Fobio
10-04-2011, 12:32 PM
I think it's a funny read...
Fabio finds true love, on his bike
(http://www.wheels.ca/Columns/article/800315)
Yvonne Marton
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
In romance novels, the story often begins with a beautiful girl, a young man and a stolen glance.
They're the sort of paperbacks that frequently featured Fabio, the Italian supermodel, actor and spokesman on their cover — with long, flowing hair and without a shirt.
But for a teenage Fabio Lanzoni, the real-life storyline was the ending. It was over, less romantically, before it began: with a crunch of metal, a totalled Fiat 500 and a furious father.
Driving with a learner's permit — he was not yet old enough to drive on his own — Fabio and his older cousin were heading home from the movies and nearing an intersection when his cousin pointed out an attractive woman.
He says he glanced up, missed the red light and went in an instant from sitting in the driver's seat to sitting in the back seat.
Though there were no injuries, the car he'd had for only a month was a writeoff.
But the used 500 wasn't Fabio's first choice for a first car. As a teen he was already tall — past six feet — and literally had to fold himself in behind the wheel. The Cinquecentro, which had been introduced in Italy as a “city car,” only measured around 10 feet in length.
Despite the fact Fabio came from a professional Milanese family — his dad was a mechanical engineer who owned his own company — the car was a practical, interim choice.
His father's choice.
“It wasn't like, ‘Let's go and choose a car,' ” Fabio recalls. “It was ‘This is what you get. You want it? That's what you're going to get. Otherwise you're gonna buy your own car when you make your own money.'” He echoes his dad's words with a still-present Italian accent.
Fabio says his father told him: “I know sooner or later you're going to smash it or bump into something — you're learning — so this is going to be your learning car. After you learn and I see you're not going to be in accidents and stuff like that, you're more responsible, then I'll buy you a nice car.”
The promise was something of a leap of faith. As a teen, Fabio was admittedly restless and frequently tried his father's (and school officials') patience.
Inspired by a trip to the U.S. at 13, he says he dreamed of leaving Italy and one day coming to America.
But Fabio says the accident did teach him to become more responsible. For a year and a half, he went without a car (borrowing his cousin's Citroen Deux Chevaux when he needed wheels — “a really weird looking car, but it was really great”) and pulled up his grades, entering college to study mechanical engineering.
“Because I did very well in a year in school and my cousin let me drive his car and I never put a dent or a scratch on it, my uncle told my father, ‘Hey, he's doing pretty good and it's time to buy him a car.'”
Fabio says he was richly, if surprisingly, rewarded.
“Oh my God, even my cousin — everybody was jealous — they were like, ‘Wow, now you've got a Porsche!' From a crappy, second-hand 500 to a Porsche, so it was like: ‘Wow!'
“And I remember it was silver metallic with black interior with a spoiler in the back. It was really nice.”
It's a car seemingly more akin to Fabio's role as a spokesperson and actor, in which he's shown he can have fun with his romantic image.
But beyond his onscreen persona, Fabio is a dedicated gearhead who watches shows like Top Gear and knows his stuff.
He owns 215 motorcycles of varying makes and models — Aprilia, Yamaha, Husqvarna, Ducati/Fila, MV Agusta, Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki — many of which are limited editions, as well as a garage full of seriously fast cars (Lamborghini 560 Gallardo, a one-of-a-kind 911 Porsche redone by Evolution Motorsports with a 4.0 litre racing engine and two Mercedes SL 65 AMGs, one of which is the 50th anniversary edition).
He also owns a Silverado pickup truck to haul around his dirt bikes.
Despite having celebrated his 50th birthday, Fabio is passionate about dirt bike racing and says he enjoys living in the moment.
“You never know in life; you are here today and something can happen. So you have to enjoy life, that's my philosophy — you have to live day-by-day.”
But at 6-foot-3 and eschewing touring/cruising motorcycles, Fabio's physique is not what you'd associate with comfort on a bike.
He says as a backlash to the Suzuki Hayabusa and manufacturers' self-imposed top speed limit of 300 km/h in 2000, the race has shifted to acceleration: how quickly a bike can reach its top speed.
To do that, Fabio says companies have increased horsepower and shaved down weight, making the bikes physically smaller.
“A 1000cc that I fit comfortably in 2000/'01 up to 2006/'07 — I could fit on a bike no problem, on a 1000 — now all the new 1000s, they look like a small 600. So I can't fit (on) them anymore because my knees, they are so high over the gas tank I have no space for my leg.
“I'm telling you, it's unbelievable. They're so small, they're beautiful, they're little rockets but . . . I sit on it and I can't even put my feet on the foot-peg because I'm so cramped up. So now I'm only buying dirt bikes.”
It's clear whether on a bike or behind the wheel, Fabio, an adept mechanic with a well-stocked garage, loves speed and performance.
But — surprisingly, for a man famed for his looks (he works out religiously and is the founder of Healthy Planet Vitamins, a nutritional supplement company) — he rarely references a car's colour, style or design, concentrating almost exclusively on what's under the hood.
And he's not interested in the reintroduced fashion-forward Cinquecentro, noting he's only seen one to date in car-obsessed Los Angeles. For the money, he says there are better, more reliable options, citing the cute and speedy Mini Cooper. A fan of German engineering, he prefers Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Audi and Audi-owned Lamborghini. “They're fast, they're comfortable, they're reliable.”
