Monzanapolis

When the Americans came to Monza to show Europeans how to race on oval tracks. When Monza hosted the fastest races in history. When the European pilots first refused the challenge and then, driving Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar, were sonorously beaten. It's an intriguing history of 1957 and 1958, that this books uncovers for the first time since its title, “Monzanapolis”, synthesis of the two worlds, Europe and America, and their most famous race tracks: Monza and Indianapolis.

The challenge among pilots, cars, technologies and mindsets on the two sides of the Atlantic ocean began in 1905 and for 50 years had plenty of interesting events: the Europeans went in America to win (and did it two times) and the Americans came to France and Italy (winning only once). All these races, at their time very important and famous, but nearly forgotten today, are described in detail in this book.

Aldo Zana

His earliest reports on motor racing date back to when he was nine. He wrote in school notebooks, just a single hand-written copy, a sort of newsletter reporting on the races of his 1:43rd scale model cars pushed around the floor at home: Mercury, Dinky Toys, Märklin, Crescent Toys and, later, Corgi Toys and Solido. In the Sixties he began contributing to car magazines in Italy, mainly Autosprint and then Rombo, and in foreign countries. In the meantime, he completed his studies for a PhD in theoretical physics. He specialized in historic cars, writing many articles for Italian and foreign trade magazines. His latest books on the theme are “The Saga of the Sports Prototype”, “The Monza 1000 km Race” and “Drivers from Another World” for AISA. He has always complemented his writing with photos, using Nikon cameras: in the picture, he is at work at the 1968 Monaco GP.