The title is immediately reminiscent of James Bond: "His name was Siffert, Jo Siffert".
The first book about Jo Siffert was written by Jacques Deschenaux in 1972, the second by Richard Frankenberg in 1972, the third by Ed Heuvink from McKlein-Verlag in 2010 and the fourth now by Jean-Marie Wyder (Turbo editions) in 2021 and probably rounds off the career of the great racing driver. Jean-Marie Wyder is well known in the Swiss motorsport scene for his book series "Les Suisses Au Mans" (see reports on Zwischengas).
Jo Siffert, whose death will be commemorated for the 50th time on October 24, 2021, is and remains a figurehead for the entire Swiss nation. To be on the same level as Bernhard Russi and Roger Federer is very unusual for a motor sportsman in Switzerland.
An illustrated book on the 50th anniversary of his death
Author Jean Marie Wyder describes his book as follows: "This book is dedicated to Jo Siffert, who started racing in the early sixties. It is about a journey across four continents and seventeen countries, driving wherever the racing calendar took him, steering wheel in hand. You are invited to accompany him on this journey, making fun of time differences, weather changes and seasons."
Unusual structure
The book has an unusual and therefore very confusing structure. It starts in South Africa and ends in the USA. The race tracks of the countries are presented in words and pictures with chronologically arranged images. Taking France as an example, you can see pictures of Seppi in all the cars he drove in Albi, Bugatti/Le Mans, Clermont Ferrand, 24h Le Mans, Monthléry, Pau, Paul Ricard, Reims, Rouen and Cadours/Toulouse.
After the world tour of 430, there is a chapter on the CanAm series, then some more sports car races and finally 36 pages of "Long lost photos", where even more pictures made their way into the book. Unfortunately, it was all very chaotic, but the result was still a huge illustrated book with many never-before-seen pictures.
Authors not always named
It is only partly a reference work and only partly for bookworms, but it is extremely rich in images.
Despite being bilingual, only French and English are represented, which in turn refers us Alemanni to the pictures, because they are the same for everyone regardless of language.
It has to be said that the number of around 600 photos shown is absolutely enormous. Unfortunately, it is only thanks to today's digital technology that something like this is even possible, and this book about Jo Siffert is truly not an isolated case. Every picture that has ever been collected by fans, even as a print, can be scanned and printed, often without reference to the source or at most labeled "Archive: Somebody".
Bibliographic information
- Title: His name was Siffert, Jo Siffert
- Author: Jean Marie Wyder
- Publisher: Turbo Editions
- Languages: English, French
- Size: 432 pages, 610 photos
- ISBN 978-2-8399-3057-4
- Retail price: CHF 111.00
