Foreign car repair shops

Sam Caronia. Obituary photo, photographer unknown

By Pete Vack and Tom Gonnella

Sam Caronia was not famous and more irascible than most. But he was an unforgettable person, the owner of a foreign car repair shop and sometime race driver, who helped and encouraged a younger generation to maintain and race the Italian cars we all loved. And though he died many years ago, he is still remembered.

A Navy Veteran, an Abarth Dealer, a Race Driver

Tom Gonnella, a fellow Ferrari owner and Tidewater, Virginia, resident, worked for Sam as a teenager, and was a long-time friend. Recently Tom sent me his well-written reflections on Sam which provided the basis for a belated biography, and allowed us to make use of an interview I had with Sam in 2014 and never published. I too, had known Sam for many years, and Tom’s recollections mirrored my own.

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Domenico Spadaro rebuilding a Ferrari 275 GT transaxle. Photo courtesy Spadaro family.

Story by Sean Smith

Domenico Spadaro began his apprenticeship as a mechanic at twelve years old. Initially, his father wanted his son to be a cabinet maker. However, after spending only one day in a woodworking factory, he decided that he’d become a mechanic. The very next day, he strolled into the only garage in town and asked to be made an apprentice.

He went on to open his own shop in his father’s barn in 1936 at the tender age of sixteen. At the time, the only vehicles seen on the rugged roads of pre-war Sicily were motor bikes and the occasional Fiat. If you were wealthy, the car to have was a Lancia or an Alfa Romeo. These affluent landowners came to learn of Domenico’s talents and hired him to come and repair their autos at their estates. One interesting client owned an Alfa Romeo 8C that was occasionally used as an ambulance to ferry rich patients to hospital. Domenico worked hard at mastering how components of an engine worked with one another to make an engine sing. The war came and he served in the Italian army, returning to formally open his own garage on the “small” main street of Roccalumera, Sicily. [Read more…] about Domenico’s Legacy