Panini: The Ultimate Maserati Collection

The town of Modena, home to Maserati, lies on the plains of the Po river valley; this is fertile ground, ideal for agriculture. A couple of miles out of town lies an apparently unremarkable farm, which we visited last summer on a side-trip from the Maserati factory. What we found on the farm was truly astonishing, and made our rural excursion a highlight of our time in Italy.

First, there is the cheese; the farm produces the best organic Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, about 4,000 'wheels' each year. It is aged for two years in a huge warehouse, tended by a machine which automatically flips over each wheel in turn. We were fortunate to be offered a taste, and it was delicious - which explains the fact that each wheel is worth upwards of $500.

Second, there is the owner, Umberto Panini - the family patriarch. By turns amusing, reflective, wry and self-deprecating, he was an excellent host, who had led an entertaining, incident-packed life on his way to becoming a world-famous producer of epicurean food. But the reason for our visit lay in one of the buildings on the farm: Panini owns one of the finest collections of Maserati cars in the world.

This isn't a museum - in keeping with Umberto's early career as a mechanic, almost all the cars are in working order, and others are being restored. The collection is dedicated to neither road nor racing cars, it has fine examples of both. In fact, the collection's only 'theme', is that Panini loves the cars; it is a haphazard assortment - but the quality and rarity of most is simply dazzling.

MaseratiMonthly 6, September 2005, looked at the legendary 5000GT, and the Ghibli that was its spiritual successor; Panini has both. Actually, that's not quite correct - the collection has two examples of the Ghibli, an SS and a Spyder, along with a Mistral, a Khamsin and a Bora. More interested in racing? There are two "Birdcages" - one front-engine model, the other a later rear-engine design. There is a Barchetta, Tipo 6CM, a 3500GT that is regularly raced, and the only Tipo 420M/58 ever built - known as the 'Eldorado', after its ice cream company sponsor; the car was famously raced by Sir Stirling Moss, whose signature adorns it.

But even these pale by comparison to some of the other cars. In the gallery overlooking the main floor is the full-size static prototype for the Chubasco, a sensational road-going, mid-engined GT car that Maserati considered building in the early '90s; next to it is the full-size static prototype from the project to look at building a road-going version of the Barchetta, along with the full-size wooden styling 'mule' for the racing Barchetta. There are two road-going one-offs in the collection: the Simun was designed by Giugiaro, based on the Maserati Mexico, while the officially unnamed Tipo 124 built on the Indy platform is known as the Medici.

Umberto explained how the collection came to be with a brief history of his colorful life. After school, he worked for Maserati as a mechanic in the motorcycle works, eventually rising to become the chief test rider. He then went off to Venezuela for eight years, working as a mechanic on racing motorcycles, entering some races himself.

When he returned from South America, he joined his brothers' nascent business producing collector cards - except that instead of cards, they wanted to make stickers which could be stuck into albums. The brothers didn't know how to mass-produce stickers; Umberto, being a mechanic, designed a machine to do just that. The stickers were a hit, and the Panini name became famous across Europe.

It wasn't all La Dolce Vita in post-war Italy; however, the Panini family had a farm, and their cheese was popular. When asked about the gallery crammed with motorcycles, Umberto explained: "When I came back from Venezuela, I had some money, and it was a time when everyone was selling bikes to buy cars. So everyone knew that I was keen on motorcycles, and prices were good - I ended up with fifty bikes needing to be restored!" The collection even has some military motorcycles, hardly the kind of machine the local riders would have. "Well, there were various military bases around, so I struck a few deals; the military got supplies of cheese, and in exchange, I got some of their motorcycles."

In 1990 the family sold the collectible sticker business and used some of the proceeds to buy the Hombre farm. "In a way, it's the fantasy that all Italians have, to go back to the land. It's a serious business, and it was a real challenge, but we've succeeded, and now we produce one of the best cheeses in Italy," he told us.

Umberto didn't set out to collect Maserati cars; in fact, he first collected military vehicles, which is when the farm building was converted to house the collection. Then, in 1997, events took a different turn. Alejandro de Tomaso had a project to build up a collection of classic Maseratis during his tenure as the Trident's owner. He had cars rebuilt using parts left over through the decades, and in some cases he had parts fabricated using the original engineering documents. By the time Fiat bought Maserati in 1997 the collection included 18 cars, but a legal mistake meant Fiat had not purchased the collection along with the company, and it was due to be auctioned in London. After consultation with his family Umberto Panini stepped in at the last minute and bought the entire collection, feeling it was vital to keep it in Modena. While he maintains the cars, he views the collection as a gift to the city and people of Modena, a part of the town's heritage, and a tribute to the marque for which he once worked and for which he retains a passion.

Asked which Maserati is his favorite, he names the Tipo 124 Medici. "It's a great car - comfortable, smooth, 5-litre V8 engine, it's very nice to drive," he tells us. "That's the car I like to take to Concours competitions. I haven't driven them all, but my son, Matteo, has driven them much more. I still tinker with them - I'm still a mechanic at heart. I think, as a mechanic, I almost have too much respect for the cars to drive them!"

A visit to the collection is usually on the itinerary of important visitors to Modena; people from Fiat Chairman Luca de Montezemolo and Ferrari boss Jean Todt to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Luciano Pavarotti has been to the farm many times - he and Umberto were friends growing up. While the collection is not open to the public, it is often possible to arrange a visit.