It would seem Fabio isn't fooled by a pretty face.
Fabio finds true love, on his bike
(http://www.wheels.ca/Columns/article/800315)
Yvonne Marton
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
In romance novels, the story often begins with a beautiful girl, a young man and a stolen glance.
They're the sort of paperbacks that frequently featured Fabio, the Italian supermodel, actor and spokesman on their cover — with long, flowing hair and without a shirt.
But for a teenage Fabio Lanzoni, the real-life storyline was the ending. It was over, less romantically, before it began: with a crunch of metal, a totalled Fiat 500 and a furious father.
Driving with a learner's permit — he was not yet old enough to drive on his own — Fabio and his older cousin were heading home from the movies and nearing an intersection when his cousin pointed out an attractive woman.
He says he glanced up, missed the red light and went in an instant from sitting in the driver's seat to sitting in the back seat.
Though there were no injuries, the car he'd had for only a month was a writeoff.
But the used 500 wasn't Fabio's first choice for a first car. As a teen he was already tall — past six feet — and literally had to fold himself in behind the wheel. The Cinquecentro, which had been introduced in Italy as a “city car,” only measured around 10 feet in length.
Despite the fact Fabio came from a professional Milanese family — his dad was a mechanical engineer who owned his own company — the car was a practical, interim choice.
His father's choice.
“It wasn't like, ‘Let's go and choose a car,' ” Fabio recalls. “It was ‘This is what you get. You want it? That's what you're going to get. Otherwise you're gonna buy your own car when you make your own money.'” He echoes his dad's words with a still-present Italian accent.
Fabio says his father told him: “I know sooner or later you're going to smash it or bump into something — you're learning — so this is going to be your learning car. After you learn and I see you're not going to be in accidents and stuff like that, you're more responsible, then I'll buy you a nice car.”
The promise was something of a leap of faith. As a teen, Fabio was admittedly restless and frequently tried his father's (and school officials') patience.
Inspired by a trip to the U.S. at 13, he says he dreamed of leaving Italy and one day coming to America.
But Fabio says the accident did teach him to become more responsible. For a year and a half, he went without a car (borrowing his cousin's Citroen Deux Chevaux when he needed wheels — “a really weird looking car, but it was really great”) and pulled up his grades, entering college to study mechanical engineering.
“Because I did very well in a year in school and my cousin let me drive his car and I never put a dent or a scratch on it, my uncle told my father, ‘Hey, he's doing pretty good and it's time to buy him a car.'”
Fabio says he was richly, if surprisingly, rewarded.
“Oh my God, even my cousin — everybody was jealous — they were like, ‘Wow, now you've got a Porsche!' From a crappy, second-hand 500 to a Porsche, so it was like: ‘Wow!'
“And I remember it was silver metallic with black interior with a spoiler in the back. It was really nice.”
It's a car seemingly more akin to Fabio's role as a spokesperson and actor, in which he's shown he can have fun with his romantic image.
But beyond his onscreen persona, Fabio is a dedicated gearhead who watches shows like Top Gear and knows his stuff.
He owns 215 motorcycles of varying makes and models — Aprilia, Yamaha, Husqvarna, Ducati/Fila, MV Agusta, Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki — many of which are limited editions, as well as a garage full of seriously fast cars (Lamborghini 560 Gallardo, a one-of-a-kind 911 Porsche redone by Evolution Motorsports with a 4.0 litre racing engine and two Mercedes SL 65 AMGs, one of which is the 50th anniversary edition).
He also owns a Silverado pickup truck to haul around his dirt bikes.
Despite having celebrated his 50th birthday, Fabio is passionate about dirt bike racing and says he enjoys living in the moment.
“You never know in life; you are here today and something can happen. So you have to enjoy life, that's my philosophy — you have to live day-by-day.”
But at 6-foot-3 and eschewing touring/cruising motorcycles, Fabio's physique is not what you'd associate with comfort on a bike.
He says as a backlash to the Suzuki Hayabusa and manufacturers' self-imposed top speed limit of 300 km/h in 2000, the race has shifted to acceleration: how quickly a bike can reach its top speed.
To do that, Fabio says companies have increased horsepower and shaved down weight, making the bikes physically smaller.
“A 1000cc that I fit comfortably in 2000/'01 up to 2006/'07 — I could fit on a bike no problem, on a 1000 — now all the new 1000s, they look like a small 600. So I can't fit (on) them anymore because my knees, they are so high over the gas tank I have no space for my leg.
“I'm telling you, it's unbelievable. They're so small, they're beautiful, they're little rockets but . . . I sit on it and I can't even put my feet on the foot-peg because I'm so cramped up. So now I'm only buying dirt bikes.”
It's clear whether on a bike or behind the wheel, Fabio, an adept mechanic with a well-stocked garage, loves speed and performance.
But — surprisingly, for a man famed for his looks (he works out religiously and is the founder of Healthy Planet Vitamins, a nutritional supplement company) — he rarely references a car's colour, style or design, concentrating almost exclusively on what's under the hood.
And he's not interested in the reintroduced fashion-forward Cinquecentro, noting he's only seen one to date in car-obsessed Los Angeles. For the money, he says there are better, more reliable options, citing the cute and speedy Mini Cooper. A fan of German engineering, he prefers Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Audi and Audi-owned Lamborghini. “They're fast, they're comfortable, they're reliable.”
It would seem Fabio isn't fooled by a pretty face.