Ferrari 550 Maranello Prodrive book review

Last year’s victory for Ferrari at Le Mans broke a long drought for the marque, at least as regards making P1. But many a Ferrari has been seen not only at La Sarthe but in GT racing across Europe and America, and one of the most successful was the 550 in all its variants. If you want to know everything about the 550 Maranello developed by Prodrive in forensic detail, this is the right package. Divided into two volumes, one on the car and one on the racing, it’s a mammoth production supplied in a substantial slipcase, and not exactly cheap – though the price nicely matches the model number.

While the subtitle The Last V12 Ferrari to win at Le Mans is slightly misleading, the 2003 car’s GTS class win was a big achievement among overall honours in the Spa 24 Hours and more than 60 other victories. Marque expert Keith Bluemel talks to people directly involved, such as David Richards and the engineers and tech gurus who developed chassis, V12 motor and bodywork – Peter Stevens was responsible for that and describes such small details as the clever front splitter.

There is a feast of photos of cars stripped for development, test versions, and the end result dismantled and re-mantled to illustrate the bare bones, plus tasteful shots showing individual components. Bluemel’s careful descriptions of the crucial parts are a salutary reminder of how much effort goes into turning a road car into a winning racing machine. With my technical leaning I spent more time on the development and the oily bits in volume one than on the racing part, but despite a blizzard of results from the cars’ many events over five works seasons, and many since, there’s a succinct summary of each and a plethora of photographs, including shots of people, pits and workshops giving you a team member’s view.

Drivers too have their say: Tomáš Enge, Darren Turner, Peter Kox and many others, so this is definitely an onboard view; sadly Colin McRae isn’t around to tell us how he found tackling the French classic in a 550.
It’s a sumptuous offering which includes full chassis records with results and input from current owners of these now veteran cars, but you need to be a committed fan of the machine to get the maximum emotional value from your costly purchase. GC

Ferrari 550 Maranello Prodrive
Keith Bluemel
Girardo & Co, £550
ISBN 9781399957830