"THEY GOT THE LOOK"
Per Gessle on why he started his love affair with cars
-It all started when I was a kid and saw the pictures of John Lennon's psychedelically painted Rolls-Royce. Talk about inspiration - that's the kind of car you wanted. But right then I had to settle with my Corgi Toys car collection, and expanding the Scalextric race track I had with my big brother Bengt.
−A few years later it became natural to follow all the Swedish racing stars: Joakim Bonnier, Reine Wisell, and Ronnie Peterson, of course. What a marvellous driver. Jackie Stewart and James Hunt were heroes as well. And dad took me to the race-track in Falkenberg, where we saw Picko Troberg put the pedal to the metal in a Lotus. That certainly made an impression.
My first car was my parent's orange VW Passat, which I bought for SEK 5000 when I was 18. We called it "Hjalmar" since its registration plate was HJA 450 . Not overly sexy. It went many miles from my home to Harplinge, where my Swedish band Gyllene Tider had its rehearsal joint. The next car was first a black and then a lime green Golf GTI, when the band had made it big and we became sponsored by Volkswagen in 1981.
-But it wasn't until 1992 that I bought my first really cool car a Mercedes Benz SL600. I had made some money with Roxette, and my future wife Åsa and me chose between a Mercedes and a BMW. We finally settled for the Merc - which was a cab, as well. It was the first year in the modern era Mercedes made V12 engines, and
they produced quite few of this model, which of course made it even more special to obtain.
-But it wasn't technology that made me love cars so early. I never got a moped or a scooter, and had zero interest in tinkering with engines - I never had any clue how that works. It was the looks that got me. The design, everything the cars represented. The Ferrari Dino that Tony Curtis drove in "The Persuaders". James Bond's Aston Martin DB5. Roger Moore's Volvo P1800 in "The Saint". Jaguar E-Type. What a beautiful car. Just check out those spoked rims.
-I think you can compare it with my interest in guitars. They are unique and extremely beautiful objects, pure pieces of art sometimes. Even motorbikes like Ducati or Aprilia can be breathtakingly beautiful. And who hasn't dreamed about riding Peter Fonda's Harley-Davidson chopper in "Easy Rider"? Also, you should never underestimate the mighty roar of a V12 or V8 engine. That really makes something buzz in your body.
l've driven go-kart for many years, and also had the chance to drive cars on race tracks, but have never competed. I've never been that keen on driving a car at full blast in
300 km/h. It's not the top speed that attracts me to these incredible machines. It's the sound, the acceleration and becoming one with the car when you drive it. But to get that feeling you actually don't have to drive extremely fast.
Having cars as a hobby is rewarding in so many ways. We go to Formula 1 races, visit car exhibitions, and meet a lot of wonderful and easy-going people who also are into motorsport. Åsa likes it as well. We've both attended Ferrari's driving school - Pilota Ferrari - and have driven different models on their Fiorano track in Italy. When you take a ride on the race track with one of their test drivers, you'll find out exactly where the cars limits are. That's also when you realize what a lousy driver you are.
The transition to electric cars is both natural and necessary for environmental reasons. But an electric car is like comparing a digital instrument with a handmade acoustic guitar. It's hard to recreate that feeling. It becomes something else. And the cars in this collection are not driven that much, so my emissions shouldn't be a particularly big problem for the planet. I think they run less that 1000 kilometres totally each year. To me, they're more like pieces of art.
It was the Ferrari Dino that got me hooked on Ferrari cars. As mentioned, Tony Curtis drove a red Dino in "The Persuaders", and on the inner sleeve to George Harrison's "Living In The Material World album, you can see all musicians having a picnic in his garden - and in the background there's a brown Dino. That was something to dream about for a teenager in the Vilshärad village outside of Halmstad.
The first Ferrari we bought was a 456 GT. I saw it at a car exhibition in Geneva 1993, and fell in love immediately. It was the most beautiful car I had ever laid my eyes on. We bought a blue with crème coloured interior.
-Unfortunately, it had some problems. It overheated once in a tunnel, there was smoke everywhere, and you couldn't close the window properly, so wind and rain became a major issue. We eventually sold it. I still regret it, however. But at that time, I didn't have any thought of collecting cars. That just happened.
-I got in contact with Ferrari through some friends, and eventually got the chance to buy their limited edition cars. In 2001 we got our first one, a 550 Barchetta Pininfarina, and that beauty got the ball rolling.
Many of these cars are pretty unusual. Some genuine car enthusiasts probably know about them, but not everyone has seen them for real. And when we started talking about expanding the hotel, I realized we had a golden opportunity to create a permanent car exhibition where all these gems could be displayed, in order to give more people a chance to have a look at them.
-We don't have space for the whole collection, so there will be alterations now and then. And besides, I want to drive them as well. Vroom!
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