My passion for cars and karting began when I was little. I wanted to get involved in all that, but I wasn’t able to. I wanted to stop going to school and go off to work to get into karting. At one point, everything came together. One day, I was with my father and a friend of his, who had a go-kart, this guy said, “I want to sell it.” And, I said, “Dad, please, buy me the go-kart!” My father bought it, and we took it home. He didn’t have the time or the means to take me to a karting track, which was about 20 kilometers away. So, I took the go-kart there and left it.
And with my scooter, at 14 years old, I would go back and forth from home to ride on the weekends. One day, there was a race at the track. The owner had me run the race. In fact, my father didn’t know about it; he was against it. He would always tell me, “I don’t want you to have any illusions.” “So, I don’t want you to go off on that path and then not have anything to show for it.” That’s how it started.
Without saying anything to my father, I participated in that race. And, then, a second and a third. There was a supervisor from the Italian automobile sports commission who, right away, helped me with kart racing. I went to the club one day, and they let me join. I became one of the first great Italian drivers who represented Italy, I raced right and left, everywhere, in Italy, in foreign countries, all over. Since I was a kart driver, I was asked to go on the circuit and run a driver school for the circuit. I said, “No, I can’t do the circuit because I don’t have the money to do it”. So, I decided to do rally racing. They didn’t entirely agree because it’s strange for a kart driver to go over to rally driving.
It had never happened. They were all single-seaters. But, I didn’t have the money, so I had to do the driver school. Paolo Briasco was kind of the supervisor and right away, he became my manager. He took me into the business and had me perform in the film “Rallye.” It was the first time, at age 18, that I would collect the cars for the filming at Sestrières, on the ice. Buschiazzo was there; everyone was there. It was making history—for me. It’s like a kid today who loves cars, taking him to Ferrari, wherever, to the rally, to Hyundai. Everything was there, the most of the history of rally.
I’ll always remember when Rino Buschiazzo said to me, “The car is there, take it!” I said, “Which one?” There was a Delta Gruppo A and Martini, the racer. “Go ahead, take it out and load it on the truck.” For me, it was a total shock. I got in the car. I’ll never forget it. I turned on the ignition. Then, I switch on the boosters. There’s smoke in the car. I pressed on the switch, and for me, it was a film that I have never forgotten. There were shelves, with tires on the side, it was something unbelievable. Unfortunately, I had an accident, and I had to stop racing. Medical technology was not the same as today. There weren’t lasers, all that, and I had a big problem with my sight in one eye. It took me a year and a half to get back in shape.
In the meantime, I had to work. I had gone to live in Monaco; I had to earn a living, and I already had one child. I could not be there, not doing anything. By chance, one evening, someone proposed to me that I be a monitor in a driver school. Because right after the rallys, I worked in the driver schools to earn some money. When he suggested that I take on a location to sell cars, that wasn’t my goal. In fact, to sell cars, it had become In my social network, I could sell parts for competitions. I thought I might open a sports clothing store. I could sell helmets, outfits, do various things… And I would have the chance to see the most beautiful cars in the world.
As you can see here, I have always sold extraordinary things. Like the Countach that you saw. Like today, I think that any child, if you ask him what his dream is, he will say, “I want a Lamborghini Aventador.” Because it’s the true ‘sister’ of the Lamborghini Countach. Even if Ferrari can be better, I feel completely – I am not trying to necessarily give one brand a value superior to another brand. I’m talking about something really impressive. As you can see, the Countach is something extraordinary. Later, I saw the opportunity to buy one, and I did.
When I go out with this car… We went to the competition in elegance in Sardaigne, ‘Back to the Future’. The car won. I was far from being there and taking part in a competition. When I saw my car, and it won, I was speechless. Then, during the Historic Monte Carlo rally, Ronnie Kessel invited me to do the ICE rally in Saint Moritz. He invited me to ICE Saint Moritz. For me, it as an event; I hadn’t understood the level of the people with which I found myself. There were big names in cars, Kidston And the entire organization, Marko Makaus, who organized something in an extraordinary way.
We went there, my wife and I, for fun, in the spirit of having fun. That’s why there is a sled on the roof. That was part of the idea for my wife and I, that we were going to have fun. This car was built from a total of 2,048 parts. It’s a car that began to be built in 1971. And it stopped being made in 1990. Extraordinary, with 12 cylinders. In 1973, when it was shown in Geneva. There were 375, And they went up to 455. Horacio Pagani had worked on the suspension. He had modified a lot of things. Even the aerodynamics were done by Horacio, so, it could reach 300 kilometers per hour. He was the one who designed the modifications for the Countach. I think he had worked on the Countach Evoluzione. I don’t think I’ll ever sell it.
See more:
