[DeTomaso] Mike's tale of De Tomaso book
Bobby Udell
bobbykart at gmail.com
Sat Dec 19 10:06:26 EST 2015
This is a right on Statement!
On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 9:05 PM, Laurie Ferrari via DeTomaso <
detomaso at poca.com> wrote:
> I have two questions for Mike and a comment to All,
>
> 1. When will "YOU" write a BOOK? You are long over due. Obviously you
> have far
> more information than even a gifted bear; you've got the knowledge of
> historical
> facts, technical facts, and all those thousands of pictures you've taken
> and
> gathered through so many years, is it not yet obvious that YOU should be
> the
> author of your own book? Heck... the letter you wrote here is nearly a
> book in
> itself.
>
> 2. Just curious, did there happen to be a picture of my little ole car in
> those
> batches of familial photos? : )
>
> 3. Cheers and Happiness to All. It's going to be a really GOOD YEAR!
> (better be!) I even agree with what Judy said in her last two posts.
>
> Laurie
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> ______________________
>
> [DeTomaso] On writing a book on De Tomaso....
>
> MikeLDrew at aol.com [1]MikeLDrew at aol.com
> Fri Dec 18 12:59:12 MST 2015
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> All,
>
> Herewith, my thoughts on the trials and tribulations of producing a book on
> De Tomasoa|.
>
> More than a year ago, I got an e-mail out of the blue from Daniele Pozzi, a
> college professor in Italy. He was committed to writing a book on De
> Tomaso, focusing on the man and his life rather than on the cars. He had
> my
> address (among numerous others) as a potential source of help and
> information.
> I replied right away, but heard nothing back.
>
> Six or eight months later, I was again contacted by Dr. Pozzi. This time
> when I replied, I mentioned I had replied earlier and learned for some
> reason he had never received that. He seemed quite excited when he
> learned of
> my position as Profiles editor, and my ability to support him with images
> etc.
>
> We went back and forth, as he discussed his vision for the book. He
> wanted to tell the whole story of De Tomaso (so he said) and end it with
> coverag
> e
> of how De Tomaso has touched the lives of thousands of people around the
> world, and made it possible to forge lasting friendships through his cars.
> Thus he was especially keen to get photos and information from club
> meetings
> such as the POCA Fun Rally and the various European meetings.
>
> It took me a few weeks, but I scoured my archives and, not wanting to leave
> anything out, I gave him over 46,000 (!) individual images I'd collected
> over the years. I did help by filtering them somewhat, and I put crucial
> historical images whose value I thought was important in key folders, and
> organized the others in various contexts (Fun Rally photos, Euro meeting
> photos,
>
> individual car photos, people photos etc.). I burned them to USB sticks
> and sent them to him. During this time, he had been peppering me with
> questions, asking me to fact-check certain technical details (he appears
> to be
> more of a historian than a traditional 'car guy'), etc.
>
> The Italian postal service leaves more than a bit to be desired, and it
> took almost two months (!) for the sticks to arrive. But in the meantime,
> things had taken a bit of a turn.
>
> It was never clear to me if Dr. Pozzi had the idea to write a book, and
> then found a publisher to produce it, or if the publisher wanted to
> produce a
> book, and found a guy to write it. But clearly their relationship was not
> all that it could have been. Pozzi had a very clear image in his mind of
> what he wanted his book to be--he wanted it to be positive and uplifting,
> and
> a primary goal was to show the happiness that De Tomaso's works have
> generated among many people like us.
>
> The publisher had different ideas, and thought that was totally stupid.
> They wanted a straight historical biography without all the happy kumbyah
> stuff. There was a meeting in the publisher's office, and one can imagine
> what an Italian business confrontation looks/sounds like. Lots of
> yelling and
> arm-waving, and at the end of it, they took his manuscript and fired him
> from the project!
>
> My images arrived just after this all happened, so none of them were
> incorporated into the book. (The only things he got from me that were
> included
>
> in the book were photos of Dave Jacobsen's beautiful Pre-L Pantera, which
> was
> a Profiles centerfold car--I had sent those to him earlier, and numerous
> photos of that car are scattered throughout the book including on the
> cover,
> and Dave is rightly given photo credit).
>
> Shortly afterwards, you may recall that Ed Mendez was contacted by a US
> publisher looking for some help in producing an English-language version
> of the
> book, and he shared that info with us. Several of you expressed interest,
> but I contacted the publisher directly and asked him WTF since I was
> already deeply involved in the project?
>
> The publisher immediately phoned me in surprise, as he had no knowledge.
>
> It turns out that there was a big book fair in New York City, and the
> Italian company had showed off an Italian-language mockup of the book, and
> was
> seeking a US partner to produce an English-language version alongside of
> it.
> Both editions would be printed at the same time in Italy. They assured
> everyone that this was a turn-key, ready-for-print book that only needed
> translation, so Dalton Books bought it.
>
> This outfit is known for producing really, really, REALLY high-quality car
> books--limited-edition leather bound box sets on the Rolls-Royce Silver
> Ghost that sell for $1750, that kind of thing.
>
> They hired an Italian-to-English translator to translate the text (one who
> supposedly had a good grasp of both languages but didn't really know
> automobiles specifically), and when that was done, they sent the text to
> me for
> fact-checking and editing.
>
> The translation left a lot to be desired; there was more than a little
> flat-tire English, where it would be obvious that the writer didn't speak
> the
> language fluently, and re-writing the factually correct text into proper,
> flowing English was a big job. However, there were a LOT of factual and
> technical errors, which took quite some time to sort through and correct.
