Team Cignale
The Crew:
Giacomo “Gippino” Paduli: 27yo, bicicle mechanic. When he was young he loved MountainBike but he preferred the lasagna. Over the year his weight has been growing, now it’s around 135kg and 185cm. They don’t make bikes for him but he added 2 wheels and now his favourite hobby is Offroading. He owns one Suzuki Vitara and one Jimmy, this one heavly modified for extreme offroading.
Position: Left
Role: Driver and navigator
Marco “Boombox” Buglia: 28yo, uneducated and unemployed. Formerly a DJ, he worked for 8 years in the “Show Biz” now is unemployed. He partecipated at “Sarabanda” (musical quiz) at age 17, winning 30.000€, this was the last luck of his life. He opened a music store but then cames iTunes. Now he lives with his mother. He is 175cm tall and weight less than 60kg.
Position: Center
Role: Entertainment Manager, center console
Luca “Spadella” Chiarugi: 26yo dishwasher, or, as he prefers, “Chef assistent”. He studied at Hotel School, he love cooking (and eating), He’s Giacomo’s best friend; He is here only to counterweight his friend, and to prepear some good meals. He hates mud and nature and he is obsessed with hygiene. The only one with a girlfriend (at least at the start line). 178cm 106kg. He is “famous” for his puns.
Position: Right
Role: Counterweight and cooker
The Car:
'87 Raziel Cargo Saltafossi
Old military veichle, or something like that, they don’t know where it came from, the only hint is the wording “M.M 88” on the side, and the green colour. Giacomo found this one at the junkyard.
The odometer indicates 000243km, something don’t look right, maybe it done a full turn.
Looking at an old broshure of the Raziel Cargo Saltafossi you can learn:
- Equipped with a powerful I6 Engine
- All wheel drive with manual locking differential
- Rugged to support abuses
and some other minor things
The Raziel Cargo was one of the bestselleres van of the 80s and this version is the offroad version, used mainly by police forces and army. Originally sold for 17000$ (at 30% markup), Giacomo buy it for around 650€.
But let’s talk about this specific model. When Giacomo found it at the Junkyard inside is complitly empty (in the back) and it is divided in 3 compartiment. Front one is the cab, 3 seats decently spaced by a sliding door to acces the second compartiment. The second compartiment is completly empty, maybe in the past was used as secondary crew seating, on the side doors there are two black plastic openable hatches and on the back wall another sliding door. This door leads to the third and final compartiment. This one is completly dark exept for two small grilles on the back. On the floor there are some dirt and junk.
Outside you can notice an heavy winch on the front bumper, it not work all the time, or better, sometimes work. On the roof there are 8 additional light (4 for the front and 4 for the back) and a roof rack.
The changes they have made are only in the interior. In the back they placed some tools, an electric generator and some spare parts, here the guys store their camping equipment; the middle compartiment is equipped as a kitchen, with some stoves, sink and food storage, TV with a DVD player, there is also a water tank under the floor and a water heater. In the front they have changed the stereo system with a better sounding one (a bit custom) and they have placed a mixer to turn on and off the outside speakers.
Performance are not that good, this thing is very heavy, but comfortable.
They don’t have made other modifications exept for small repairs, like an oil change, lightbulbs change, new battery and a vigorous wash. It don’t need any other care, the engine runs itself and the wheels seems to turn 360°.
If you haven’t got it, they are from Italy, more precisely Maremma (souther Tuscany) and “Cignale” is a slang for “boar”.
