The Collector
That hasn’t stopped Luca Viscardi giving a home to 40 vehicles, 23 of them Minis, in his Italian refuge for the British motoring icon
A huge collection of tiny British cars revealed in Italy, featuring Lotus, MG, and many, many Minis
Luca Viscardi’s passion for Minis predates the recent explosion of interest – and prices – by several decades. ‘Prices back then were definitely more sane, far less than the crazy values of today,’ he says. Fewer people were looking for these models too. Sometimes I think that if I was even only 15 years younger, all I would be able to afford would be one or two Coopers.’
The 46-year-old insurance loss adjuster has been a car enthusiast since childhood, although when the Italian is asked why he has such a soft spot for an English car, he can’t answer. He does, however, have an answer when asked how many cars are currently in this collection... roughly. He owns approximately 40 cars – every day there could be a new addition or, more seldom, a deduction – of which 23 are Minis of some sort.
‘I’m lucky that I collect Minis,’ he says, ‘because our old family home has limited space. To store bigger cars I had to buy a warehouse nearby, but it’s not the same – the cars you have at home, ready to go, are the ones you tend to drive more.’
If Luca had his way, he would have been a Mini owner as soon as he was legally able to drive, when he turned 18 in 1989. He wanted to buy a 1969 Innocenti Cooper MKII as an everyday car, but his father was dead against it, declaring that it would be too dangerous and unreliable. His father relented in 1991 when the new fuel-injected Cooper came out – and after taking his to a Mini meeting, young Luca decided to start collecting the iconic little English car. The result is that today, cars, spare parts and scale models take up every spare inch of his family home.
After buying his first classic Mini in 1992, by 1994 he was buying up old Coopers and Cooper Ss, many of which he still owns. ‘I didn’t have a defined target for my collection. The original idea was to have every type of Cooper and Cooper S; later I extended it to the full range of Mokes and English Minis, but not automatics.
Over the years other English models have crept into the collection, along with some Mercedes. Every year Luca has at least two or three complete restoration projects on the go. He likes to drive as many of the cars as he can, and has a very down-to-earth attitude to them. ‘My cars are well kept and preserved, but they are here to serve me and to provide pleasure to me, not viceversa,’ he says. ‘None of them is a museum piece; if they stay in the garage and get dusty it’s not a problem; when I want to take the car out it takes 10 minutes to clean it. My real responsibility is to keep him them as original as is possible, or restore them correctly and prevent them from rusting.
Some of them also occasionally act as smoking rooms in which he indulges in favourite Mezzo Toscano cigars. ‘It adds a good aroma to the cockpit,’ he explains, with a smile.
There are no full-time mechanics taking care of this collection, so day-to-day maintenance is the biggest challenge, but experience has taught him some useful lessons. ‘For years I had most of them hooked up to battery conditioners, but discovered that, after few years, the batteries tend to let you down anyway, usually when the car is first used after a long time stationary, so you break down away from home. Now I keep the batteries on a cut-off and before using the car I simply give it a good charge. If it fails, it does it when you first try to start the car at home – a much more comfortable place to break down.
‘I don’t have all the cars in a ready-to-go state – that would be crazy, especially because I’m only able to do a total of 5000-7000 kilometres a year in them. I should really pick about five of them to drive at the start of each year, then prepare and fix whatever goes wrong as I go along, but it never happens like that. More often than not the car I really want to drive is one that’s not ready.’ 1962 Austin Cooper This is the car that started Luca’s collection when he bought it in 1992. It was first registered in the UK before being imported into Italy, sidestepping bureaucracy in a country where the model was not yet homologated. It was raced by Elio Zagato of the famous Milanese carrozzeria. A left-hand-drive car, it was converted to road use after a year of competition, but retained reminders of its race history such as a racing seat. ‘I’ve competed in it myself,’ says Luca. In 1997 he scored victory in the opening round of the Campionato Italiano Velocità (Italian Hillclimb Speed Championship) in Salita. ‘Its sounds very cool,’ he says, showing us a picture of him racing, ‘but I have to admit I was the only competitor in the class…’ He follows up with a more impressive statistic about the car, painted in the correct Almond Green with white roof. ‘This is the oldest known Cooper registered in Italy.’ 1964 Austin Cooper S In Old English White with a black roof, this is one of Luca’s most cherished cars. ‘It’s important because its original owner was Paul Lips, a true Mini lover and a legend among Italian Mini collectors. He would never have parted with this car, but after he passed away it was sold to me by his wife in memory of my friend.’
