6 YEARS AND 157 ISSUES LATER

   As I sit down to knock out some profound article regarding Ferrari history, event or anything else that tickles my fancy, I realize this issue is a poignant one for me personally.

    It was exactly six years ago I became editor for the Ferrari Market Letter. In issue 3816 my first official act as editor was to write a preview of what to expect during Monterey week.

    Since then I have presided over one hundred and fifty seven issues. I have not had to write an article for every issue. We have other contributors to help carry that load.

    Auction reports for the big ones are saved for Rick Carey. His experience and perseverance allows him to view and evaluate the mass of cars at multiple auctions. Scottsdale, Amelia and Monterey are just a few he covers. Those locations are populated by several different auction companies with hundreds of cars flowing through the tents over several days.

    Carey provides us with Ferrari reports but he inspects many other marques from the exotic to the mundane. I’m glad he does this as I don’t have the patience or attention span to look at that many cars.

    Other writers send us stories. Some you see semi-regularly. Marc Sonnery becomes our eyes and ears for European events. Gregor Schulz and Lucio Celia also send us articles from Europe.

    Here in America, Dom Miliano, Steve Kittrell and Wallace Wyss are published often. Then we get random submissions from subscribers, like Enrique Senior and David Wheeler. There are others who have an interesting story to tell, or event they have been to, and want to share their experience.  We relish each one because it makes our job easier.

    Filling three, four or even five pages every two weeks is harder than you think. Having a human interest story in the tank allows us to pull it out when the creative juices run low. Hint, hint.

    While reflecting upon the previous six years I remembered I had written articles for the Ferrari Market Letter long before I ever thought I would become a significant member of the team.

    Back in 1990 I wrote several Tech-Tip articles. It was a recurring section on maintenance and covered diverse items as battery replacement, brake hose problems and other simple items an owner might need to know about their Ferrari.

    I wrote about an oil hose recall on the 328/Mondial cars. Nothing rolls, or rotates, without the help of a bearing and that was the gist of another article. There was also a two-part series on hardware; talk about getting down to the nuts and bolts of a Ferrari!

    Much later in 2007 after I started to work for Gerald, I was able to publish a ground breaking article, Untangling the Tangled Web, that chronicled the convoluted histories of four 375 MMs that had the serial numbers swapped at birth. That research has become the accepted story of how it occurred.

    I often joke, if my seventh grade English teacher knew I write for a living today she would not believe it. I can take most manuscripts and edit them to make any story sound good. So don’t be shy about not being a good writer.

    The point is, we can publish just about anything when it comes to Ferrari. If you have something you would like to share with at least one person (me!) and wouldn’t mind if thousands of others also got to enjoy, please by all means, drop me a line.