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 1953/1954Indianapolis 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 1956/1957Montage 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 P57Douglas 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 1979/1980Montage 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 RamFerrari F355 (alternative) 43 1995/1996 Ford GT90Alfa 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 ItaliaSerge 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 SpiderCeased 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
Günther Molter Federico Kirbus (1955) (editor in chief 1972–1973, 1976)
References
External links Official site Official U.S. site