I spent Sunday at Lime Rock Park Racetrack, walking among priceless automobiles. Hundreds of them. Competition vehicles, hand made vehicles, one-of-a-kind pieces of history. I took photographs of only one. Yes. One. A car that gave me shortness of breath, and a desire to slowly draw my tongue along its lines.
This vehicle (and I use the term quite intentionally) is not merely an automobile. In fact, it doesn't even NEED to be an automobile. It is, in its purest form - nothing more than a creation inspired by divinity. The ceiling of the Sistine chapel. Beethoven's 9th. Bernini's "Ecstasy of St Theresa". All these exhibit a drive that transcends and occasionally overwhelms the humans creating them. And like St Theresa, let's not for one minute forget that there's often very real and outright fornication occurring in such things. Not sex in the typical physical manner, but in the primal, deep rooted brain sense.
The car is a 1951 Abarth 205 Vignale Berlinetta. Say it with me and mouth the words softly to yourself: "Vin-gnala Baer-linetta". Speaking the words out loud is the aural equivalent to having melon juice drip off your lips on to your chin. It is flat out luscious. All Italian named vehicles from this era seem to have this quality. This particular machine is one of only three ever produced.
This brings me to my next point: The Italians are seemingly incapable of producing anything ugly or without passion (even when they TRY). I have a theory that all Italian children are issued an aesthetic creativity test at age 4. If they fail, they are casually left on a hillside to die. Call it Eugenics, purifying the breed, whatever you want. It leaves their culture with an astounding ability to create exclusively beautiful, moving, works of art.
I've often said that Italian culture is one that thrives on chaos. Perhaps when you give up effective, practical infrastructures you are given the freedom to communicate with the divine within us all.....and create things like THIS.
