When Ferrari of Los Gatos opened, few people could afford an expensive sports car. In 1976, the average annual income was $12,686, and a new home cost about $48,000. Motorists in California could only buy gas on odd or even-numbered days based on the last digit of their license plate, due to the global oil crisis. Times were tough, and people were hesitant to take chances, especially with a car that cost more than a house. At the same time, Brian Burnett and his friend Richard Rivoir had the idea of starting a Ferrari dealership. The Dealer is the story of how one dealership, Ferrari of Los Gatos, fueled the rise of the iconic Italian sports car in the U.S. market on its way to becoming the number one Ferrari dealer in North America. Even Enzo Ferrari himself took notice, flying Brian and the other dealers to Italy to show his appreciation for their success. Customers included movie stars, sports celebrities, entertainers, and some with unusual sources of income and a strong desire for a low profile. Along the way, Burnett made friends, enemies, and millions of dollars, only to lose everything in the blink of an eye. Author Jim Ciardella shows readers a part of Ferrari that no one has even seen, with behind-the-scenes stories as told to him by Richard Rivoir and Brian Burnett, their customers and employees, and other North American dealers who all rode high and eventually burned out on selling fast cars.
When Ferrari of Los Gatos opened, few people could afford an expensive sports car. In 1976, the average annual income was $12,686, and a new home cost about $48,000. Motorists in California could only buy gas on odd or even-numbered days based on the last digit of their license plate, due to the global oil crisis. Times were tough, and people were hesitant to take chances, especially with a car that cost more than a house. At the same time, Brian Burnett and his friend Richard Rivoir had the idea of starting a Ferrari dealership. The Dealer is the story of how one dealership, Ferrari of Los Gatos, fueled the rise of the iconic Italian sports car in the U.S. market on its way to becoming the number one Ferrari dealer in North America. Even Enzo Ferrari himself took notice, flying Brian and the other dealers to Italy to show his appreciation for their success. Customers included movie stars, sports celebrities, entertainers, and some with unusual sources of income and a strong desire for a low profile. Along the way, Burnett made friends, enemies, and millions of dollars, only to lose everything in the blink of an eye. Author Jim Ciardella shows readers a part of Ferrari that no one has even seen, with behind-the-scenes stories as told to him by Richard Rivoir and Brian Burnett, their customers and employees, and other North American dealers who all rode high and eventually burned out on selling fast cars.
Clementa takes place on a future Planet Earth that's unlike any other in speculative fiction. Three hundred years from now, most machines have been broken up for scrap, and the rest are museum pieces. Yet no apocalypse--no disease epidemic, asteroid collision, or nuclear conflagration--has occurred. Agriculture has been abandoned. People live by omnifostering, an advanced kind of hunting and gathering. All animals run wild. All plants grow wild. People enjoy all the literature, music, dance, drama, and art that we enjoy today, plus countless new works created in the meantime. Nations have crumbled into thousands of self-sufficient homelands, each with its own language and culture. Money has become useless. Steeped in their local cultures, most of the people in most of these homelands are as happy as they could wish. Clementa concerns a rare exception--a homeland where an oppressed element of the population awakens to its rage and fights for liberation.
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