. (Documented by factory records and many, many photos.)