> That
> process alone probably took me 20-30 hours, as when I read something that I
> believed to be wrong, I had to be able to prove it to them (and myself) so
> had
> to do a lot of independent research. The Italian publisher got quite
> annoyed, because I pointed out loads of technical and historical
> inaccuracies,
> which needed to be corrected in the English language version, and then they
> felt compelled to change those same errors in the Italian version.
>
> (One example--Pozzi got it backwards and thought the Vallelunga prototypes
> were made in fiberglass and the production cars were in aluminum, but we
> all
> know that is demonstrably untrue; there are only three known aluminum
> Fissore prototypes and all the Ghia cars, including the one De Tomaso owns
> today
> ,
> are fiberglass).
>
> There were some 'facts' that I believed were incorrect, but I couldn't
> prove it. I would then ask Pozzi to seek confirmation from his sources,
> as I
> thought perhaps he had got a story turned around or something? But by
> this
> time, he had lost all interest in cooperating with the project that had
> been
> taken away from him, and although he was very polite and friendly to me, he
> basically said he was too busy to devote any more time to it, and told the
> Italian publishers to take a flying leapa|.
>
> More disturbing to me, however, is that the book ended very prematurely in
> the story. Most people know that De Tomaso suffered a terrible stroke in
> 1993. It left him permanently paralyzed and unable to speak, but his
> brain
> was completely unaffected. He then entered into an absolutely heroic
> period of intensive rehab, determined to conquer his condition. He
> gradually
> improved somewhat, and was able to communicate in a very guttural manner,
> which only a handful of people were able to understand.
>
> Even at that, he successfully negotiated the sale of his 51% ownership of
> Maserati to Ferrari for many millions of Euros, then launched the De Tomaso
> Bigua, which then evolved into a joint venture with Qvale, and then blew up
> spectacularly. Even as that was crashing to earth, he was involved with a
> grand scheme with backing of the Italian government to import sturdy,
> simple
> Russian 4x4 SUVs in KDC (knocked-down kit) form; the trucks would arrive as
> 1:1 scale kits, and would be assembled in a new purpose-built factory in
> the
> economically depressed south of Italy, and would be powered by a
> Belgian-made diesel engine sourced from a partnership with Chrysler.
> This was
> a VERY
> complicated deal with a lot of moving parts.
>
> The profits from this enterprise would then be funneled to De Tomaso
> Automobili, who would use them to produce a new Vallelunga (Porsche
> Boxter-competitor, likely powered by a Saab turbo motor), and ultimately a
> new P
> antera.
>
> Unfortunately, that whole deal blew up too, after De Tomaso had accepted a
> huge pile of Euros from the Italian government. When the plug got pulled
> and he was unable to pay it back, De Tomaso went into liquidation, then the
> brand was sold, and more Italian economic soap opera took place for a few
> years afterwards, with the family not involved.
>
> Anyway, even though both the Qvale and SUV deals fell apart, they were VERY
> ambitious projects, and were not merely vaporware--real cars were produced
> in both cases. This was a very significant and tragic end to the story of
> De Tomaso, both the man and the corporation--and it was completely absent
> from the book.
>
> When I read it and found this out, I sent a strong WTFO note to both
> English and Italian publishers and the author? Pozzi then confessed that
> when
> the project first started. Isabelle and Santiago promised full cooperation
> (without which the book would have been more or less impossible) under the
> condition that Pozzi agree to conceal the truth about anything that
> happened
> after 1993!
>
> What kind of historian or journalist would agree to such terms? In any
> case, that's the deal Pozzi made, so all talk of those later failed
> ventures
> was eliminated. I find it especially pathetic, because if you are really
> interested in the MAN, it is something the family should be proud of. But
> instead, they are ashamed of the fact that the ventures failed and want to
> whitewash history and pretend they never happened.
>
> So the text in the book more or less indicates that he had a stroke in
> 1993, then sat around in a poopy diaper, drooling on himself until he died
> in
> 2003. To me, THAT is pathetic, but that's how they wanted the story told.
> Charlie and I know for a fact that's not true, because when we met him in
> 2001, he was absolutely FEROCIOUS, animated, loud, arrogant, and full of
> piss
> and vinegar. Although I happened to feel that he was a complete jerk (as
> did seemingly everybody else who knew him), he was far from the vegetable
> the
> book makes him out to be.
>
> So, with all that said, when the book arrived the other day, I was
> absolutely blown away at the high quality of the resultant effort. The
> book is
>
> considerably larger than I was expecting (it's 13x11 inches) and the
> photography is simply stunning. There are beautiful photo spreads of
> most of t
> he
> cars in the De Tomaso family collection (although since they don't have a
> GT5
> or GT5-S, those are absent, and apparently their Pantera Si broke down and
> they didn't want to bother towing it to be photographed so it's absent
> too).
> There are historical photos directly from De Tomaso's family archives that
> have never been seen before, and will never be seen anywhere else.
>
> And there's the story. Given their well-established propensity for
> shading the truth, one has to wonder exactly how accurate it all is, but
> I'm
> willing to give them the benefit of the doubt about their telling of their
> early
>
> history at least. It's certainly educational (I learned a lot!) and
> fascinating.
>
> So at the end of the day, even with all the caveats and asterisks, this is
> far and away the best De Tomaso book ever made, and if you have even a
> passing interest in the marque, you owe it to yourself to get a copy!
>
> Mike
>
> P.S. It's worth noting that purely by coincidence, another Italian-market
> book on De Tomaso has just been printed; it was released on September 30th.
> It's in Italian only and seems to be a much more modest effort (208
> pages, paperback?). I've only seen pictures of the book, but the few
> pages I
> saw revealed images I'd never seen elsewhere, so that might be worth
> digging
> up as well if you're really a nut about this stuffa|.
