ABOUT

Attilio Fantini

It was 1969 when Attilio Fantini was an 18-year-old boy. At that time, nobody could ever imagine the actual scene, not even himself, that transformed passion into his real purpose of life.

Everything began almost by chance when he was little more than a teenager. His passion spread gradually, and day by day it grew and strengthened until it became what we should now define as a unique reality in the modern Italian scene of old cars.

His mother gave him ₤500,000 to buy a Fiat 500, but he got back home with a flaming red Giulia SS 1600—and he still remembers its license number all these years later. 47 years have passed, but that was the moment his life changed forever. My father is now an icon for many car lovers, a real benchmark in his field. Whenever he washes one of his cars or when he is driving,  his childlike smile lets people understand that no matter how much you grow up, that initial passion remains. That passion, he says, is “a frantic vortex of petrol-scented emotions.”

Shortly after its purchase, his Giulia SS 1600 was exchanged for a Giulia 2000 GT Veloce.

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All the cars Attilio decided to collect are not the result of mere market logic, they are the result of his passion. After 45 or so years we can clearly state that Fantini’s collection of cars represent and belong to the most important automotive periods in the Italian history: from the ‘20s with  the Ansaldo, to the early ‘90s with the Lancia Delta Integrale. 

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With cars and collector’s items and automobile everywhere, it can seem hectic, but nothing in his museum is left to chance. Not even a single object is placed where it is by accident; everything has its meaning and its logic that justifies its presence in a specific spot. 

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