10 replies to this topic

[Maranello Man]

Does anyone out there in Atlas F1 land know about any books that are available about Alfonso De Portago and Wolfgang Von Tripps?

I would like to see an author like Doug Nye or Karl Ludvigsen or Chris Nixon do some really first class biographies on these drivers...they deserve it.

[Maranello Man]

Forgive me for misspelling Von Trips

[Vitesse2]

I don't know of anything on Fon, apart from magazine articles, but there are four books on Taffy:

Das Rennen ist nie zu Ende [The Race is not over] by Hermann Harster, published by Ullstein in 1962

Graf Berghe von Trips by Richard von Frankenberg, published by MBV in 1969 or earlier

Graf Berghe von Trips by R Louis, published by Greven in in 1989

Graf Berghe von Trips by Jurgen Fodisch and R Louis, published by Heel in 1996

The 1989 book appears fairly substantial (436 pages) and the only copy for sale on ABEbooks at the moment is going for a whopping US$110

The Harster book turns up regularly on eBay, often over-priced (pay no more than US$15!), the von Frankenberg occasionally, but market value for that seems a little higher (pay $20 or so). The Heel book seems to be mainly pictures, but the only copies I've found quickly are at Warth's and Collector's Car Books, so the prices may be inflated. Especially at CCB

But of course they're all in German ....

[Frank Verplanken]

About Fon, it reminds me of a couple of lines I read in a French "Sport-Auto" magazine of something like 1978. It was about a movie who was being set up based on Portago's life. IIRC a Carradine was to play in it and the story was to be written by the man who wrote the scenario for Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix" ? I guess not but does anyone know if this ever happened ?

[Reyna]

About de Portago you can find an excellent article (12 pages) by Jacques Vassal and Bernard Cahier on the may 2004 issue (#37) of Automobile Historique... French language.

You'll find at the Palmier Bookshop.

[SEdward]

I have a book about Von Trips entitled "Errinerungen an ein Idol, Biographie von Graf Berghe von Trips", published 1998 (Heel Vlg., von Jörg-Thomas Födisch, Christoph Louis, Reinold Louis).

I suspect that it's included in the above list with an incomplete title.

It's pretty well a picture book, but it's a good one.

Edward

[Maranello Man]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
I don't know of anything on Fon, apart from magazine articles, but there are four books on Taffy:

Das Rennen ist nie zu Ende [The Race is not over] by Hermann Harster, published by Ullstein in 1962

Graf Berghe von Trips by Richard von Frankenberg, published by MBV in 1969 or earlier

Graf Berghe von Trips by R Louis, published by Greven in in 1989

Graf Berghe von Trips by Jurgen Fodisch and R Louis, published by Heel in 1996

The 1989 book appears fairly substantial (436 pages) and the only copy for sale on ABEbooks at the moment is going for a whopping US$110

The Harster book turns up regularly on eBay, often over-priced (pay no more than US$15!), the von Frankenberg occasionally, but market value for that seems a little higher (pay $20 or so). The Heel book seems to be mainly pictures, but the only copies I've found quickly are at Warth's and Collector's Car Books, so the prices may be inflated. Especially at CCB

But of course they're all in German ....

Thanks for your feedback. Someone needs to reprint the 1989 book in English. Still can't understand why nobody has wriiten a tome on De Portago.
The movie idea would be a great one. The Marquis was quite the man with the ladies..sort of an international Fonzie if you look at him from the surface ...but I understand he was a very well rounded sportsman/gentleman.

[Marcel Visbeen]

I have the Erinnerungen an ein Idol -photobook on Von Trips and I think it's really nice with lots of photo's I haven't seen elsewhere.

On De Portago I only have a CD: The Marquis de Portago, the story of racing's most colourful driver . Its a re-issue on the Riverside-label of a record from 1957. It contains interviews with Chinetti, Fangio, Collins and Von Trips and a very nice interview with De ortago himself.

It's a release from 1997 so I don't know if the info on Riverside Records on the cover is still correct:

Riverside records,
42-50 Steel Road
London NW10 7AS

The distributor Ace records claim to have a webside om www.acerecords.co.uk but I haven't checked that out.

[bkalb]

"Of Men and Cars," a collection of articles and essays about racing compiled by John Christy, has an excellent profile of de Portago by Ken Purdy. It was published in 1960 by Ziff-Davis. I have no idea about its availability now.

Barry Kalb

[Vitesse2]

That would be the interview with Ken Purdy, Marcel? There's an accompanying article, published originally in "Sports Cars Illustrated" in 1957 - I have it in an anthology of Purdy's work called "Wonderful World of the Automobile" (which I nicked from a pub in Devon - one of those which has shelves of books which no-one reads! An ex-school library copy, presumably sold off in a jumble sale as it has the price of 5p(!!!) in pen on the endpaper)

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by bkalb
"Of Men and Cars," a collection of articles and essays about racing compiled by John Christy, has an excellent profile of de Portago by Ken Purdy. It was published in 1960 by Ziff-Davis. I have no idea about its availability now.

Barry Kalb

Sounds like the same article, Barry!