>
> Here it is on the publisher's website:
>
> [2]
> http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automobili-de-tomaso.ht
> m
>
> Not available on Amazon USA, but it is available on Amazon Italia:
>
> [3]http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/8875495947
>
> and from numerous other European retailers as wella|.
> -------------- next part --------------
> All,
> Herewith, my thoughts on the trials and tribulations of producing a
> book on De Tomasoa|.
> More than a year ago, I got an e-mail out of the blue from Daniele
> Pozzi, a college professor in Italy. He was committed to writing a
> book on De Tomaso, focusing on the man and his life rather than on the
> cars. He had my address (among numerous others) as a potential source
> of help and information. I replied right away, but heard nothing back.
> Six or eight months later, I was again contacted by Dr. Pozzi. This
> time when I replied, I mentioned I had replied earlier and learned for
> some reason he had never received that. He seemed quite excited when
> he learned of my position as Profiles editor, and my ability to support
> him with images etc.
> We went back and forth, as he discussed his vision for the book. He
> wanted to tell the whole story of De Tomaso (so he said) and end it
> with coverage of how De Tomaso has touched the lives of thousands of
> people around the world, and made it possible to forge lasting
> friendships through his cars. Thus he was especially keen to get
> photos and information from club meetings such as the POCA Fun Rally
> and the various European meetings.
> It took me a few weeks, but I scoured my archives and, not wanting to
> leave anything out, I gave him over 46,000 (!) individual images I'd
> collected over the years. I did help by filtering them somewhat, and I
> put crucial historical images whose value I thought was important in
> key folders, and organized the others in various contexts (Fun Rally
> photos, Euro meeting photos, individual car photos, people photos
> etc.). I burned them to USB sticks and sent them to him. During this
> time, he had been peppering me with questions, asking me to fact-check
> certain technical details (he appears to be more of a historian than a
> traditional 'car guy'), etc.
> The Italian postal service leaves more than a bit to be desired, and it
> took almost two months (!) for the sticks to arrive. But in the
> meantime, things had taken a bit of a turn.
> It was never clear to me if Dr. Pozzi had the idea to write a book, and
> then found a publisher to produce it, or if the publisher wanted to
> produce a book, and found a guy to write it. But clearly their
> relationship was not all that it could have been. Pozzi had a very
> clear image in his mind of what he wanted his book to be--he wanted it
> to be positive and uplifting, and a primary goal was to show the
> happiness that De Tomaso's works have generated among many people like
> us.
> The publisher had different ideas, and thought that was totally
> stupid. They wanted a straight historical biography without all the
> happy kumbyah stuff. There was a meeting in the publisher's office,
> and one can imagine what an Italian business confrontation looks/sounds
> like. Lots of yelling and arm-waving, and at the end of it, they took
> his manuscript and fired him from the project!
> My images arrived just after this all happened, so none of them were
> incorporated into the book. (The only things he got from me that were
> included in the book were photos of Dave Jacobsen's beautiful Pre-L
> Pantera, which was a Profiles centerfold car--I had sent those to him
> earlier, and numerous photos of that car are scattered throughout the
> book including on the cover, and Dave is rightly given photo credit).
> Shortly afterwards, you may recall that Ed Mendez was contacted by a US
> publisher looking for some help in producing an English-language
> version of the book, and he shared that info with us. Several of you
> expressed interest, but I contacted the publisher directly and asked
> him WTF since I was already deeply involved in the project?
> The publisher immediately phoned me in surprise, as he had no
> knowledge.
> It turns out that there was a big book fair in New York City, and the
> Italian company had showed off an Italian-language mockup of the book,
> and was seeking a US partner to produce an English-language version
> alongside of it. Both editions would be printed at the same time in
> Italy. They assured everyone that this was a turn-key, ready-for-print
> book that only needed translation, so Dalton Books bought it.
> This outfit is known for producing really, really, REALLY high-quality
> car books--limited-edition leather bound box sets on the Rolls-Royce
> Silver Ghost that sell for $1750, that kind of thing.
> They hired an Italian-to-English translator to translate the text (one
> who supposedly had a good grasp of both languages but didn't really
> know automobiles specifically), and when that was done, they sent the
> text to me for fact-checking and editing.
> The translation left a lot to be desired; there was more than a little
> flat-tire English, where it would be obvious that the writer didn't
> speak the language fluently, and re-writing the factually correct text
> into proper, flowing English was a big job. However, there were a LOT
> of factual and technical errors, which took quite some time to sort
> through and correct. That process alone probably took me 20-30 hours,
> as when I read something that I believed to be wrong, I had to be able
> to prove it to them (and myself) so had to do a lot of independent
> research. The Italian publisher got quite annoyed, because I pointed
> out loads of technical and historical inaccuracies, which needed to be
> corrected in the English language version, and then they felt compelled
> to change those same errors in the Italian version.
> (One example--Pozzi got it backwards and thought the Vallelunga
> prototypes were made in fiberglass and the production cars were in
> aluminum, but we all know that is demonstrably untrue; there are only
> three known aluminum Fissore prototypes and all the Ghia cars,
> including the one De Tomaso owns today, are fiberglass).
> There were some 'facts' that I believed were incorrect, but I couldn't
> prove it. I would then ask Pozzi to seek confirmation from his
> sources, as I thought perhaps he had got a story turned around or
> something? But by this time, he had lost all interest in cooperating
> with the project that had been taken away from him, and although he was
> very polite and friendly to me, he basically said he was too busy to
> devote any more time to it, and told the Italian publishers to take a
> flying leapa|.
