The two-volume book on Porsche's 993 GT2 took first place in the category manufacturer/brand at the annual Motorworld Book Award in Munich, 2022. Half of the team of the authors, myself, travelled to Munich to accept the accolades. The other half of the GT2-authors, Jan Koum from the USA, couldn't make it due to geopgraphical restraints. The first one to be asked to enter the stage by head juror Jürgen Lewandowski was me. The grand seigneur of German automotive books: "Why don't you tell us something about your book..."
Well, one of the reasons why I became an author and not a TV host is, that I lack the repercussiveness of Jay Leno. As an author I can think about my sentences for weeks before I put them down. The next two hours were highly interesting as one could learn a lot about the coming about of very interesting books. Ich werde mir einige Bücher besorgen, wie zum Beispiel das Buch über den Ferrari 250 GTO von Porter Press, Motorlegenden Cars and Crimes von Christian Steiger, oder das Buch über die Marke Isdera, von Eberhard Schulz. Dieser, übrigens ein Ex-Porsche Mitarbeiter, erklärte kurzerhand, wie es zu dem Namen Isdera kam. Ein gewisser Anatole Lapine, der frühere Porsche Design Chef, sagte mal zu ihm, dass es bei einer Markenbildung auf jedes Detail ankommt. Man könne eine Marke nicht "Schulz" nennen. Wie würde denn Schulz für einen Portugiesen am Telefon klingen? Also wurde aus den Anfangsbuchstaben von Ingenieurbüro für Styling, Design und Racing eben Isdera. Das würde man auch in Portugal verstehen.
I want to thank the Motorworld Munich, the jury and last but nut least my co-author Jan Koum for this book award. The first victory is always memorable.
Photos copyright: Christoph Grannan