The Peugeot 205 Turbo 16

A Childhood Fuelled by Car Magazines

Like many car enthusiasts, my love for automobiles began long before I could reach the pedals. As a child, I spent endless hours flipping through car magazines, memorising specifications, and carefully cutting out my favourite photographs. Surely, I wasn’t the only one with this pastime.

I must have been six or seven when my fascination truly took hold, though my reading material was largely limited to what was available locally. Living in a village on the shores of Lake Como, I would eagerly visit the newsstand to pick up Italy’s top car magazines, devouring every page. But my collection had an occasional boost, thanks to my father.

Whenever he returned from a business trip, I was, of course, happy to see him, but there was an extra thrill in wondering what car magazine he’d brought back for me. Each issue, from foreign publications to glossy collector’s editions, felt like a window into a wider world of automotive excellence.

Those early years spent poring over pages of cars I could only dream of laid the foundation for a lifelong passion. And even now, the nostalgia of flipping through a well-worn magazine still brings back that same childhood excitement.