“The problem is that my apartment is quite small, and it’s now full of books,” explains Thomas Nehlert, whose Berlin home is bursting with around 3000 automotive titles.
“I think they weigh five or six tonnes.”
When Thomas was 12, his brother gave him a ’63 issue of German magazine Auto Motor und Sport, which kick-started his collection.
His first car books soon followed: The Great Racing Drivers of Our Time by Richard von Frankenberg, Enzo Ferrari’s autobiography and Anthony Pritchard’s The Ferrari V-12 Sports Cars.
Thomas Nehlert’s 3000-strong collection of classic car books is close to filling his home
His passion for the Prancing Horse began at around the same time.
“I watched the 1963 German Grand Prix at my grandmother’s house,” recalls Thomas. “John Surtees won in a Ferrari.”
Growing up a stone’s throw from Berlin’s legendary Avus, famous for its two six-mile straights and 43° banked corner, helped fuel his love of motorsport.
“I have been to every race there since 1965,” he says.
Today, the collection is a broad church, although books on Ferrari and Porsche are most common.
The library includes titles he has written himself, such as Group C, The Sports Car Races 1982-1992 and Porsche 956 001, Creating a Legend (on left)
