Ronnie,
Shouldn't you be at Goodwood?
Shouldn't you be at Goodwood?
Ronnie Spain's Book
- Thread starter gtjoey
- Start date
Rick,
Nope! No Goodwood for me. Never actually been. Next year for sure, but for now I still need a rectangular computer screen stuck in front of me for more hours each day than is sane.
I'll just have to get my Goodwood kicks courtesy of the Internet as usual.
Ronnie Spain
Nope! No Goodwood for me. Never actually been. Next year for sure, but for now I still need a rectangular computer screen stuck in front of me for more hours each day than is sane.
I'll just have to get my Goodwood kicks courtesy of the Internet as usual.
Ronnie Spain
Hi Ronnie,
Would LOVE to have a signed copy of your new book, please add me to your list.
Thank you
Jim
Would LOVE to have a signed copy of your new book, please add me to your list.
Thank you
Jim
Ronnie,
It would be fantastic if I could be included on your growing list.
After many years of following the build logs on this site and being involved in the completion of one car (KVA) and another ongoing (MDA) , I've finally joined a forum for the first time because of this thread. I've loved these cars for as long as I can remember and now happily my 14 year old son is sharing our passion. He shows a great interest in the history and provenance of the cars. I was amazed when he told me all about the cars we saw at the Goodwood Revival recently, particularly the Alan Mann lightweight GT40 and the MK IV (J-5)
Best regards
Chris
It would be fantastic if I could be included on your growing list.
After many years of following the build logs on this site and being involved in the completion of one car (KVA) and another ongoing (MDA) , I've finally joined a forum for the first time because of this thread. I've loved these cars for as long as I can remember and now happily my 14 year old son is sharing our passion. He shows a great interest in the history and provenance of the cars. I was amazed when he told me all about the cars we saw at the Goodwood Revival recently, particularly the Alan Mann lightweight GT40 and the MK IV (J-5)
Best regards
Chris
Ronnie,
I've already requsted a signed copy, but any date for publication?
Tom Tomlinson
I've already requsted a signed copy, but any date for publication?
Tom Tomlinson
Hi guys,
Catch up time again.
Robert, apart from requesting a copy here (for which my thanks), all you need to do for now is PM me your e-mail address sometime. Time comes, I'll contact everyone.
Jim P2188, roketman Ron and Chris Noakes, list amended accordingly. Thanks for the requests.
Vic, thanks for the concern, but I'll cope OK!
Tom. Publication date. I've thought long and hard about this, and have decided I don't want all those wives and children, or girlfriends (and children?) baying for my blood for spoiling their Christmas because hubby/dad/boyfriend has his nose stuck in a book about those damn cars all day.......
Well, no, actually. No such altruistic reason for it, but your Christmas mornings are not going to be able to be dominated by my interventtion I'm afraid. A huge - and I do mean huge - amount of new and incredible information and photographs was added to the pot by my long USA/Canada trip last year, and it is simply taking longer to deal with it all than I bargained for. Believe me, it's not for the want of effort on my part. If you want proof of how dominant sitting at the laptop has been for me this year I could post a photo of what my garden has become in its absence from my presence. I'm starting to get dirty looks from my neighbours. It's reminding me of something I heard in a TV interview when the guest explained that his garden had got into such a state that eventually he could see the grass waving above window height -- and it was worse for the neighbours downstairs!
Seriously though, I'm extremely sorry that I won't have the book with you by Christmas. I won't miss it by much. And I assure you all, had the book made it to you for Christmas it would have mucked up your Christmas Day. Much better if I just muck up an anonymous day in the new year. So have a great Christmas Day one and all, and I guarantee you, you will think the book worth the extra wait when you get it.
Really sorry about this, but no matter what I try, I just can't get there to be more than 24 hours in a day.
I'll post a summary of some of what you'll be getting in the book on this thread sometime next week, to keep your appetites whetted!!
All the best to everyone,
Ronnie Spain
Catch up time again.
Robert, apart from requesting a copy here (for which my thanks), all you need to do for now is PM me your e-mail address sometime. Time comes, I'll contact everyone.
Jim P2188, roketman Ron and Chris Noakes, list amended accordingly. Thanks for the requests.
Vic, thanks for the concern, but I'll cope OK!
Tom. Publication date. I've thought long and hard about this, and have decided I don't want all those wives and children, or girlfriends (and children?) baying for my blood for spoiling their Christmas because hubby/dad/boyfriend has his nose stuck in a book about those damn cars all day.......
