Review of the Turbo 3.0 book in Octane magazine's October 2019 issue:

We'll come clean: this book was released last year but our review copy was mislaid during Octane's hastily carried-out office relocation form Bedfordshite to London. It's author, Ryan Snodgrass, very kindly offered to send us another one—and we're so glad he did, because this is a truly exceptional work.

A companion volume to Snodgrass' previous magnum opus, Carrera 2.7, this mammoth 536-page tribute to the Porsche 911 Turbo is printed on creamy archival paper and presented in a stout slipcase. Pay extra for the 300-off Publisher's Edition and you get an even stouter clamshell box that additionally houses convincing reproductions of Porsche ephemera such as press releases and photos, and actual 35mm colour slides, plus a 20-page supplement on how the book was put together.

Is either version worth the money? Emphatically yes, because the level of detail and the production values are stunning. To give just two examples: expert financial book-keepers were hired to check the production data for all 2819 Turbos built; and because no detailed cutaway drawing was ever made of the Turbo, noted cutaway artist Makoto Ouchi was commissioned to draw on. The print specification—which apparently involved '15-micron stochastic hybrid screens' and 'special wide-gamut inks'—will have any bibliophile salivating over their silkscreened linen slipcase.

Every possible aspect of the 1975–77 Turbo is covered in depth: development, build, mechanical, design, one-offs and special editions, racing versions... There's even a spread devoted to specific tyre inflators, jacks and plastic gloves supplied by Porsche for the Turbo's space-save tyre.

As you'll have gathered, we're impressed. It's taken a while for Turbo 3.0 to make it into these pages, but it was well worth the wait.

—Mark Dixon

"Ryan Snodgrass's book on early Porsche Turbos is probably the greatest single model book that I've ever seen in my life.  I have not been able to put it down since getting it. It is just full of every bit of geeky goodness about those cars. It is phenomenal."

Of course, when asked at 0:28:07 by Mark Green if manifested into a car, what kind of car would Robb Sass be, his affinity for the Turbo was clear. Sass answered he'd like to be a 1975 or 1976 Turbo Carrera, the first generation Turbo: "I think that they are kind of a little bit edgy. It was the height of the malaise era. A car I really respect as when everything else was slow and crappy, you had this car that would go 0 to 60 in about 5 seconds. Performance on par with a muscle car from ten years before at a time when people were building the Mustang II. If I could aspire to be any car...I'm not a 75-76 Turbo Carrera, but if I could that is probably what it would be as it was so shocking and so surprising and a little bit unpredictable." "Porsche never got the memo that the malaise era was going on."

The Turbo 3.0 book wins first place in the coveted MOTORWORLD BUCHPREIS for the Markenbuch category (best book for a single brand), which honors the best car books of the year. The award ceremony took place on Thursday, May 23, 2019 inside the Arthur Bechtel Classic Motors showroom at the Motorworld Stuttgart V8 Hotel in Böblingen, Germany.

For almost 20 years, noted automotive historian and journalist Jürgen Lewandowski has presided over the Autobuchpreis which honors the best works produced each year on automotive and motorsports topics. For 2018, MOTORWORLD Group became the primary sponsor for the Autobuchpreis, hosting the event and judging team of Jürgen Lewandowksi (chairman of the jury), Andreas Dünkel (Motorworld Group Chairman), Mark N. Backé (Grand Basel Chairman), Vittorio Strosek (Strosek Design), Michael Stoschek (Brose Chairman), Christian Steiger (Classic Cars Editor-in-Chief), Dr. Andreas Kaufmann (Leica Camera Chairman) and Robertino Wild (Capricorn Chairman). 

We are honored that the Turbo 3.0 book not only won an IPPY Gold medal at the 2019 Independent Book Publisher Awards, but the overall win within one of eight "Outstanding Books of the Year" categories was special, tying for the  Best Book Arts Craftsmanship category. This award is extra meaningful as all books published by independent publishers around the world were eligible, not just within the narrow field of automotive books. Tough competition for sure!

The IPPY “rewards those who exhibit the courage, innovation, and creativity to bring about change in the world of publishing,” with the judging criteria “based on quality of content, originality, design, and production with an emphasis on innovation and social relevance.” The eight overall Outstanding Books of the Year categories choose books from "regular entries for being the most heartfelt, unique, outspoken and/or experimental."

Many thanks to all the contributors to the success of the Turbo 3.0 book: art director Richard Baron; cover artist Guy Allen; cutaway illustrator Makoto Ouchi; photographers Claus Bachl, Michael Furman, and Randy Wells; editors Jonathan Stein and Mary Snodgrass; designer of our first book style Christoph Mäder; prepress support from iocolor with Stephanie Lock, John Bailey, and Gary Hawkey; and the printer Artron Art Group.

Published by Parabolica Press, Turbo 3.0 was officially available for purchase in October 2018. The 23rd Annual IPPY Awards ceremony will be held in New York City on May 28, 2019.