Most mancaves or garages are filled with unwanted junk we don’t need but don’t want to throw away. On a recent episode of The Late Brake Show’s Car Cave, Jonny Smith featured a mancave that’s a little bit out of the ordinary (a small car museum of sorts). Steve Ottavianelli is storing some rare classic gems including '70s Japanese motorcycles, automobilia and Schumacher’s ’93 Benetton F1 Car.
The Late Brake Show’s Car Cave series celebrates buildings that house iconic vehicles. While Ottavianelli’s car cave is unlike anything they’ve featured (It doesn’t have as many cars), the show’s producers were taken away by its design, automobilia, and the fact that he built it himself.
“I built it back four years ago on the pretext of having a man cave, and we’ve utilized part of it as that and part of it as my wife’s business,” Ottavianelli explained.
Ottavianelli is a builder by trade, and his car cave is the third building he’s built by himself alongside his house.
Part of his collection includes a classic Fiat 500. While it’s not a fast car compared to cars he’s owned in his past, it’s a memorabilia collection that goes into his family’s history of being Italian.
Ottavianelli has had an impressive history with Ferraris. He’s owned a Ferrari F335 Berlinetta, F355 355 GTS, F360 F1 Spider, 360 Coupe, F40s, two Testarossas, 458 Speciale, 458 Speciale Aperta, and a 430 Scuderia.
He also has a collection of Japanese motorcycles, including a Suzuki GT 250 Ram Air 1975 that’s currently under restoration. But the marvel of his garage is a Formula One car - Schumacher’s ’93 Benetton. He stores it in a separate Formula One room.
His 1993 Benetton-Ford B193B was used by Michael Schumacher and Riccardo Patrese. It’s completely original. It’s done five Grand Prix in its day and was used by Schumacher for the qualifying race at the British Grand Prix. It finished the race in 3rd position with Patrese.
Ottavianelli has owned this F1 car for 18 years. What makes it unique is that it actually runs. It is currently up for grabs for GBP 1.1 million to 1.6 million ($1.2 to 1.8 million) at Bonhams. We recommend watching it fire up in the video below.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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