Well, no, actually. No such altruistic reason for it, but your Christmas mornings are not going to be able to be dominated by my interventtion I'm afraid. A huge - and I do mean huge - amount of new and incredible information and photographs was added to the pot by my long USA/Canada trip last year, and it is simply taking longer to deal with it all than I bargained for. Believe me, it's not for the want of effort on my part. If you want proof of how dominant sitting at the laptop has been for me this year I could post a photo of what my garden has become in its absence from my presence. I'm starting to get dirty looks from my neighbours. It's reminding me of something I heard in a TV interview when the guest explained that his garden had got into such a state that eventually he could see the grass waving above window height -- and it was worse for the neighbours downstairs!
Seriously though, I'm extremely sorry that I won't have the book with you by Christmas. I won't miss it by much. And I assure you all, had the book made it to you for Christmas it would have mucked up your Christmas Day. Much better if I just muck up an anonymous day in the new year. So have a great Christmas Day one and all, and I guarantee you, you will think the book worth the extra wait when you get it.
Really sorry about this, but no matter what I try, I just can't get there to be more than 24 hours in a day.
I'll post a summary of some of what you'll be getting in the book on this thread sometime next week, to keep your appetites whetted!!
All the best to everyone,
Ronnie Spain
PM sent. Thank you....
Ronnie, somehow I started this thread
all I can say is I cant wait, enjoy the holiday season....will pm my adress and all if thats okay.Thanks again......GTJOEY1314
I am still convince that the rarest copy of Ronnies new book will be unsigned!!!!
Regards Allan
Regards Allan
Seymour Snerd
Lifetime Supporter
Hi all,
I promised some time back to give you all a brief summary of the content of the new book. Apologies to you all for having taken so long to get round to doing so, and since I have not managed to get you the book in time for Christmas, the least I can do is give you the summary.
There is actually so much that I really don’t know where to start, but I imagine the thing many of you will most like to hear is that with very few exceptions, every single car’s history will be fully illustrated from as near to day one as possible, right through to each car’s latest trim, colour photos being used as often as possible. This aim has been one of my main driving forces. There are just a very few cars whose photo documentation still comes up short after all these years, and I apologise for those few gaps. But it can’t be helped. I’ve done my best. And I need something to still chase after once the book is out!!
Then there is also the full development programme, from the full details of the Ferrari proposal and eventual breakdown of talks, through Roy Lunn’s very first proposals for what would become the GT40, including all the early visualisations of what the GT40 was proposed to look like as the months passed, up through all the early tests with the Lola Mark 6, right up through all the development, testing and major races to the end of the whole works process with GT40 P/1075’s second successive Le Mans victory. Through that entire section of the book absolutely everything has been covered in strict chronological order, with dated headings for every race, test and event of any significance to guide you through. I have attempted to do exactly the same for the individual histories, but for the sake of presentation it is not always precisely possible. But you’ll never have to look far for the appropriate photos for appropriate events, all of which are clearly dated for ease of navigation, as with the development chapters.
What does all this mean with regard to photographic content? Well, it means you’re going to get a lot of them. I’ve already got over 1400 photos none of which I could do without, and I’m not finished deciding yet. The end total will be considerably higher than that. A few of the photos will, I apologise, be pretty poor, but are – after all these years of researching the GT40 – the best such examples to illustrate events in individual cars’ histories that I have yet found. So rather than leave gaps, they’re going in. But I have so many that will more than compensate for those, which to me are classed as “Wow” factor photos. By that I mean the kind of photos that when I see them in a book or in a magazine article they just make me think “Wow” to myself. I have bought books for the sake of only a handful of such photos, and I don’t just mean books on the GT40. There will be so many of these that they will just blow you away. A lot of them still have the “Wow” effect on me, even though I’ve had them here for years! But a huge number of the photographs only became available within just over the last year, and believe me, there was a lot of “Wow” in that lot! And you’ll have instant knowledge of who to thank for each of them, because the photographer/source will be identified in the caption for every single photo.
By now you’ll quite probably have worked out for yourselves from all this that, as a result of the massive amount of content, the book is going to have to be in two volumes, as it would be unmanageable, if even producible, as a single volume. Unavoidably there just isn’t any other option. But at least whichever half you are wanting to look at will be able to be picked up without the necessity for weight training exercises in advance!
So in itemised summary, the book will contain the full details of, among other things:
A) - The ultimately failed attempt to buy Ferrari.
B) - All the early designs for the car that would become the GT40, illustrated either as drawings or as photos of models. I will be amazed if many of you will have seen the bulk of these in your lives. Until last year I had not seen several of them!
C) - Every Lola Mark 6 test that Ford ran as early development work while design of the new Ford was being carried out.
D) - Every Ford Motor Company test and race with the first prototypes up until FAV was established before Reims that first year.