> More disturbing to me, however, is that the book ended very prematurely
> in the story. Most people know that De Tomaso suffered a terrible
> stroke in 1993. It left him permanently paralyzed and unable to speak,
> but his brain was completely unaffected. He then entered into an
> absolutely heroic period of intensive rehab, determined to conquer his
> condition. He gradually improved somewhat, and was able to communicate
> in a very guttural manner, which only a handful of people were able to
> understand.
> Even at that, he successfully negotiated the sale of his 51% ownership
> of Maserati to Ferrari for many millions of Euros, then launched the De
> Tomaso Bigua, which then evolved into a joint venture with Qvale, and
> then blew up spectacularly. Even as that was crashing to earth, he was
> involved with a grand scheme with backing of the Italian government to
> import sturdy, simple Russian 4x4 SUVs in KDC (knocked-down kit) form;
> the trucks would arrive as 1:1 scale kits, and would be assembled in a
> new purpose-built factory in the economically depressed south of Italy,
> and would be powered by a Belgian-made diesel engine sourced from a
> partnership with Chrysler. This was a VERY complicated deal with a lot
> of moving parts.
> The profits from this enterprise would then be funneled to De Tomaso
> Automobili, who would use them to produce a new Vallelunga (Porsche
> Boxter-competitor, likely powered by a Saab turbo motor), and
> ultimately a new Pantera.
> Unfortunately, that whole deal blew up too, after De Tomaso had
> accepted a huge pile of Euros from the Italian government. When the
> plug got pulled and he was unable to pay it back, De Tomaso went into
> liquidation, then the brand was sold, and more Italian economic soap
> opera took place for a few years afterwards, with the family not
> involved.
> Anyway, even though both the Qvale and SUV deals fell apart, they were
> VERY ambitious projects, and were not merely vaporware--real cars were
> produced in both cases. This was a very significant and tragic end to
> the story of De Tomaso, both the man and the corporation--and it was
> completely absent from the book.
> When I read it and found this out, I sent a strong WTFO note to both
> English and Italian publishers and the author? Pozzi then confessed
> that when the project first started. Isabelle and Santiago promised
> full cooperation (without which the book would have been more or less
> impossible) under the condition that Pozzi agree to conceal the truth
> about anything that happened after 1993!
> What kind of historian or journalist would agree to such terms? In any
> case, that's the deal Pozzi made, so all talk of those later failed
> ventures was eliminated. I find it especially pathetic, because if you
> are really interested in the MAN, it is something the family should be
> proud of. But instead, they are ashamed of the fact that the ventures
> failed and want to whitewash history and pretend they never happened.
> So the text in the book more or less indicates that he had a stroke in
> 1993, then sat around in a poopy diaper, drooling on himself until he
> died in 2003. To me, THAT is pathetic, but that's how they wanted the
> story told. Charlie and I know for a fact that's not true, because
> when we met him in 2001, he was absolutely FEROCIOUS, animated, loud,
> arrogant, and full of piss and vinegar. Although I happened to feel
> that he was a complete jerk (as did seemingly everybody else who knew
> him), he was far from the vegetable the book makes him out to be.
> So, with all that said, when the book arrived the other day, I was
> absolutely blown away at the high quality of the resultant effort. The
> book is considerably larger than I was expecting (it's 13x11 inches)
> and the photography is simply stunning. There are beautiful photo
> spreads of most of the cars in the De Tomaso family collection
> (although since they don't have a GT5 or GT5-S, those are absent, and
> apparently their Pantera Si broke down and they didn't want to bother
> towing it to be photographed so it's absent too). There are historical
> photos directly from De Tomaso's family archives that have never been
> seen before, and will never be seen anywhere else.
> And there's the story. Given their well-established propensity for
> shading the truth, one has to wonder exactly how accurate it all is,
> but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt about their
> telling of their early history at least. It's certainly educational (I
> learned a lot!) and fascinating.
> So at the end of the day, even with all the caveats and asterisks, this
> is far and away the best De Tomaso book ever made, and if you have even
> a passing interest in the marque, you owe it to yourself to get a copy!
> Mike
> P.S. It's worth noting that purely by coincidence, another
> Italian-market book on De Tomaso has just been printed; it was released
> on September 30th. It's in Italian only and seems to be a much more
> modest effort (208 pages, paperback?). I've only seen pictures of the
> book, but the few pages I saw revealed images I'd never seen elsewhere,
> so that might be worth digging up as well if you're really a nut about
> this stuffa|.
> Here it is on the publisher's website:
> [4]
> http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automobili-de-toma
> so.htm
> Not available on Amazon USA, but it is available on Amazon Italia:
> [5]
> http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/8875495947
> and from numerous other European retailers as wella|.
>
> References
>
> 1. mailto:detomaso%40poca.com
> ?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BDeTomaso%5D%20On%20writing%20a%20book%20on%20De%20Tomaso....&In-Reply-To=%3C3c4293.32525d66.43a5bf90%
> 40aol.com%3E
> 2.
> http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automobili-de-tomaso.ht
> 3.
> http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/8875495947
> 4.
> http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automobili-de-toma
> 5.
> http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/8875495947
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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>
>
-------------- next part --------------
This is a right on Statement!
On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 9:05 PM, Laurie Ferrari via DeTomaso
<[1]detomaso at poca.com> wrote:
A A A A A A A I have two questions for Mike and a comment to
All,
1. When will "YOU" write a BOOK?A You are long over due.A
Obviously you have far
more information than even a gifted bear; you've got the knowledge
of historical
A facts, technical facts, and all those thousands of pictures
you've taken and
A gathered through so many years, is it not yet obvious that YOU
should be the
author of your own book?A Heck... the letter you wrote here is
nearly a book in
A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A itself.
