A unique museum not only in Italy, but all over the world: there are no other structures that traces the entire history of the sidecar as the Frontalini Museums does, with exhibited vehicles. “A hundred years and a hundred sidecars, it seems like a slogan – smiles Costantino Frontalini – but actually the side was born just a century ago”. Sidecars are a passion and a full-time job for Costantino. He adds: “Here, in our facility in Cingoli, with my son Giacomo we build a dozen per year and at least as many we restore. We’re talking about small numbers, but each one requires a lot of time and a lot of work. I started when I was a kid: I had the first side on a Moto Guzzi 500 at the end of ’72, when I was 19. At that time sidecars were already rare and I didn’t have enough money to buy one. That’s why I convinced a friend of mine to create a sort of company. We paid it 90,000 lire then, since he was neither interested nor passionate, I gave him back his money and the sidecar remained with me ”. Since that “first cent” Guzzi others have arrived. “In 1976 I already had four others, so in the 90s I still bought new ones. Which ones do I dream of? I have a hundred so I would dream of … not having others but, joking aside, I am chasing those of the very last years of the 19th century and before 1903 which had other systems for carrying people: a high chair (called Forecar) placed in front of the bike or a trailer, also because then the bikes did not have a rear seat. But they were two very archaic, insecure, uncomfortable systems that, moreover, compromised the stability of the bike. And so in 1903 the Englishman Graham invented the sidecar which was not only used to transport people, but also for things. Here, I would like to have one of these precursor devices, but there are very few of them and they are almost unobtainable, perhaps there are some left abroad, in France or England. The rarest and most prestigious pieces I own? I have one from 1904 which is probably the oldest in the world, then very important is the Beardmore Precision with a fish-shaped buggy. It is a French product of the 1920s built in a single copy and is inspired by Art Deco “. But Costantino Frontalini does not just exhibit the sides in his museum, in fact he has organized exhibitions abroad several times as well as hires them for film productions or for public spots.
