Modena may be the city often related to the Motor Valley, the Terra di Motori and its famous automotive companies. Ferrari, Maserati, Pagani and Lamborghini, even if Lamborghini is from Sant'Agata Bolognese, so Bologna rather than Modena.
This never stopped the supercar fever from spreading all over the region, indeed you could find a rather small yet interesting supercar event in Castelfranco Emilia.
The name maybe doesn't ring a bell, even if it's the closest train station to Pagani's headquarters in San Cesario sul Panaro. Indeed their factory is probably just 3-4 kilometers away.
The event in question is called "Motori e Sapori", so "Engines and Flavours/Food", or something like that. I should say upfront though that the event itself doesn't really focus much on the culinary side of things, not so many spots to sample Italy's finest foods or local offerings, even if the area is packed with small restaurants ready to offer you a very good meal for a decent price. I should advise "Osteria da Beppe", full and happy belly with 20 €.
I was later informed that the place to be to eat and drink was Cavazzona, the next town in Bologna's direction, for the record.
That's some tortellini and heavy duty chocolate tools for you. Also, if you think some pictures simply don't look like others from this same post, it's because once again some of them were taken with the lady's LG G2. That phone has twice the pixels of my Nikon D40, progress they call it.
Speaking about the engine side of things, the offering was vast and for all tastes. It's probably among the best events if you are a Fiat 500 fan. There were probably something like 50 between regular Fiat 500, 600, Giardinettas, a few modified models, Gianninis, Abarths and the likes.
A car that really got my attention though were the Fiat 850 Coupe, which probably looks even better than the also featured Fiat 850 Vignale Coupe. The latter being a bit too squared and tall. Not to mention the blue Fiat 750 Coupe Moretti.
My favurite though was the Fiat 600 Viotti. It's not something you can hope to see everyday, so I've left it for a following article. Teaser, photobomb included, spot the boogey.
The lady's winner was the Opel GT, which I'll admit look the part and can stand proud even side by side with larger, more powerful and more expensive offerings. Its mostly plastic interior though is a no go for me, so this shall not be my next classic car! Also, I've never had a particular good vibe about Opel cars in general, Calibra aside of course. Who doesn't like the Calibra anyway?! Add its striking even if unsuccessful DTM and ITC variants and I miss the nineties already!
A classic and welcomed foreign beauty, Triumph GT6 mk1, often referred to as the Spitfire Coupe, and a Mercedes-Benz 240D from the W115 series, featured here in Limousine or should I say Pullman edition.
A few cars were also brought by the Collezione Panini (of Bill Thomas Cheetah replica fame for TIJ readers) and Museo Stanguellini, like this Stanguellini Barchetta Sport Bialbero from 1953. Lotus XI who?
Of the various supercars on display, I got to say basically none were from outside the Motor Valley itself.
Photography was mostly limited to detail shots as the cars were parked along the main street in downtown, surrounded by onlookers, kids and seniors fancying the good old days. Indeed I eventually discovered none of the pictures I took of the various Maserati was vaguely decent enough to be posted. Shame on me, but watch this space in case I can get my hands in some additional pictures, if you're interested that is.
This is the Maserati 420M "Eldorado". It was intended for competition on high speed race tracks with banked turn, indeed the suspension were of different geometry and construction on the two sides and the engine was installed with an offset from the longitudinal ideal plane
I even managed to spot a Stereo 8 player in a vintage Maserati!
Recently feaured on TIJ, the Filandi Ever.S was on display again, for the happiness of many visitors which enjoyed its out-of-the-world look and sharp, so to speak, finish. Filandi and his fellow and loyal helper were also happy to let people sit in and take pictures of themselves in the car, which is actually kind of cool if you think about as some owners are so jealous of their ride you can barely watch them.
As you can see the interior is quite a work in progress though, with some traces of its Mercedes-Benz Sl 500 R129 origins easily detectable.
I used to be a great fan of the Lamborghini Diablo, but I guess that was mainly because I was a kid back then. It surely always is a wild sight on the road, but the back of my head keeps thinking about its rather poor finish and maybe even worse reliability. Modern supercars changed everything... which is why I have little sympathy for the first generation Laborghini Murcièlago. It was a huge step forward in term of performance, but the quality wasn't really on a new level. Plus, it doesn't look as cool and in-your-face as the Diablo. The second generation Murcièlago LP640 amplified the performance and refined the ride quality and even the reliability, but I can have good words only for the Murcièlago LP670-4 SuperVeloce. That was some raw and wild Lamborghini. Mandatory huge GT1 like rear wing included.
Vintage Maseratis from the eighties and nineties should be pretty much down the list of your favorite supercars. Actually, no one would really call them supercars. Italy's fiscal laws, the oil crisis and other factors transformed Maserati from the Latin version of Aston Martin to a producer of almost sensible everyday grand touring cars. I call them sensible simply because the look was rather ordinary, the engine size was within decent limits, and the sedan or coupe bodywork was the best choice for fast managers and businessmen. Too bad the reliability was woeful among many reports of rust being their main equipment.
Still I simply love their unique look, so boxy and loaded with fins, spoilers, vents and so on. They just scream eighties all the time. Also, I basically like everything from Maserati, Quattroporte mkIV included.
As for the Ferrais on hand, the Ferrari F355 is still the simplest yet better shaped car they were offering 20 years ago. While I always thought the Ferrari 456 GT was gorgeous, it didn't age so well and when I look at adverts about it, it just doesn't seem like something I'd buy. That's somewhat the same feeling I have with the 612 Scaglietti. I used to love it, but if it's not a Sessanta or a perfectly polished example, it just says "previous generation". I haven't spent enough time with the Ferrari FF (another stupid name as it stands for Ferrari Ferrari Four, what the hell!) to properly judge though. It's surely much more detailed than the 612 and 456, and I sure love the idea of a shooting brake.
The Ferrari 550 Maranello still has quite a presence on the road, yet the few touches added to the 575 M Maranello made it that much better and a bit more modern too. Not F12berlinetta-modern, but it was a similar evolution enjoyed by its predecessor.
The Testarossa was definitely cool and all, but the various black plastic details betrayed its 1984 birth date. The Ferrari 512 TR on the other hand, while being extremely similar, it also looked much more modern and finished. I much prefer the 512 TR over the Testarossa, also because I've spent plenty of time playing the original installment of the Need For Speed franchise on my computer back then with the red Ferrari being my favorite ride especially from the Autumn Valley race track... oh the memories...
My usual 2 Italian Cents added, Ferrari simply overdid it with the 512 M. Terrible headlights and wheels, the deal was off.
Needless to say, Pagani brought not one but two Huayras, being so close to their headquarters. I'll save those for another article, you should know me by now...
For the time being:
BECAUSE MINIONS
All Pictures and Words Copyright: Damiano Garro for The Italian JunkyardThis article can be linked to from other websites but its content and the pictures can't be reproduced on any other website without my written permission
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