for a Maradonianaall that has been part of the life of the Ten are places of worship, itinerant altars that can be in Fiorito, La Paternal, La Boca, Naples, Seville, Rosario, Dubai, Segurola and Havana, in Mexico, in Cuba, in a sumptuous Ferrari or a modest Fiat 128. That first kilometer 0 car purchased by Diego Maradona which has an amazing history. He is the one who appeared abandoned in a chicken coop. And this has been carried over.
You can find this cream colored car on the streets of the City of Buenos Aires and the Conurbano. It will not be possible to identify it because it has no sign that identifies it. Its owner decided it so for the effect it could generate if it had a particular sign that would allow it to be recognized for what it is: a car from Maradona. There are few, however, who know the data and are part of the group it supports the art of keeping a secretas the Queens of the Stone Age song says.
Clarione found. The facilitator was Alejandro Pastorino, a renowned classic car restorer, in whose hands and for many years countless mechanical jewels of high displacement, robust power and luxurious appearance have passed and passed. However, this Argentine, who brings the prestige of him to different parts of the country and the world, admits it this 128 is one of the most important cars he has repaired. but the most important.
Pastorino is not a football fan, but his passion is hockey, but he knows the liturgy Maradoniana because his friends pass it on to him, among whom he is Martin Varrone, the owner of the car, and for those who have restored it and keep it in top condition. Those who love Maradona understand what it means to be in contact with a Diego registered trademark: manage what Diego ran or at least sit in the right place.
How is Diego Maradona’s Fiat 128
Those were less extravagant times in the life of Diego, who at the end of his career showed up with a Scania in a training session at Boca. East Fiat a car of just 3.8 meters in length, with a cockpit designed for the transport of four people in relative comfort, equipped with a four-cylinder, 1.3-liter and 60 horsepower. The speedometer, limited to 180 kilometers per hour, had 40 kilometers per hour in reserve. Diego’s was the CL version, with a quarter on the groundwhen the CL5 already existed at the time, the top of the range that carried five gears.
Simple but flawless. That’s how it is now. It has been newly rebuiltincluding the engine. It has only 370 kilometers traveled. But the story of how it was saved goes back almost 20 years. Varro had emblematic cars, such as the Cadillac that belonged to Juan Domingo Perón, ea Mercedes Benz who drove Juan Manuel Fangio. When he got the information about the existence of the little 128, and as a good Boca fan, the floor moved.
“A friend, Coco Romero, called us to tell us that 128 Maradona was in Salto. We went to see it: it was destroyed. Thrown in a chicken coop, with the engine in the trunk. They gave us the documents. When we returned to Buenos Aires, Martín took care of verifying that the car was the original. He confirmed it. In silence, because if the news leaked the price would increase, we went to Salto to look for him and we took him to Palermo, where we had the workshop and there began a whole process of restoration towards the original, which is this “. says Pastorino.
It was 2003. The upgrade lasted a year and a half. And it was like when Diego had bought it, 21 years earlier, at the end of 1982. The car was deposited by Jorge Cyterszpiler, then representative of the Ten. He was domiciled in the chalet in Via Cantilo 4500, Villa Devoto. According to the original title, the Fiat 128 passed into the hands of Maradona on December 24, 1982when Pelusa was already in Barcelona.
The 128 was born in 1969 in Italy and in 1971when it was elected Car of the Year in Europe, arrived in Argentina. It was originally produced in El Palomar by Fiat Concord and in the 1980s it became part of the Sevel structure. Until you say goodbye in 1990, when the Duna was already a sales phenomenon, about 250,000 units were produced. With that number, it wasn’t that difficult for Pastorino to find the pieces to get him back as good as new.
“When we finished the restoration, we sat down for the first time and went out for a drive. At that moment we looked at Martín and we agreed think of the times when Diego pulled it out. Many things go through your head ”, refreshes the restorer. It’s that question of the imagination.
Diego Maradona got rid of the 128 in 1984, the year in which he moved to Napoli and was already starting to flirt with the high performances of the ferrari. Now the little Italian is for sale. In 2021 it was auctioned through an NFT, a Token to sell products digitally. It was produced under the name “El Primer Auto de Dios”, approved by Matías Morla, the last representative of Maradona. At the moment, they asked for a base of $ 400,000. did not sell.
But the owner has decided to get rid of the car because with that money he intends to support the career of his son Nicolás, a young driver who is trying to make his way into European motorsports, in the Le Mans Series, Endurance category. Varrone was in fact left waiting for Diego to sign the hood of the car, as he had introduced him to his passion for Boca and who works to support his son’s career in high-level competitions in the Old World.
fanatic of Boca, Martín Varrone walked with the 128 in emblematic places linked to Diego, such as the same house in via Cantilo and la Bombonera. The car, which with so few kilometers traveled does not even have a softened engine, sounds as flawless as it sounds, as he could verify. Clarione in the lap shared with Pastorino at the wheel. Thus, incognito, he goes unnoticed. In that corner of Martínez, no one knew the jewel they were passing through.
“As usual we don’t say it’s Maradona’s car. We don’t have to take him out on the street. It is also not usually stored in the workshop or at Martin’s. We have it in a garage in the capital, because they would drive us crazy. There are a lot of fans, a lot of people who want it and it wouldn’t be nice if they knew where it is, where you take it, where it is stored.
What Alejandro Pastorino says sounds selfish. But also realistic. Diego died on November 25, 2020, and at that moment many nostalgia broke out Maradonians which leads them to search for him continuously. Everywhere. In any case. And they want to find it in any way. Even that of a modest Fiat 128 that was accelerated by the less able foot of the Ten.
Source: Clarin