2. Just curious, did there happen to be a picture of my little ole
car in those
A A A A A A A A A A A A batches of familial photos? : )
A A 3. Cheers and Happiness to All.A It's going to be a really
GOOD YEAR!
A A (better be!)A I even agree with what Judy said in her last two
posts.
A A Laurie
A
A __________________________________________________________________
_____
A A ______________________
A A A A A A A A A [DeTomaso] On writing a book on De
Tomaso....
A A MikeLDrew at [2]aol.com [1]MikeLDrew at [3]aol.com
A A Fri Dec 18 12:59:12 MST 2015
A A
A __________________________________________________________________
All,
Herewith, my thoughts on the trials and tribulations of producing a
book on
De Tomasoa|.
More than a year ago, I got an e-mail out of the blue from Daniele
Pozzi, a
college professor in Italy.A A He was committed to writing a book
on De
Tomaso, focusing on the man and his life rather than on the cars.A
A He had my
address (among numerous others) as a potential source of help and
information.
A I replied right away, but heard nothing back.
Six or eight months later, I was again contacted by Dr. Pozzi.A
A This time
when I replied, I mentioned I had replied earlier and learned for
some
reason he had never received that.A A He seemed quite excited when
he learned of
my position as Profiles editor, and my ability to support him with
images
etc.
We went back and forth, as he discussed his vision for the book.A
A He
wanted to tell the whole story of De Tomaso (so he said) and end it
with coverag
e
of how De Tomaso has touched the lives of thousands of people around
the
world, and made it possible to forge lasting friendships through his
cars.
Thus he was especially keen to get photos and information from club
meetings
such as the POCA Fun Rally and the various European meetings.
It took me a few weeks, but I scoured my archives and, not wanting
to leave
anything out, I gave him over 46,000 (!) individual images I'd
collected
over the years.A A I did help by filtering them somewhat, and I put
crucial
historical images whose value I thought was important in key
folders, and
organized the others in various contexts (Fun Rally photos, Euro
meeting photos,
individual car photos, people photos etc.).A A I burned them to USB
sticks
and sent them to him.A A During this time, he had been peppering me
with
questions, asking me to fact-check certain technical details (he
appears to be
more of a historian than a traditional 'car guy'), etc.
The Italian postal service leaves more than a bit to be desired, and
it
took almost two months (!) for the sticks to arrive.A A But in the
meantime,
things had taken a bit of a turn.
It was never clear to me if Dr. Pozzi had the idea to write a book,
and
then found a publisher to produce it, or if the publisher wanted to
produce a
book, and found a guy to write it.A A But clearly their
relationship was not
all that it could have been.A A Pozzi had a very clear image in his
mind of
what he wanted his book to be--he wanted it to be positive and
uplifting, and
a primary goal was to show the happiness that De Tomaso's works have
generated among many people like us.
The publisher had different ideas, and thought that was totally
stupid.
They wanted a straight historical biography without all the happy
kumbyah
stuff.A A There was a meeting in the publisher's office, and one
can imagine
what an Italian business confrontation looks/sounds like.A A Lots
of yelling and
arm-waving, and at the end of it, they took his manuscript and fired
him
from the project!
My images arrived just after this all happened, so none of them were
incorporated into the book.A A (The only things he got from me that
were included
in the book were photos of Dave Jacobsen's beautiful Pre-L Pantera,
which was
a Profiles centerfold car--I had sent those to him earlier, and
numerous
photos of that car are scattered throughout the book including on
the cover,
and Dave is rightly given photo credit).
Shortly afterwards, you may recall that Ed Mendez was contacted by a
US
publisher looking for some help in producing an English-language
version of the
book, and he shared that info with us.A A Several of you expressed
interest,
but I contacted the publisher directly and asked him WTF since I was
already deeply involved in the project?
The publisher immediately phoned me in surprise, as he had no
knowledge.
It turns out that there was a big book fair in New York City, and
the
Italian company had showed off an Italian-language mockup of the
book, and was
seeking a US partner to produce an English-language version
alongside of it.
Both editions would be printed at the same time in Italy.A A They
assured
everyone that this was a turn-key, ready-for-print book that only
needed
translation, so Dalton Books bought it.
This outfit is known for producing really, really, REALLY
high-quality car
books--limited-edition leather bound box sets on the Rolls-Royce
Silver
Ghost that sell for $1750, that kind of thing.
They hired an Italian-to-English translator to translate the text
(one who
supposedly had a good grasp of both languages but didn't really know
automobiles specifically), and when that was done, they sent the
text to me for
fact-checking and editing.
The translation left a lot to be desired; there was more than a
little
flat-tire English, where it would be obvious that the writer didn't
speak the
language fluently, and re-writing the factually correct text into
proper,
flowing English was a big job.A A However, there were a LOT of
factual and
technical errors, which took quite some time to sort through and
correct. That
process alone probably took me 20-30 hours, as when I read something
that I
believed to be wrong, I had to be able to prove it to them (and
myself) so had
to do a lot of independent research.A A The Italian publisher got
quite
annoyed, because I pointed out loads of technical and historical
inaccuracies,
which needed to be corrected in the English language version, and
then they
felt compelled to change those same errors in the Italian version.
(One example--Pozzi got it backwards and thought the Vallelunga
prototypes
were made in fiberglass and the production cars were in aluminum,
but we all
know that is demonstrably untrue; there are only three known
aluminum
Fissore prototypes and all the Ghia cars, including the one De
Tomaso owns today
,
are fiberglass).
