Once upon a time...

Everything began when I was younger than 10
I was born in Aviano (Pn), a place where everyone can get in touch with American people (please note that there is the American Military Airport in Aviano!) and where I have been seeing very particolar cars up from my birth!
Corvette, Trans Am, Firebird, Camaro have usually been driven in my town.
One day a wonderful FIAT X1/9 captured me - first production range, yellow coloured, always parked on the corner of a street closed to the grosser's.
I'm sure time left its sign on that car even during those years it was damaged..
One day, more or less 20 years ago, I was captured by a wonderful Lancia Beta Montecarlo, grey coloured, that belonged to a fellow town person.
And it was love at first sight. The Montecarlo became my favorite car up to that moment. May be because of the 037, its "daughter" was a reference for everyone. And I began to love even the Abarth 030, which was the first Montecarlo race version.
I loved the two above mentioned cars and my third love was the Renault Alpine A310 V6. As nowadays even during the 80's not many cars of this type were on the road.
Well, to tell the truth I never saw one of them when I was a child. I saw this wonderful car in a depliant that one of my father's friends gave me by chance. And that nowaday I jealously look after.
Thanks to the money I earned by working I could gratify myself..
I started seeking for my first love, the Beta Montecarlo. Here and there, from Udine toVenice I went and finally found many of them. And those that I found were not cheap at all..
This was the reason why I decided to look for another type of car, the X 1/9, and I can say now that I did the right thing.


May 1998

It was May in 1998, when I decided to buy a X1/9 Five Speed 1980. Where? But obviously at 12 km far from the place where I lived..
It was there, sad, parked into a garage, which was deeply dark and let you feel sad. The orange metalized color seen in the darkness was not so exciting for a purchase. But the price was good!
It was owned by four different people and it did not seem to me to be a good bargain! But even if the owners had been 4, the car had been kept really well.
Starter, battery, spurking plugs, tires, and seat (just drive side) were the only things that I had to change. There was non sign of rust. I saw ither cars, but they were no as in order as it was. And I decided to buy it. It was not 20 years old and my insurer was really happy, when he saw me in his office..
I registered it to the X 1/9 Car Club and I started to drive it very often. I kept it for 4 years and a half , I took part to some competitions, I went abroad for some holidays (camping too) and I learnt how to drive in the way that we called "all back".
And I went even to Vicenza to work, when the car that I am used to drive during the working days could not be driven. And in the highway it used about 1 l.petrol every 11 km.. Well, a perfect car at all !!!
I decided to fix some little problems, to put the original steering wheel on, to make some changes (such as the water expansion basket). So I got closed to the "spare parts world", to the clubs, to the old car lovers. And I met Sergio.
A great world, full of passion but dammedly full of business, too!
During that time I became a member of the magazine "Ruote del Passato", since its head office is in my area ( I would like to point out that it is a good club, known all over in Italy for the big shows it usually organizes. It won the "Manovella d'oro" prize, its members are more than 1.000 both in Italy and abroad. Its web site is www.ruotedelpassato.it)
And then I became a member of the ASI club, since my X1/9 passed the test for. Up to that time (year 2000) I started a second life, full of aged cars all day long, all week long.. A part from my first one, where my real job, my girlfriend, my family and my friends always play a key role..


December 1999

Towards the end of 1999, a boy who lives in my town, decided to sell his Beta Montecarlo 1976. I did not know he had that car and I spent all the year before to look for it.
It is still in the workshop, since it is not yet ready. There is only a light coarting on it and everyone can decide in which colour it could be painted. And it had to be re-assembled, of corse!. But I thoght that this was not a problem, since I have always liked to learn how to develop new things, maybe due to the love I felt for the thing I liked.
Then I decided to buy it as a birthday's gift for myself. I do not know why but 7 years before I bought to myself an aged motorcycle on my birth day.


March 2000

In March 2000 I took my Montecarlo home. It seemed to be beautiful as it were new. For more than two months I worked as if I were a re-builder.
I had more or less all the parts I needed, some of them were obvioulsy broken ! So quickly I got to known the value for the replaced parts of the Montecarlo..
In July it was ready to give good performances. And so beautiful in its white color. But I was just a little disappointed. Because I never could run very far, because of its reliability. The car had problems with its carburator, with its fuel pomp, with its spoiler, that I lost while I was driving it….I can say now that I had never been calm when I drove it.
As far as its performances are concerned, I dare say that it run faster than the X1/9. But the handiness of the little X can not be compared to anything else. You can turn it and turn it back, steer and steer back. Its limit is very, very high and it follows you, whereever you would like to run it. According to my way of driving the Montecarlo runs a bit slowier than the other one. If you steer, it steers after a little while.. I dare suggest to keep away the servo braking when you drove on a wet surface, the car may run always straight away. And this is a serious risk , since its ways does not always follows the one of the street direction
When I drove the X1/9 it happened twice to me to turn (and it was due to a mistake in my way of driving with asfalt wet, and I was completely unexperienced). When I was in my Montecarlo…I risked more than once to go straight away. I would like to give to the above mentioned cars two different driving scores :
91/2 X and 61/2 Montecarlo.


