HISTORY – Menu dei Motori number 1, at mythical Ristorante Lauro Modena

It was the now distant 1996 year when, after a series of contacts with the major artisans, restorers, suppliers, car dealerships, clubs and companies of the “Pianeta Modena” area, Fabrizio Ferrari, journalist and designer, always devoted to the “Land of Engines” (long before this term was coined and formalized) together with Lauro Malavolti, a well-known restaurateur well known in the environment and above all abroad, for his “motor restaurant”: the Lauro Restaurant in Viale Ciro Menotti, had the intuition of give continuity to a historical tradition of the past, that of the “motor menus”, begun in the 30s of the last century, by Enzo Ferrari himself, at the time of the famous Scuderia of Viale Trento and Trieste.

In 1996, exactly on November 7th, the first “motor menu” of the “new generation” was opened with a lunch offered by Lauro Malavolti himself, so to speak: a simple menu, with inserts from various companies, artisans and clubs of the area; not even called “Menu dei Motori”: only 16 pages in all, but the spark was shot !!!
Already at the time, in addition to the various “advertisers”, some mythical historical figures were present at the inaugural lunch; among them: the former Formula 1 driver Gigi Villoresi, Don Sergio Mantovani, the famous “don ruspa”, Francesco Stanguellini and the then Technical Director Lamborghini, Ing. Luigi Marmiroli, later, also for many years, too become one of the “godfathers” of the Menu dei Motori.
From the second issue, of the following year (1997), dedicated to the 50th Ferrari, it officially became the “Menu dei Motori”, with a first, not yet definitive brand name on the cover (but immediately with the famous logo of piston and connecting rod crossed with the fork), while the pages already began to increase, adding, not only new advertisers, but also historical and topical articles, plus various recurrences.
We all know that, over the years, the continuous transformation of the “Menu dei Motori”, in addition to celebrating, more or less all the most important and famous anniversaries of Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini, De Tomaso and Pagani, has seen, in addition to to the various inaugurations, with dinners, round tables, conferences, seminars, even real meetings and gatherings, in direct collaboration, not only with the car manufacturers involved and the official clubs, but also with Ruoteclassiche and the same Editoriale Domus.
All this until the 10th anniversary (2006), when, unfortunately, the Lauro Restaurant had already been closed for some years and Lauro Malavolti was thus switched to different activities.

Some of these events are now available on the web, both as videos and as photo galleries, to remember what were the “heroic” times of the “Menu dei Motori”; long before “Terra di Motori” or “Motor Valley”, born later just on the wave generated by “Menu dei Motori” which, over the years, has not only become, first magazine and then real yearbook of the “Planet Modena”: an increasingly essential” must “, a true collector’s item, for the many tourists, from simple enthusiasts, to the” owners “of modern and historic cars, up to the same technicians and workers in the restricted Modena motoring environment!