There were some 'facts' that I believed were incorrect, but I
couldn't
prove it.A A I would then ask Pozzi to seek confirmation from his
sources, as I
thought perhaps he had got a story turned around or something?A
A But by this
time, he had lost all interest in cooperating with the project that
had been
taken away from him, and although he was very polite and friendly to
me, he
basically said he was too busy to devote any more time to it, and
told the
Italian publishers to take a flying leapa|.
More disturbing to me, however, is that the book ended very
prematurely in
the story.A A Most people know that De Tomaso suffered a terrible
stroke in
1993.A A It left him permanently paralyzed and unable to speak, but
his brain
was completely unaffected.A A He then entered into an absolutely
heroic
period of intensive rehab, determined to conquer his condition.A
A He gradually
improved somewhat, and was able to communicate in a very guttural
manner,
which only a handful of people were able to understand.
Even at that, he successfully negotiated the sale of his 51%
ownership of
Maserati to Ferrari for many millions of Euros, then launched the De
Tomaso
Bigua, which then evolved into a joint venture with Qvale, and then
blew up
spectacularly.A A Even as that was crashing to earth, he was
involved with a
grand scheme with backing of the Italian government to import
sturdy, simple
Russian 4x4 SUVs in KDC (knocked-down kit) form; the trucks would
arrive as
1:1 scale kits, and would be assembled in a new purpose-built
factory in the
economically depressed south of Italy, and would be powered by a
Belgian-made diesel engine sourced from a partnership with
Chrysler.A A This was
a VERY
complicated deal with a lot of moving parts.
The profits from this enterprise would then be funneled to De Tomaso
Automobili, who would use them to produce a new Vallelunga (Porsche
Boxter-competitor, likely powered by a Saab turbo motor), and
ultimately a new P
antera.
Unfortunately, that whole deal blew up too, after De Tomaso had
accepted a
huge pile of Euros from the Italian government.A A When the plug
got pulled
and he was unable to pay it back, De Tomaso went into liquidation,
then the
brand was sold, and more Italian economic soap opera took place for
a few
years afterwards, with the family not involved.
Anyway, even though both the Qvale and SUV deals fell apart, they
were VERY
ambitious projects, and were not merely vaporware--real cars were
produced
in both cases.A A This was a very significant and tragic end to the
story of
De Tomaso, both the man and the corporation--and it was completely
absent
from the book.
When I read it and found this out, I sent a strong WTFO note to both
English and Italian publishers and the author?A A Pozzi then
confessed that when
the project first started. Isabelle and Santiago promised full
cooperation
(without which the book would have been more or less impossible)
under the
condition that Pozzi agree to conceal the truth about anything that
happened
after 1993!
What kind of historian or journalist would agree to such terms?A
A In any
case, that's the deal Pozzi made, so all talk of those later failed
ventures
was eliminated.A A I find it especially pathetic, because if you
are really
interested in the MAN, it is something the family should be proud
of.A A But
instead, they are ashamed of the fact that the ventures failed and
want to
whitewash history and pretend they never happened.
So the text in the book more or less indicates that he had a stroke
in
1993, then sat around in a poopy diaper, drooling on himself until
he died in
2003.A A To me, THAT is pathetic, but that's how they wanted the
story told.
Charlie and I know for a fact that's not true, because when we met
him in
2001, he was absolutely FEROCIOUS, animated, loud, arrogant, and
full of piss
and vinegar.A A Although I happened to feel that he was a complete
jerk (as
did seemingly everybody else who knew him), he was far from the
vegetable the
book makes him out to be.
So, with all that said, when the book arrived the other day, I was
absolutely blown away at the high quality of the resultant effort.A
A The book is
considerably larger than I was expecting (it's 13x11 inches) and the
photography is simply stunning.A A There are beautiful photo
spreads of most of t
he
cars in the De Tomaso family collection (although since they don't
have a GT5
or GT5-S, those are absent, and apparently their Pantera Si broke
down and
they didn't want to bother towing it to be photographed so it's
absent too).
There are historical photos directly from De Tomaso's family
archives that
have never been seen before, and will never be seen anywhere else.
And there's the story.A A Given their well-established propensity
for
shading the truth, one has to wonder exactly how accurate it all is,
but I'm
willing to give them the benefit of the doubt about their telling of
their early
history at least.A A It's certainly educational (I learned a lot!)
and
fascinating.
So at the end of the day, even with all the caveats and asterisks,
this is
far and away the best De Tomaso book ever made, and if you have even
a
passing interest in the marque, you owe it to yourself to get a
copy!
Mike
P.S.A A It's worth noting that purely by coincidence, another
Italian-market
book on De Tomaso has just been printed; it was released on
September 30th.
A It's in Italian only and seems to be a much more modest effort
(208
pages, paperback?).A A I've only seen pictures of the book, but the
few pages I
saw revealed images I'd never seen elsewhere, so that might be worth
digging
up as well if you're really a nut about this stuffa|.
Here it is on the publisher's website:
[2][4]http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automobil
i-de-tomaso.ht
m
Not available on Amazon USA, but it is available on Amazon Italia:
[3][5]http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/887
5495947
and from numerous other European retailers as wella|.
-------------- next part --------------
A A All,
A A Herewith, my thoughts on the trials and tribulations of
producing a
A A book on De Tomasoa|.
A A More than a year ago, I got an e-mail out of the blue from
Daniele
A A Pozzi, a college professor in Italy.A He was committed to
writing a
A A book on De Tomaso, focusing on the man and his life rather than
on the
A A cars.A He had my address (among numerous others) as a
potential source
A A of help and information.A I replied right away, but heard
nothing back.
A A Six or eight months later, I was again contacted by Dr.
