Patience matters. In work, in life, in everything.

In 1951, the Fiat Campagnola AR51, a reconnaissance car for the Italian army, travelled its first miles. A leap in space and time, and it sits before us in its grey-green military uniform in the forecourt of the BSA garage. A world of memories, history and imagination. At the wheel is Mauro Manca, a mechatronic technician for 30 years, a rifleman, owner of his own business since 1987, and an enthusiast with a lifelong love of classic cars.

A collector by chance… or perhaps not.

"You become a collector by chance, a fortuitous encounter, a stroke of luck. Thanks to the recommendation of a friend, I had the good fortune to discover a car that had been sitting in a garage for years, waiting for someone to bring it back to life. It’s no coincidence that you have a passion for the cars you were around when you were growing up, having admired or experienced them. It's a mixture of curiosity, nostalgia, a desire to give continuity to beautiful things. Every time I drive the AR51, it's such a pleasure. Then there's the ‘82 A112. I got it from a customer who was planning to use it on golf courses to retrieve golf balls. It broke my heart! And the ‘88 Golf Cabrio...

Every acquisition stirs something in you. And if you're in the repair business, you don't want to see a vehicle you've enjoyed come to an inglorious end. So you start taking care of it, you put up with the bureaucracy, the stress of testing, which is perhaps the heaviest, until you can finally put it into gear and go."

The human aspect is professionalism

"It’s virtually impossible to find on the market suspensions and shock absorbers for vehicles that have been out of production for decades. Collector models need custom work. For my cars, I rely only on BSA. I have my own garage, I take care of the electrical and electronic parts. I know what it means to put my hands not only on a modern car, but on a classic car. Each one is a story, each one is unique. Getting it running again is always a work of high craftsmanship. I’ve sent several customers here, because the human aspect that you experience in this garage really sets it apart. You want a dialogue, a relationship with the mechanic.  It’s all about the quality of the work, because it means paying attention in a way that’s just inconceivable in those big mega-garage franchises."

What really matters

"Patience matters. In work, in life, in everything."