Automobile Year

Automobile Year

Editor	ETAI
Categories	Automobile & motorsport
Frequency	annually
Publisher	ETAI
Founded	1953
Country	France
Language	English, French, German
Website	Official Site

Automobile Year (formerly as Annual Automobile Review) is a yearbook specialising in automobile and motorsport, published annually in three different languages; English, French (as L'Année Automobile), German (as Auto-Jahr). More recent editions now carry the tagline: "The Annual For Car Enthusiasts". Most recently, from issue 63 in 2015, it is only published in French, as "L'Annee Automobile".

History

The book, then titled Annual Automobile Review was launched in 1953 by Ami Guichard (1921–1986), a Swiss motoring writer and entrepreneur from Lausanne who published it through his company, Edita S.A. He brought along the best writers and photographers he knew including Charles Faroux (the founder of the 24 Hours of Le Mans), Giovanni Lurani and Yves Debraine. One of the other contributor, Bernard Cahier was credited by Guichard for introducing him to the world of motorsport. Unlike the German and French editions, the English edition in 1956 underwent a name change when it became Automobile Year, relegating its original title to the book's subtitle and banishing it the following year.

Jean-Rodolphe Piccard, the book's deputy editor of ten years, replaced Guichard in 1986, following his sudden death, in turn, his publishing company Editions JR took over the running of the book. In 2005 Piccard retired and Christian Philippsen, a Monégasque motoring industry consultant, took over the running of the yearbook. In 2009 ETA-I of France took over publication of the Annual, after purchasing the rights from Christian Philippsen.

Book content

Since its launch, the book is split into three different sections, Industry, Motorsport and Culture. Following an introduction by the editor, the book begins with a section about the motor industry with news and new car launches. The motorsport section follows, starting with a section on Formula One and highly significant single seater series (A1GP, Indianapolis 500, IRL and Champ Car), followed by endurance racing reviews (24 Hours of Le Mans, Le Mans Series, American Le Mans Series and FIA GT Championship), then touring car racing and finally rallying (World Rally Championship and Dakar Rally). A section for car culture concludes the series.

Difference to previous editions

Prior to when Philippsen came to the helm, the book was split into two sections, a section featuring new automobile launches and culture and motorsport season reviews with results points table following that.

In the past, sportscar racing had always followed F1, then the US racing scene, rallying, F3000 and finally touring cars ends the section.

The US Open wheel racing coverage, CART in particular, was placed within the US racing section along with NASCAR and the Trans-Am Series, nowadays, it follows the F1 coverage. Despite being a stock car racing series, NASCAR is now placed within the touring car section with WTCC and DTM. Until 1989, these and the IMSA Camel GT series was the only non-FIA events the book covered. The IMSA series, until 1985, was covered within the US racing section, when followed the World Sportscar Championship coverage in their own section.

Until the series demise, the touring car section dealt only the European Touring Car Championship, excepting for 1987 when it covered the World Touring Car Championship. After that, it covered significant European domestic series such as DTM {Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft}

Also previously featured in its own section was significant FIA European single seater series such as F3000, its precessor F2 and F3.

The book concludes with a race result section, featuring a depth by depth results of each F1 and 24 hours of Le Mans races covered with a points table of FIA series, these are now incorporated into their own section.