Pozzi.A This
A A time when I replied, I mentioned I had replied earlier and
learned for
A A some reason he had never received that.A He seemed quite
excited when
A A he learned of my position as Profiles editor, and my ability to
support
A A him with images etc.
A A We went back and forth, as he discussed his vision for the
book.A He
A A wanted to tell the whole story of De Tomaso (so he said) and
end it
A A with coverage of how De Tomaso has touched the lives of
thousands of
A A people around the world, and made it possible to forge lasting
A A friendships through his cars.A Thus he was especially keen to
get
A A photos and information from club meetings such as the POCA Fun
Rally
A A and the various European meetings.
A A It took me a few weeks, but I scoured my archives and, not
wanting to
A A leave anything out, I gave him over 46,000 (!) individual
images I'd
A A collected over the years.A I did help by filtering them
somewhat, and I
A A put crucial historical images whose value I thought was
important in
A A key folders, and organized the others in various contexts (Fun
Rally
A A photos, Euro meeting photos, individual car photos, people
photos
A A etc.).A I burned them to USB sticks and sent them to him.A
During this
A A time, he had been peppering me with questions, asking me to
fact-check
A A certain technical details (he appears to be more of a historian
than a
A A traditional 'car guy'), etc.
A A The Italian postal service leaves more than a bit to be
desired, and it
A A took almost two months (!) for the sticks to arrive.A But in
the
A A meantime, things had taken a bit of a turn.
A A It was never clear to me if Dr. Pozzi had the idea to write a
book, and
A A then found a publisher to produce it, or if the publisher
wanted to
A A produce a book, and found a guy to write it.A But clearly
their
A A relationship was not all that it could have been.A Pozzi had a
very
A A clear image in his mind of what he wanted his book to be--he
wanted it
A A to be positive and uplifting, and a primary goal was to show
the
A A happiness that De Tomaso's works have generated among many
people like
A A us.
A A The publisher had different ideas, and thought that was totally
A A stupid.A They wanted a straight historical biography without
all the
A A happy kumbyah stuff.A There was a meeting in the publisher's
office,
A A and one can imagine what an Italian business confrontation
looks/sounds
A A like.A Lots of yelling and arm-waving, and at the end of it,
they took
A A his manuscript and fired him from the project!
A A My images arrived just after this all happened, so none of them
were
A A incorporated into the book.A (The only things he got from me
that were
A A included in the book were photos of Dave Jacobsen's beautiful
Pre-L
A A Pantera, which was a Profiles centerfold car--I had sent those
to him
A A earlier, and numerous photos of that car are scattered
throughout the
A A book including on the cover, and Dave is rightly given photo
credit).
A A Shortly afterwards, you may recall that Ed Mendez was contacted
by a US
A A publisher looking for some help in producing an
English-language
A A version of the book, and he shared that info with us.A Several
of you
A A expressed interest, but I contacted the publisher directly and
asked
A A him WTF since I was already deeply involved in the project?
A A The publisher immediately phoned me in surprise, as he had no
A A knowledge.
A A It turns out that there was a big book fair in New York City,
and the
A A Italian company had showed off an Italian-language mockup of
the book,
A A and was seeking a US partner to produce an English-language
version
A A alongside of it.A Both editions would be printed at the same
time in
A A Italy.A They assured everyone that this was a turn-key,
ready-for-print
A A book that only needed translation, so Dalton Books bought it.
A A This outfit is known for producing really, really, REALLY
high-quality
A A car books--limited-edition leather bound box sets on the
Rolls-Royce
A A Silver Ghost that sell for $1750, that kind of thing.
A A They hired an Italian-to-English translator to translate the
text (one
A A who supposedly had a good grasp of both languages but didn't
really
A A know automobiles specifically), and when that was done, they
sent the
A A text to me for fact-checking and editing.
A A The translation left a lot to be desired; there was more than a
little
A A flat-tire English, where it would be obvious that the writer
didn't
A A speak the language fluently, and re-writing the factually
correct text
A A into proper, flowing English was a big job.A However, there
were a LOT
A A of factual and technical errors, which took quite some time to
sort
A A through and correct. That process alone probably took me 20-30
hours,
A A as when I read something that I believed to be wrong, I had to
be able
A A to prove it to them (and myself) so had to do a lot of
independent
A A research.A The Italian publisher got quite annoyed, because I
pointed
A A out loads of technical and historical inaccuracies, which
needed to be
A A corrected in the English language version, and then they felt
compelled
A A to change those same errors in the Italian version.
A A (One example--Pozzi got it backwards and thought the Vallelunga
A A prototypes were made in fiberglass and the production cars were
in
A A aluminum, but we all know that is demonstrably untrue; there
are only
A A three known aluminum Fissore prototypes and all the Ghia cars,
A A including the one De Tomaso owns today, are fiberglass).
A A There were some 'facts' that I believed were incorrect, but I
couldn't
A A prove it.A I would then ask Pozzi to seek confirmation from
his
A A sources, as I thought perhaps he had got a story turned around
or
A A something?A But by this time, he had lost all interest in
cooperating
A A with the project that had been taken away from him, and
although he was
A A very polite and friendly to me, he basically said he was too
busy to
A A devote any more time to it, and told the Italian publishers to
take a
A A flying leapa|.
A A More disturbing to me, however, is that the book ended very
prematurely
A A in the story.A Most people know that De Tomaso suffered a
terrible
A A stroke in 1993.A It left him permanently paralyzed and unable
to speak,
A A but his brain was completely unaffected.A He then entered into
an
A A absolutely heroic period of intensive rehab, determined to
conquer his
A A condition.A He gradually improved somewhat, and was able to
communicate
A A in a very guttural manner, which only a handful of people were
able to
A A understand.
