Gaetano Rossi is certainly one of the last mechanics of an era that he was. His knowledge of engines and bodywork comes from far away and the art was passed on to him by his father Giovanni, born in 1914.
By bicycle every day from Codognè to Oderzo to reach in any season, in any weather, the workshop that was located behind the bus station, his father year after year has stored precious knowledge to learn all the secrets of an art that has become his true passion which he then passed on to Gaetano, who carried it on for fifty years, repairing and adjusting engines, rebuilding and inventing pieces that he could not find on the market alone.
A wizard of the engine and bodywork. Gaetano left wrenches and screwdrivers in 2014. “Fifty years of business seemed enough to me” says the “wizard of old cars”, born in 1949.
“Immediately after sixth grade I decided to follow in my father’s footsteps and to learn that profession that I was passionate about so as to become an important part of my life,” he says.
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Among the refurbished cars, Gaetano can be proud of the black 1100 that belonged to the then bishop of Vittorio Veneto, Albino Luciani who is still in town and runs smoothly like oil on the streets of Italy.
The same goes for the Balilla by Berto Busiol, year 1934, refurbished both in the engine and in the bodywork, three gears, one thousand displacement and 24 horsepower. “With the Balilla I climbed all the Dolomite passes without any problems.
“Just go slowly and take the climb calmly”. Two other important “pieces” that Gaetano occasionally uses for wedding ceremonies are the Rolls Royce (recovered in London with a customs charge of 6 million lire) and a Bentley purchased in a dealership and refurbished. A true artist who has taken up the baton of his father who opened the workshop in via Roma in Codognè in 1958.
Difficult to replace it and difficult to accept that such precious knowledge is not collected and perpetuated over time by someone with the same passion of these two engine wizards who have given hundreds of enthusiasts the joy of seeing their cars return to the splendor of the past. .
