London and Tuscany-based Real Italian Cars is a startup with big ideas for Italy’s littlest cars.
Founded by three friends in Lucca, Tuscany, the company is dedicated to sourcing and restoring the best Fiat 500s, and even offers bespoke builds, not unlike a smaller-scale Singer.
Artist and property developer Amadeo Provenzali oversees the cars’ design, while rally driver Mattia Vita and Anthony Peacock, whose day job is in public relations for Pirelli, concentrate on making the tiny cars fun to drive.
Real Italian Cars is dedicated to the Cinquecento and will take on any car built from 1957 to 1975 including the Spiaggina beach car. “We know exactly where to find the best ones, and how to put them into a condition that was better than when they left the factory. Once we find a car, we take it to our dedicated workshop in Lucca and restore it to the desired specification.”
One of the most popular themes for customers is birth year cars, designed to the buyer’s specification, then built in the firm’s Lucca workshop complete with a hand-crafted dashboard plaque, a matching paperweight and a birth certificate to highlight the year of production.
Customers can try before they buy by hiring a 500 from the company’s collection, and, for the full Italian experience, there is even a riverside apartment in Lucca available to rent.
Real Italian Cars can deliver its finished 500s anywhere in the world and, as for prices, the company says restoration costs “as much or as little as you would like it to.”
Via Hagerty US.
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