Martin Swig in 2003.
Story and photos by Shivu Rao
We sadly note the passing of 78 year old Martin Swig, who passed away on July 3, 2012. Swig was a San Francisco Bay Area-based car collector, vintage racer, founder and chief organizer of the California Mille, La Carrera Nevada, and other notable U.S. vintage car rallies and events. Nine years ago, we sent budding reporter Shivu Rao out to interview the iconic Alfa collector. Shivu had the pleasure of sitting down with Mr. Swig to talk about a wide-ranging set of subjects; from the foundations of the Italian car business in America in the 1950s, to the development of the car industry in general, to vintage rallies, to vintage cars, and last but not least, Swig himself. We re-publish this interesting and informative article today as a fitting tribute to Martin Swig.[Ed.]
Having spent some time with the man, we at VeloceToday can state without compunction that he is a true blue (or Rosso) Italian car enthusiast and holds much knowledge about our collective passion. His enthusiasm is real, palpable and infectious. The two Maxims of Swig we took away from this encounter were – “the cars choose the people, not the other way around” and “it’s all about having fun”. The second phrase was in evidence as we had a good time creating the content for this piece.