E) - Every FAV race and test through to the end of the company’s development participation.
F) - Every Shelby American race and test session through the whole GT40 programme.
G) - A comprehensive, fully illustrated, full history of each and every car.
H) - And……. the details of much, much more besides.
And there will be a lot of surprises along the way.
I am the first to admit that this new book has been a long time coming. A long time coming! But I doubt if there will be a single one of you who won’t forgive me for the delay when you see what it has all been in aid of.
There are so many people to thank that the acknowledgements are going to look like a chapter in their own right!
Hope that will do as a brief summary to help you all to keep the faith, and to breathe a sigh of relief that you won’t miss all the great Christmas Day TV programmes with your nose stuck in my book!
A very Merry Christmas to everyone,
Ronnie Spain
I promised some time back to give you all a brief summary of the content of the new book. Apologies to you all for having taken so long to get round to doing so, and since I have not managed to get you the book in time for Christmas, the least I can do is give you the summary.
There is actually so much that I really don’t know where to start, but I imagine the thing many of you will most like to hear is that with very few exceptions, every single car’s history will be fully illustrated from as near to day one as possible, right through to each car’s latest trim, colour photos being used as often as possible. This aim has been one of my main driving forces. There are just a very few cars whose photo documentation still comes up short after all these years, and I apologise for those few gaps. But it can’t be helped. I’ve done my best. And I need something to still chase after once the book is out!!
Then there is also the full development programme, from the full details of the Ferrari proposal and eventual breakdown of talks, through Roy Lunn’s very first proposals for what would become the GT40, including all the early visualisations of what the GT40 was proposed to look like as the months passed, up through all the early tests with the Lola Mark 6, right up through all the development, testing and major races to the end of the whole works process with GT40 P/1075’s second successive Le Mans victory. Through that entire section of the book absolutely everything has been covered in strict chronological order, with dated headings for every race, test and event of any significance to guide you through. I have attempted to do exactly the same for the individual histories, but for the sake of presentation it is not always precisely possible. But you’ll never have to look far for the appropriate photos for appropriate events, all of which are clearly dated for ease of navigation, as with the development chapters.
What does all this mean with regard to photographic content? Well, it means you’re going to get a lot of them. I’ve already got over 1400 photos none of which I could do without, and I’m not finished deciding yet. The end total will be considerably higher than that. A few of the photos will, I apologise, be pretty poor, but are – after all these years of researching the GT40 – the best such examples to illustrate events in individual cars’ histories that I have yet found. So rather than leave gaps, they’re going in. But I have so many that will more than compensate for those, which to me are classed as “Wow” factor photos. By that I mean the kind of photos that when I see them in a book or in a magazine article they just make me think “Wow” to myself. I have bought books for the sake of only a handful of such photos, and I don’t just mean books on the GT40. There will be so many of these that they will just blow you away. A lot of them still have the “Wow” effect on me, even though I’ve had them here for years! But a huge number of the photographs only became available within just over the last year, and believe me, there was a lot of “Wow” in that lot! And you’ll have instant knowledge of who to thank for each of them, because the photographer/source will be identified in the caption for every single photo.
By now you’ll quite probably have worked out for yourselves from all this that, as a result of the massive amount of content, the book is going to have to be in two volumes, as it would be unmanageable, if even producible, as a single volume. Unavoidably there just isn’t any other option. But at least whichever half you are wanting to look at will be able to be picked up without the necessity for weight training exercises in advance!
So in itemised summary, the book will contain the full details of, among other things:
A) - The ultimately failed attempt to buy Ferrari.
B) - All the early designs for the car that would become the GT40, illustrated either as drawings or as photos of models. I will be amazed if many of you will have seen the bulk of these in your lives. Until last year I had not seen several of them!
C) - Every Lola Mark 6 test that Ford ran as early development work while design of the new Ford was being carried out.
D) - Every Ford Motor Company test and race with the first prototypes up until FAV was established before Reims that first year.
E) - Every FAV race and test through to the end of the company’s development participation.
F) - Every Shelby American race and test session through the whole GT40 programme.
G) - A comprehensive, fully illustrated, full history of each and every car.
H) - And……. the details of much, much more besides.
And there will be a lot of surprises along the way.
I am the first to admit that this new book has been a long time coming. A long time coming! But I doubt if there will be a single one of you who won’t forgive me for the delay when you see what it has all been in aid of.
There are so many people to thank that the acknowledgements are going to look like a chapter in their own right!
Hope that will do as a brief summary to help you all to keep the faith, and to breathe a sigh of relief that you won’t miss all the great Christmas Day TV programmes with your nose stuck in my book!
A very Merry Christmas to everyone,
Ronnie Spain
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