June 2001

After one year and a half I decided to sell it. It was bought by a wonderful person, a young American guy. We became good friends and we often meet. I run the Montecarlo for 3000 km and the X for 20.000 km in 4 years and a half!
When I sold the Montecarlo, I decided to buy a beutiful, Italian Maserati Biturbo. A lot of my friends had a bad idea about it, but it was for me a great adventure. And even for my insurer, since I bought it in 2002 and it build in 1983!
One of my friend, Sebastian, proposed it to me! It was so good as a new car, His previous owner, a man living in Venice, drove it for about 100.000 km and kept it in a very good way. It had only some rust on the door and under the windscreen. One could easily see that it was build according to some strategic and economic plans of the company itsself, but when you turned it on, it worked and you could feel all the Maserati experience in its sound! And you well know that the motor and the mechanical parts are the ones which make the difference. And the Biturbo, which belonged to the first range of production, never leave me walking alone.
It worked according two stands, wero and one, and since I am a computer science technician, I have always got it!!!


June 2002

In June 2002 I had my beautiful Maserati and the X1/9, which I considered to be my daughter. In 2002, as the previous year, I had to tale a lot of decisions and so in August I felt it was necessary to
Change, to start with something new. And I had this feeling even to my cars! This was the reason why I decided to greet my Maserati and let it go to Paris.
When my X1/9 left for Turin, I cried. But it came back to its town, at about 300 m far from the Agnelli's house, in Villar Perosa. His new owner became one of my friends and nowadays (It's July 2004) we speak to each other about once a week.
Up to that moment I had a great place in my garage!


August 2002

Then I did a lot of sailing (internet) and I found another car,which is one of my favorites, the Alpine A310 V6, dated 1978. A car with a very strange body and a very strange drive.
I found it in Lombardia, far from my home. Luckily I have many friends there and even some who have a trailer to move the cars (I would like to greet and thank Andrea now! (another one borned in 1972!). I took it home in August 2002.
During its first car wash, the ROOF felt down. My first work was to scratch it (it is all made of fiberglass as the 308 GTB :-) ).
I had to scratch it, to use bostik, for gommapiuma, bostik for cloth. It was a great expereinece. I was a mechanic for the X1/9, a re-worker to the MONTECARLO, but not yet the upholsterer! The car had not run for about ten years, so it turned on, but the water did not move into its hydraulic system. Radiator, pomp, tubes, brake and everything that can be imagined were reviewed.


March 2003

On March 23rd 2003 I took it to the ASI test. It worked! The tires: what a beutiful matter they are!
You can put a very strange size on : 205/70*13 - code V:
311 euro/each plus Iva, 4 months is the delivery term you are required to wait for, and when you finally get them, they can be 4 years old!!!
Michelin did not answer to my requests, and finally I decided to keep them. Well, they look like new ones, but at that price I thought that DOT was different!


May 2003

It was May 2003 and I knew there was the InterEuropa Cup in Monza, as all the people who love such things. How couldn't I get there? I spent two great days there on the runway, in the boxes, talking to spare parts dealers.
It was nice to drive it on the runway and this was a simple confirmation to me. This year (2004) there was enough place on the runway in any case to be in Monza let you feel you greatly satisfy. It was bad, went off, abit scorbutic, noisy, but at the same time it was comfortable, nice, exciting, easy to be driven.
I had a run in Monza, found out how good it was and decided to drive it during my holidays..


July 2003

I left alone, with my Alpine and went to Corsica.
Just a week on the streets where Napolean walked. A special experience. My luggage, my camera, some hichhikers, the streets, the mountains, the costs, the bays, the transparent water and I. Everything was monstrously beutiful.


May 2004

Another time at the InterEuropa Cup in Monza. This time with my Porsche 924 Turbo on the road to go anche with another X1/9 Gold to came back home.
This time just on Sunday because my work agendy is full...
Very bad but one day is better than nothing. And also this time, with words. Too too too nice to be in Monza.


July 2004

In the meantime, even Gianpietro (the new owner of my X1/9) decided to sell it since he already had one. By the way, who could have bought it, apart from me? I am bounded to that X1/9 by an indissoluble feeling :-)
So on Saturday 17.07.04 I took the train till Villar Perosa and came back on my wonderful X1/9, Orange metalized coloured (FIAT 902). Now I have to let it be checked and then it will be parked into my garage, closet to the Red Alpine

Well I think I will keep these cars for a very long time, since they belong to my life, to my past, and when I look at them, I think to my bad years, to some terribile moments but even to my great love.