beginnings small
We all start somewhere. For these collectors, their passions began on the living room floor.
BY MARSHALL BUCK
Imagine for a moment that the first car you ever owned was a D-Type Jaguar. When you were 11. It sounds like fod- der for an automotive adventure novel, but it’s really not so far-fetched. Because of course we’re talking miniatures here. Tere is a common thread among collectors that is traceable to their child- hoods: Te toy cars and models they col- lected then provided the spark for their collecting flame now. Ray Minella, Greg Galdi, Don Orosco and Angus Forsyth are four such collectors.
RAY MINELLA is an investment banker who cofounded Berenson Minella & Company and later joined Jefferies & Company, Inc., where he retired as Vice
Chairman in 2010. He is currently Adjunct Professor and Executive Di- rector of the Clarke Business Law Institute at Cornell University. His car collection is all Porsche and includes a 1962 Twin Grille 356 Roadster, 1955 Speedster, 1962 Carrera 2 coupe, 2007 GT3 RS, and the very last 1973 Carrera RS made.
For Ray, it started with Corgi Toys. “From about the time I was three and a half,” he says. “But I was more into model kits as I got older.
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PHOTO BY JAKE WYMAN
Revell and AMT, and others. I built a lot, but I was never good at it. I just couldn’t get the painting right. Te cars I built were muscle cars, which was what my interest was in.” But those models are long gone. “Te stuff I made myself…none of it was worth keeping,” he says. While his tastes have changed, and he stays away from building kits, Ray still collects miniatures, primarily related to the cars he owns. As he became interested in vintage 356s, he grew interested in everything related to them. “Models, books, ashtrays, all the memo- rabilia,” Minella says. “About 85 to 90 percent of my collection is now Porsche.” Nearly all of his Schuco wind-ups are originals, and when it comes to scale in miniatures, Ray doesn’t much care, though “the smaller ones (1:43) are easier to keep and I have more of them.” Detail counts too for Ray, and he has commissioned 1:24-scale custom-built models of several of his cars, including some built by the author. And while it’s too bad he sold his wonderful 356 Carrera 2 Cabriolet, there is comfort in knowing he has a great model of it.
GREG GALDI is a chemist-turned-IT professional. He is President and CEO of Custom Computer Specialists, Inc., which he founded in 1979. His collection includes a McLaren M23 Formula 1 car, Porsche 917K, Porsche 956, Porsche 911 RSR, two BMW GTP cars, a ’72 Lotus Europa, ’63 Lotus Super Seven and a few others. Te cars in Greg’s collection certainly aren’t the types one collects without having a rooted interest, and he is quick to tell you that the
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