"Throughout his career, virtues such as modesty, helpfulness and courtesy were paramount to him. His noble character, indeed his chivalry, made him unforgettable. In several races that I drove against him, I also got to know his fair and decent attitude towards racing and his opponents." This is how Hans Herrmann describes his fellow countryman Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips in the foreword to the book.
This is exactly how one imagines "Taffy", as he was called by the English. All the portraits in the book make him appear friendly, radiant and content. In none of the pictures in this book does he appear arrogant or even dismissive. Always up for a joke, he was one of those contemporaries who loved racing above all else and considered himself lucky to be a part of it. With the Ferrari 156 "Sharknose", Trips was well on his way to the first German championship title in the premier class after the war. Only a few points separated him from it when he was torn from life in Monza 61 years ago.
Old photos of contemporary quality
The new illustrated book by Jörg-Thomas Födisch and Rainer Rossbach shows the career of the popular German racing driver on 192 pages. From 1954 to 1961, he did a great deal to help automobile racing regain popularity in Germany. Fantastic pictures by Bernard Cahier from a somewhat difficult time in terms of photography show the career of this attractive man on and off the track. He can often be seen with a 16mm Bolex film camera, which was always and everywhere in his luggage at all his races. A few also show him in his private surroundings, such as reading the newspaper in his neighbourhood before the 1960 US Grand Prix, but the vast majority were taken in the vicinity of racing cars: chatting casually in the pit lane before the start, with his face contorted with concentration behind the wheel or with a dust-blackened face after crossing the finish line.
The historical photos have all been prepared in a uniform style for modern digital printing and are sharp, high-contrast and vivid. As many as 14 of the more than 200 images are in color, and in a remarkably good quality for material that is at least 61 years old. In most cases, the captions contain all the important information, such as the people and racing cars pictured or the time and place of the race. Only on page 37, strictly speaking, have Stirling Moss and Olivier Gendebien been swapped. But anyone who buys this book will probably already know the two and be able to tell them apart.
Nice texts with overlaps
The predominantly large-format photographs of Trips and his colleagues clearly form the focus of the book. "Taffy" is not a biography and is rather restrained in terms of text. If you want to be cynical, you could argue that it should be a little more restrained. After all, the multi-page text sections by Richard von Frankenberg, Hartmut Lehbrink and Günther Molter all read well, but contain more or less the same things: the purchase of a Porsche Super engine, for which Trips went into debt with 1000 marks; the chase to catch up with Hans Herrmann in the 1957 St. Bernhard hillclimb race or the brakes smoking off at the Mercedes-Benz debut in Sweden. However, the contemporary written contributions about Trips - von Frankenberg's "Zwischenbilanz" from 1958 and Molter's obituary from 1961 - are a nice textual bracket for the book.
Conclusion
"Taffy - A tribute to the 60th anniversary of the death of Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips" is, as they say, a "treat" for fans of motorsport history. Even if you already own a book (or several) about the Count and already know a lot about him, it is worth it just for his large and high-quality collection of photographs of a long-gone but wonderful time.
Bibliographical information
- Title: "Taffy - A tribute to the 60th anniversary of the death of Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips"
- Language: German
- Publisher: Jörg-Thomas Födisch and Rainer Roßbach
- Edition: 3rd edition March 2022
- Format: 300 x 300 mm, hardcover
- Scope: 192 pages, 210 illustrations (color and b/w)
- ISBN: 978-3-00-070005-7
- Price: EUR 49.90
- Buy/order: at Födisch F1or in a good bookshop
