Nastasi racing

Testing the Countach at the Lamborghini factory in Sant A'gata for the 25th anniversary celebration. This is Joe's personal Countach and has traveled only 400 miles.

Testing the Countach at the Lamborghini factory for the 25th anniversary celebration. This is Joe’s personal Countach and has traveled only 400 miles.

In Part I, a young Joe Nastasi grows up in Sicily, addicted to cars and speed. After a two year stint in the Italian Navy, he is ready to move on. Ironically, he finds his true calling not in Italy, but in the United States. (Read Part I)

Fresh off the boat

The newly-married but seasick couple arrived in New York, on the Queen Ann Maria on Friday May 8th, 1971. (It’s one of those dates one just does not forget). By that Monday Joe hit the pavement looking for a job. Amazingly, two blocks down the street, he saw a Fiat agency, walked in and was hired immediately–the owner was from Calabria, Italy. [Read more…] about From Sicily to Success: The Joe Nastasi Story Part 2

Joe with his new partner and the first Lamborghini Countach in the U.S. Business was about to boom.

Joe Nastasi with his new partner and the first Lamborghini Countach in the U.S. Nastasi would become involved in the importation of Lamborghinis to the U.S..

By Pete Vack

A need for speed took an impoverished kid from Sicily from bicycles to Lamborghinis.

In the annals of American literature are a series of short novels written by Horatio Alger (1832-1898). Alger’s books usually told a tale of a poor and disadvantaged young man who, by his own strong will, intelligence and enterprise, overcomes great obstacles to eventually win riches and respect, and “builds his own American Dream against the odds.” Thus, in America, when someone who starts with nothing and ends up rich and/or famous, their success is still often referred to as a “Horatio Alger story”. [Read more…] about Joe Nastasi: From Sicily to Success Part 1