So often the cars I research come with stories permanently attached. Stories of celebrity ownership or the classic “Fangio drove this car (insert any make) all over Europe.” It is great fun to research these stories but more often than not they are simply not true. Our subject car this month came with two stories—a wedding and a broken heart. One turned out to be false and the other a strong maybe. Read on.
The history of our subject Fiat Dino is derived from both primary and secondary sources. Wherever possible I prefer primary sources, the actual people who owned the car or who were intimately familiar with a particular car. Given the age and rarity of our subject Fiat Dino, however, I had to use public records as well.
Our subject Fiat Dino 135AC0001039 was first registered in Como, Italy, by Mr. Giovanni Maino, of Lurate Caccivio. The car bore the registration plate number CO (Como) 207179.
Mr. Maino later sold the Dino to the local Fiat dealer in Varese, located at number 151 Via Varese Belforte. An Audi dealership now exists at this location.
The Fiat dealership in turn sold this car to Mrs. Angela Felicita Mignone. It was registered with plate number VA (Varese) 210368. The car was sold on November 23, 1967. Mrs. Mignone was born in Genoa, Italy, on November 18, 1910. so perhaps the car was a birthday gift celebrating her birthday. The story goes that Mrs. Mignone died not many months after the purchase, and her distraught husband kept the car dormant for many years.
To confirm dates of birth and death I contacted the appropriate Italian municipal office, in this case Ufficio Anagrafe e Stato Civile, Via dei Santi Giacomo e Filippo 816122 Genova (GE). Mrs. Mignone and her husband have long passed. That office confirmed that Mrs. Mignone did indeed die not long after the car was purchased.
The car next appears in the hands of Pino Cestaro, a chain-smoking Italian who purchased it in Genoa, from the estate of Mrs. Mignone, in 1988. The car was in almost new condition having not been used since her death.
Mr. Cestaro ran a business selling British cars in Italy and returning with Italian cars for the British market. Mr. Cestaro, of Suffolk, UK, bought the Dino in 1988 and drove it across Europe.
At this point enter Mike Elliot, a passionate Fiat Dino enthusiast having owned or worked on hundreds of Dinos in his lifetime. His passion for Dinos evolved into a business, Superformance UK Ltd. a major source for Fiat Dino and Ferrari parts.
Mike was kind enough to call me from the UK and share his first-hand knowledge of our subject Dino. He states that when the Fiat Dino arrived it was the most original Dino he had seen, and the sweetest running. According to Mike, all he did to the car was change the shocks and perform a tuneup.
The next owner was Jeremy Heath, who purchased the car from Pino Cestaro. The following is from an email to me from Jeremy: “I am indeed the Jeremy in question, still reeling from the shock of discovering that I used the car for my wedding. I am unmarried and have never had a wedding, which just goes to show how histories can get embellished over time!
“I remember 1039 very well. The car was almost new, showing 7500-km when it arrived in England (5700-km when it left Italy because it was driven back). Mike Elliot told me about the car becoming available
because he knew the man who found it, a man called Pino, who died quite a long time ago. Pino used to go to Italy and bring back classic cars for sale in the UK, mainly Alfas and a few Dinos.
“The story was that the car was bought new by a man for his wife but she died six months later. He was so upset he could not separate himself from the car, so he put it into storage in 1968, where it stayed until 1988 (I bought it in June ’88). I have no idea if the story is true but the car certainly seemed to be almost new. The only slightly sad thing was that the original white paint had gone a bit pink, so Pino had already had the car resprayed in (the wrong, Fiat, I think) white. [Actually the color Pino Cestaro selected was Aston Martin “Birch”] I would have done a better job or tried to save the original paint.
“The engine was fantastic, totally smooth. Mike said you can’t really recreate this—new engines are different from rebuilt ones and this engine seemed to spin like new. The blue vinyl interior was also fantastically original, except for one or two cigarette burns. The car had the very rare original leather steering wheel, too. I didn’t use it very much, but enjoyed it when I did. I sold it to Paul Siracusa (I think in ’92 or ’93; can’t remember), who I think took it back to New Jersey. Hope this helps fill in a gap. And I hope the current owners will treasure this car. It’s a special one.” Later, in 1999, Siracusa sold the car to Axel and Hanko Rosenblad.
So, of the two stories attached to the car, the wedding story turned out to be completely false. No past owner can verify that. The second story regarding a distraught husband storing his wife’s car for years after her death seems at least plausible. Italian death records and the dates of purchase and sale of this Dino coincide enough to indicate the story might be true. Sadly, none of the principals can now speak to this.
