It was Januari 2025. I was living in Austria and after skiing I stood at the outside bar at the bottom of the slope talkingto my friend Carlien. As we are both classic Mini lovers the subject was just that. Carlien had owned seven of these Isogonnis miracles and restored fourteen of them. The kind of lady who you give a box full of cogs and a day later you’d have a fully functional gearbox. She had the knowledge and I could provide the funding, so we would start a company for the restoration of Mini’s.
I bought a 1979 Innocenti Morris Minor Mk2 in Italy and a few weeks later we went to pick it up in Reggio Emelia in the heartland of Motor Valley. During that trip we found that we were the perfect pair. Carlien was totally grounded and very considerate, whereas I was the unguided missile. Those qualities worked in unison, but after the excursion Carlien announced that she could not take my madness anymore and left. The name stayed.
Creation has always been in my blood. Illustrator, art-director, graphic, packaging and webdesigner have been the previous carreers. My old man was a panelbeater and a good one at that, so I was around cars from a very young age on. Now this all comes together.
Austrians do not allow grass to grow on the streets or sidewalks. Being in Reggio was a sudden relieve. Finally some dirt again, grass that lived in liberty. In December of ’25 I moved to Menaggio, north of lake Como.
Due to the lack of a workshop the attention was directed to smaller items. What would I like to have in my own cars? Ideas abundant, sketches were made. Lots of them which over time will materilise here. The first one to materilise was not a new idea, the Bluetooth converted radio, but as well as the technical execution as the electronics side of it, there was immense room for improvement. As a result that is the first item you will find in the shop.
There are dozens and dozens pieces of paper and digital files waiting to be produced. The pool of free-lancers and small workshops is steadily growing to make all this come in existence.
There are different tantrums in the automotive industry. Singer Vehicle Design has “Everything is important”. Audi had “Because good is never good enough”. These are lines to live by. Rules to execute and produce by. For your car, because you want the very best.
Nessunno Compromiso