List of Automobile Year editions

Edition	Year	Cover	Managing Editor	English Editor	German Editor	Comments
1	1953/1954	Indianapolis 500 drawing of winning car	Ami Guichard			Available only in softbound.
2	1954/1955	softcover edition has Alfa Romeo BAT7 illustration				Rarest of all editions. Rumoured that only 800 were believed to be printed and most of those were lost. The loss resulted from a fire at the publishing house in Switzerland in late 1954. Surviving number today is unknown, but hard cover versions with dust cover in good condition, sell on auction sites for approximately US $800. Released in either softback or hardback.
3	1955/1956	dust jacket has 3 illustrations of Mercedes Benz W196 GP, Ferrari sports -racing car & Coachbuilt special		Gordon Wilkins		First to be released exclusively as a hardbound.
4	1956/1957	Montage of Fiat Turbina, Renault Etoile Filante				English version became "Automobile Year"
5	1957/1958	Technical illustration of Vanwall VW 5
6	1958/1959
7	1959/1960	Stirling Moss & Cooper T51				First to use a photograph instead of illustration as a cover
8	1960/1961	Ferrari 250 TR59/60
9	1961/1962	Ferrari 250 TRI/61
10	1962/1963	Graham Hill & BRM P57		Douglas Armstrong
11	1963/1964	Jim Clark & Lotus 25
12	1964/1965	AC Cobra
13	1965/1966	Jim Clark & Lotus 33
14	1966/1967	Scuderia Filipinetti Ford GT40
15	1967/1968	Denny Hulme & Brabham BT24
16	1968/1969	Graham Hill & Lotus 49B
17	1969/1970	Jackie Stewart & Matra MS80
18	1970/1971	Jochen Rindt & Lotus 72C
19	1971/1972	Denny Hulme & McLaren M8D
20	1972/1973	Emerson Fittipaldi & Lotus 72D
21	1973/1974	Jackie Stewart & Tyrrell 005
22	1974/1975	Clay Regazzoni & Ferrari 312B3
23	1975/1976	Niki Lauda & Ferrari 312T
25	1976/1977	Jody Scheckter & Tyrrell P34
26	1977/1978	Montage of past 25 editions
26	1978/1979	Mario Andretti leads Ronnie Peterson in their Lotus 79
27	1979/1980	Montage of Scheckter in his Ferrari 312T4, Andretti in his Lotus 80
28	1980/1981	Start of the US Grand Prix West
29	1981/1982	Nelson Piquet & Brabham BT49C
30	1982/1983	Gold and chrome body panel		Ian Norris
31	1983/1984	Illustration of a driver in a Formula One car cornering
32	1984/1985	Alain Prost & McLaren MP4/2
33	1985/1986	Illustrated reflection of a Porsche 944, showing a Renault F1 driver standing toward his car.
34	1986/1987	Nigel Mansell & Williams FW11	Jean-Rodolphe Piccard
35	1987/1988	concept car		David Hodges
36	1988/1989	Italdesign Aztec
37	1989/1990	Honda NSX
38	1990/1991	Bertone Nivola
39	1991/1992	concept car		Ian Norris
40	1992/1993	Audi Avus quattro
41	1993/1994	Isdera Commendatore 112i
42	1994/1995	Dodge Viper GTS & Dodge Ram Ferrari F355 (alternative)
43	1995/1996	Ford GT90 Alfa Romeo GTV (alternative)
44	1996/1997	Ford Indigo
45	1997/1998	Alfa Romeo Scighera
46	1998/1999	Audi TT
47	1999/2000	SEAT Formula
48	2000/2001	Jaguar F-Type
49	2001/2002	Spyker C8
50	2002/2003	Montage of past 50 covers
51	2003/2004	headlight
52	2004/2005	Koenigsegg CCR
53	2005/2006	Maserati Birdcage 75th	Christian Philippsen
54	2006/2007	Design sketch of a Ferrari concept car
55	2007/2008	Mazda Ryuga
56	2008/2009	Honda concept car
57	2009/2010	Ferrari 458 Italia	Serge Bellu
58	2010/2011	Venturi America EV
59	2011/2012	Citroën DS4
60	2012/2013	Jaguar F-Type
61	2013/2014	McLaren P1
62	2014/2015	Mercedes-AMG GT
63	2015/2016	Ferrari 488 Spider				Ceased publishing in English and German.Published only in French under the original title " L'Annee Automobile".

Past contributors

• John Fitch (1954)
• Paul Frère (1954)
• Denis Jenkinson (1955)
• Giovanni Lurani (1954)
• Gordon Murray
• Jacques Ickx
• Günther Molter
• Federico Kirbus (1955)
• José Rosinski (editor in chief 1972–1973, 1976)

External links

• Official site
• Official U.S. site