1967 Morris Cooper S
This very early MKII Cooper S was registered in Italy in October 1967. ‘It was sound when I bought it but a previous restoration in 2016 had been badly executed,’ says Luca. ‘It is an Italian car, still with its first number plate, and it has now been restored with meticulous attention to detail in its original colour of Island Blue.’ He does admit to two things which aren’t as-original, though. ‘The fuel pipes have been replaced with modern ones, simply because they are safer than the original style. And I made a mistake during the full rebuild of the engine – I gave the mechanic who was working on it the wrong sticker. So when I open the bonnet, the first thing I see is a logo that’s Austin instead of Morris. Every time I see it I want to change it, but then I forget…’
1964 Morris Cooper S
Fewer than 1000 of these 970cc cars were built, and this one was originally sold in the UK in right-hand-drive form. It was converted to left-hand drive when imported to the continent. ‘I bought it in 2000 and we are only just finishing the restoration now,’ says Luca. ‘It’s my fault for having too many projects at the same time. It was a bare-metal restoration; we resprayed it in the original red with a black roof. We still have to finish the engine; the cylinder head and carburettors are being rebuilt.’
1963 Morris Mini Minor 850
At the very end of the garage, covered by a thick layer of dust and buried by spare parts, sits an 850. ‘It has been there since 1997,’ admits Luca. ‘I had been looking for an 850 for years, with no luck. Then I spotted this for sale, listed in a magazine – it was in Aix en Provence in the South of France, 700 kilometres away. I vividly remember the nightmare of driving my car and trailer all the way there and back, for a car that turned out to be in need of total restoration. The thing is, a few days afterwards I found a much better 850 – a 1965 car with one owner from new that was fewer than 40km from home. So the first one I bought has stayed where I parked it. I think it will stay there for many years to come.’
1975 1275 GT Wood & Pickett Margrave
This dark blue, right-hand-drive 1275 was sent to Wood & Pickett to be transformed into a Margrave in 1980 when it was five years old, and Luca has all the original bills for the work that was carried out. ‘I bought it in 2010, while at the International Mini Meeting, from a German guy,’ he says. ‘It has a vinyl roof, but the rear of the rain channel is missing. It has leather seats and the dashboard is covered in wood. The engine capacity was increased too, up to 1450cc, which is recorded in the paperwork. It has the correct bumpers and rims, the four headlights, the reverse light, the rear wiper and Cooper S double tanks. To my knowledge, there are only two Margraves registered in Italy.’ 1967 MGB GT This car was originally sold in Italy and bought by Luca in 1996, in need of restoration, for 2.5 million lire (about €1700/£1500). ‘It was white, not too rusty and with a decent interior which we managed to partially save. We found the original Grampian Grey – a special order colour – beneath a couple of layers of different paints. BMI Heritage later confirmed that this was the correct original colour of the car.
1967 Austin-healey Sprite
Originally a Swiss car, this was imported to Italy in 1982 and remained in the Milan area until Luca bought it some years ago. ‘I don’t exactly remember when I bought it because it’s not really part of my collection. I gave it to my wife as a present about eight or nine years ago, but it has hardly ever been used. It is totally original apart from a respray in the correct Old English White. It is one of the very few cars always in ready-to-go condition, but I don’t drive it.’
1964 Lotus Elan S1
This rare left-hand drive S1, complete with hard top, was originally sold in Spain and imported to Italy in 2000. ‘I bought it in 2007, swapping it with my racing Cooper S. I always wanted a Lotus – such a wonderful car to drive. I love it, but for years I regretted the swap. Then, in 2011, I was finally able to buy back my racing Mini. But of course I kept the Elan too!
1967 Mercedes-benz 230 SL
The origins of the German cars in the collection reflect a familiar story; the first Mercedes Luca bought, a W115 220 D, was the same as the one owned by his father when Luca was a child.
‘I found a car exactly like his apart from the colour,’ he says. ‘It was a great example, despite having covered 300,000km. It taught me how well Mercedes are built and that a classic car can be reliable. I sold it but have owned other Mercedes, including the SL. It’s original apart from a respray in the correct colour.
Although a compact car, it looks big in a roomful of Minis. ‘I bought it in 2012,’ says Luca. ‘It had been in a warehouse in Rome since the mid-seventies. The first time I saw it, it was so dirty it was almost impossible to see the paint. It is one of the cars I love to drive the most, and my wife’s favourite.’