Keeping Time - the Bulgari Car Collection

Most gearheads would jump at the opportunity to oversee and care for an esoteric collection of historic cars. It’s an opportunity to go deep with each car and its idiosyncrasies: the brands and models, their dates and location of production, the designers and particular materials used in their manufacturing, the choices made – the what and why – and the specific personalities of the individual cars in the collection.  Those certain noises, the pings and knocks of under- or over-fed combustion chambers, the clicks and creeks of springs, the tapping of valves and lifters: it’s like studying a private language. A schooled ear can decode a novel from the noises each individual car makes.

Manuelito Zambelli and Marcello Gazzella Furfaro are two lucky young men who have such a dream job; they are the mechanics and caretakers of Nicola Bulgari’s car collection in Rome and the 27 cars in his collection outside Siena, Italy. Both young men come from machine culture families; Marcello’s dad is an industrial designer for an international agricultural equipment company. From a young age he has lived with machines in Italy, South Africa, France and other locales. Manuelito is from a multi-generational car mechanics’ family; his grandfather and his father have maintained noteworthy garages; He has
inherited and lives with a deep sense of appreciation about the history and culture of automobiles.

Nicola Bulgari has a world-renowned reputation for his Rome based, multi-Billion dollar watch and jewelry empire that his Greek-born grandfather, Sotirios Voulgaris started in 1884. He also has a reputation for his more than impressive car collection and his love and respect for historic American automobiles. Mr. Bulgari could collect anything he liked, but prefers to focus on relatively common American rides from the 1930s and 1940s, with a particular emphasis on Buicks. As a young boy after the War years, his eye was drawn to the small selection of American cars driving the streets of Rome[1]. The size and shapes of the cars were exotic and endlessly captivating to the young Bulgari; no European cars of that time turned heads in the same way. At his personal website (nicolabulgari.it), Mr. Bulgari explains: “For as long as I can remember, l have loved sedans, which are more dignified. I bought my first when I was five years old, in 1946, while on a trip with my father to Lugano in Switzerland. Italy was very gloomy after the war, but with all the lights, the shops, the Buick taxis, Switzerland was like another world. So I bought a little Dinky Toy of a 1939 Buick, which I still cherish – the first item in my collection.”

“It has been a prolonged process, more than 25 years, to get to where we are now, with cars in both America and in Italy.  Our wonderfully skilled and dedicated group of restorers not only restore and maintain but train and engage future generations. Today, we offer the possibility to students to gain valuable experience at our NB Center’s own workshops in Rome and Allentown, helping to develop the knowledge, skills and expertise required to maintain vintage vehicles as fully drivable and living machines rather than static museum pieces.”

Bulgari’s collection of more than 200 cars is spread out in private garages in Allentown PA, Rome Italy, and in a small, newly renovated two-story building with a sleek, modernist look close to Mr. Bulgari’s Tuscany country estate near Siena. Inside the Siena building, it is pin-drop quiet. The spotless cement floors are shiny with thick, warm white epoxy paint. Rubber and gasoline are better educated fragrances and more refined around the 27 mostly American cars that sit silently in neat rows three feet from each other under florescent lighting.  On the ground floor there are big classic cars from the 1930s and 1940s. Upstairs, after a ride on a high-tech, diamond plated car-sized lift, a half dozen iconic American muscle cars: an early ‘70s yellow Chevy Camaro, a red ‘70s Corvette, a black, early 1980s, Buick Grand National, and a pristine, silver, 1966 split window Corvette. The scene is literally mind blowing.

“Mr. Bulgari loved cars since he was a young boy,” Manuelito says as he points towards the old cars. “Maybe he was four years old living in Rome after World War two…. He saw American cars on the streets── Packards, Cadillacs and Buicks…  He was impressed by the exotic styling. Nothing like this existed in Italy or Europe… He studied the cars and styles and remembered the names on the doors and grilles. The size and elegance of each car. As a young man, Mr. Bulgari bought his first car. This was the beginning.”

Both Manuelito and Marcello are quiet, almost studious types. They move respectfully among the cars and speak calmly as they point out details… “Mr. Bulgari doesn’t have any Fords here,” Manuelito says. “He doesn’t like Fords…” [perhaps because Henry Ford was a Nazi sympathizer? – Ed.] He points to a huge deep green fender of a late ‘30s Buick and moves his hand calmly over the shiny, thick metal without touching; then stops at a series of discreet surface scratches clustered at the front edge near the headlight…. “Mr. Bulgari even preserves the scratches,” Marcello says. “These scratches are maybe ninety years old. Maybe somebody loved this car too much… Too much polishing. We are careful… There is grit in common dust. Too much love scratches the paint.” Manuelito skillfully lifts the hoods of the yellow Camaro and silver Corvette… The huge displacement engines, the air cleaners, spark plug covers, alternators and valve covers are just as clean and cared for as the car’s outside paint.

Because of the sequestered location of this garage and the age and condition of the cars, a sense of preciousness could easily be implied, but Mr. Bulgari is not precious about his cars. Instead, his interest in collecting these cars is to explore and rejoice in how these cars represent a unique moment in time.  When elements of industrial design, aesthetics, materials and production merged to create affordable mass-produced beauty for the average consumer. Manuelito explains: “Mr. Bulgari loves these cars because they are a special beauty from a time when America could make these things. These cars were made by many people who worked together in noisy industrial places. And look what they made. Everything worked together to make these cars. Mr. Bulgari realizes this is an incredible thing and wants to preserve this.”

“We start the cars regularly,” Manuelito says. “We drive the cars out of the garage and give them exercise… This is very important. The fluids must be circulated. These are functioning cars.” The unique Siena garage setting filled with restored and fully functional historic American cars is testament to Nicola Bulgari’s belief that history is not stationary, but always in the process of moving.

[1] During the early days of World War II in Italy, there are numerous stories of owners of American cars in Rome  who secretly buried their cars to prevent them being confiscated by the Germans. A young Nicola Bulgari saw the cars that survived.