About Mads van Appeldoorn

ABOUT PATIPATINA

Is patipatina a commercial shop? No, patipatina is a passion project more than anything else, one rooted in my lifelong love for vintage cars, vintage steering wheels – basically all things vintage. While I do sell parts of my huge collection (at least I am trying to downsize), it’s not about profit; it’s about sharing a piece of that passion and the experience and the knowledge I’ve gathered through years and years of intense research.

But let’s start at the beginning. When I was a kid, my favorite toys were always cars. Probably pretty normal for guys who grew up in the 70s and 80s. I thought up stories and could play for hours, my imaginary friends were the drivers and the cars alike. There were sports cars of various brands, I remember the Renault 5 Turbo 2 in red and yellow, the Mazda RX-7 in black, a white BMW 2002, the yellow Volkswagen MK2 and of course emergency vehicles. A good portion of flashing blue & red light was not missing. I probably fell in love for the first time.

It was not about image or prestige, social status, where the cars came from or which had the loudest exhaust. Also, not about the rides you get the prettiest girls with; it was just about the most beautiful cars, with the most elegant curves, with the sportiest silhouette, the iconic par excellence: everything revolved around the Porsche 911. I had them in all colours of the rainbow. Only problem: scale was 1:87.

VINTAGE CARS

A few years later that all had changed. First a dark blue 1998 Boxter when I was in College, a 997 convertible when I got the first bonus – but they were both – not for me. I remembered my childhood and my darlings back then. I quickly purchased a 66 911 but that wasn’t the right thing either. It was followed by a 71 911T, a 68 911L, a 91 964 C2. And then something began to dawn on me. I wanted to create something on my own – and a tired 83 911 SC just came right and I completely rebuilt the 911 SC to my ideas. Backdated the car, gave it a nice 58 356 color and changed almost anything about it. When I was done, I sold the car. A few SCs, a Carrera 3.2 and a 77 Turbo later I came across the underrated Carrera 3.o which I had to have – one of each year, a 76 and a 77. And I got another project car and a few non P-cars in the last couple of years. A 944 racer, a Saab 900 Turbo SPG and a tired BMW 2002. And I switch daily drivers a lot. Sold my silver 2004 Yukon Denali which was great for moving stuff around and got myself a yellow 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser. And I have to say, I love it! Should have bought it years ago! Get yourself one now!

VINTAGE STEERING WHEELS

In that first old 911 I bought was a Momo steering wheel installed, an old Momo Prototipo. A little beat up, sunburned and with cracked leather, a bit greasy and the aluminium worn, in short: lots of patina. So I looked around for options and found beautiful steering wheels at swap meets, thrift shops and also online. And I started buying them. So many nice wheels were available back then and I bought so many that I even forgot about a few that I’ve stored in boxes in our family warehouse. One of my friends started calling me pati patina; born in San Francisco but his family is from India and in hindustani pati means Lord. He raised me to the peerage.

It all started with the first Momo steering wheel I bought in Costa Mesa, CA, which to this day is one of my favourite steering wheel: the Momo Jackie Stewart steering wheel.

VINTAGE SEIKO WATCHES

And just like many, I collect other stuff too. Hot Wheels, Safety cards from airlines around the globe, vintage furniture from the 60s and 70s. I have a few vintage guitars, 1970s Fender Stratocasters and Les Pauls and yes, also an undefined number of vintage Seiko watches. I’d say 80% of them are Seiko 6139 watches, a few 6138, 6105, 6159, 4522, 6106 and 6119. I just started to write about that passion here on the site as well. So stay tuned!