A A Even at that, he successfully negotiated the sale of his 51%
ownership
A A of Maserati to Ferrari for many millions of Euros, then
launched the De
A A Tomaso Bigua, which then evolved into a joint venture with
Qvale, and
A A then blew up spectacularly.A Even as that was crashing to
earth, he was
A A involved with a grand scheme with backing of the Italian
government to
A A import sturdy, simple Russian 4x4 SUVs in KDC (knocked-down
kit) form;
A A the trucks would arrive as 1:1 scale kits, and would be
assembled in a
A A new purpose-built factory in the economically depressed south
of Italy,
A A and would be powered by a Belgian-made diesel engine sourced
from a
A A partnership with Chrysler.A This was a VERY complicated deal
with a lot
A A of moving parts.
A A The profits from this enterprise would then be funneled to De
Tomaso
A A Automobili, who would use them to produce a new Vallelunga
(Porsche
A A Boxter-competitor, likely powered by a Saab turbo motor), and
A A ultimately a new Pantera.
A A Unfortunately, that whole deal blew up too, after De Tomaso had
A A accepted a huge pile of Euros from the Italian government.A
When the
A A plug got pulled and he was unable to pay it back, De Tomaso
went into
A A liquidation, then the brand was sold, and more Italian economic
soap
A A opera took place for a few years afterwards, with the family
not
A A involved.
A A Anyway, even though both the Qvale and SUV deals fell apart,
they were
A A VERY ambitious projects, and were not merely vaporware--real
cars were
A A produced in both cases.A This was a very significant and
tragic end to
A A the story of De Tomaso, both the man and the corporation--and
it was
A A completely absent from the book.
A A When I read it and found this out, I sent a strong WTFO note to
both
A A English and Italian publishers and the author?A Pozzi then
confessed
A A that when the project first started. Isabelle and Santiago
promised
A A full cooperation (without which the book would have been more
or less
A A impossible) under the condition that Pozzi agree to conceal the
truth
A A about anything that happened after 1993!
A A What kind of historian or journalist would agree to such
terms?A In any
A A case, that's the deal Pozzi made, so all talk of those later
failed
A A ventures was eliminated.A I find it especially pathetic,
because if you
A A are really interested in the MAN, it is something the family
should be
A A proud of.A But instead, they are ashamed of the fact that the
ventures
A A failed and want to whitewash history and pretend they never
happened.
A A So the text in the book more or less indicates that he had a
stroke in
A A 1993, then sat around in a poopy diaper, drooling on himself
until he
A A died in 2003.A To me, THAT is pathetic, but that's how they
wanted the
A A story told.A Charlie and I know for a fact that's not true,
because
A A when we met him in 2001, he was absolutely FEROCIOUS, animated,
loud,
A A arrogant, and full of piss and vinegar.A Although I happened
to feel
A A that he was a complete jerk (as did seemingly everybody else
who knew
A A him), he was far from the vegetable the book makes him out to
be.
A A So, with all that said, when the book arrived the other day, I
was
A A absolutely blown away at the high quality of the resultant
effort.A The
A A book is considerably larger than I was expecting (it's 13x11
inches)
A A and the photography is simply stunning.A There are beautiful
photo
A A spreads of most of the cars in the De Tomaso family collection
A A (although since they don't have a GT5 or GT5-S, those are
absent, and
A A apparently their Pantera Si broke down and they didn't want to
bother
A A towing it to be photographed so it's absent too).A There are
historical
A A photos directly from De Tomaso's family archives that have
never been
A A seen before, and will never be seen anywhere else.
A A And there's the story.A Given their well-established
propensity for
A A shading the truth, one has to wonder exactly how accurate it
all is,
A A but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt about
their
A A telling of their early history at least.A It's certainly
educational (I
A A learned a lot!) and fascinating.
A A So at the end of the day, even with all the caveats and
asterisks, this
A A is far and away the best De Tomaso book ever made, and if you
have even
A A a passing interest in the marque, you owe it to yourself to get
a copy!
A A Mike
A A P.S.A It's worth noting that purely by coincidence, another
A A Italian-market book on De Tomaso has just been printed; it was
released
A A on September 30th.A It's in Italian only and seems to be a
much more
A A modest effort (208 pages, paperback?).A I've only seen
pictures of the
A A book, but the few pages I saw revealed images I'd never seen
elsewhere,
A A so that might be worth digging up as well if you're really a
nut about
A A this stuffa|.
A A Here it is on the publisher's website:
A
A [4][6]http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automob
ili-de-toma
A A so.htm
A A Not available on Amazon USA, but it is available on Amazon
Italia:
A
A [5][7]http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/8
875495947
A A and from numerous other European retailers as wella|.
References
A A 1.
mailto:[8]detomaso%40poca.com?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BDeTomaso%5D%20On%20
writing%20a%20book%20on%20De%20Tomaso....&In-Reply-To=%3C3c4293.3252
5d66.43a5bf90%[9]40aol.com%3E
A A 2.
[10]http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automobili-
de-tomaso.ht
A A 3.
[11]http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/88754
95947
A A 4.
[12]http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automobili-
de-toma
A A 5.
[13]http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/88754
95947
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5. http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/8875495947
6. http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automobili-de-toma
7. http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/8875495947
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10. http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automobili-de-tomaso.ht
11. http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/8875495947
12. http://www.edizioniilfiorino.com/catalogo/sport/0488/automobili-de-toma
13. http://www.amazon.it/Automobili-De-Tomaso-Dante-Candini/dp/8875495947
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