One of the most beautiful things that can happen to someone who has just bought a classic car is to discover that its past holds a surprise. This is what happened to Filippo Berselli, a former senator of the Italian Republic who, months ago, bought a 1958 Triumph TR3.

Berselli had in fact occurred on the car’s manual inconsistency: on it was written that the car was registered in 1956 but actually in that year the Triumph TR3 was not yet out on the market; so he decided to do further researches  and found that the car was registered in 1958 to Riama Film productions.

Riama Film produced, two years later after the purchase of this car, Federico Fellini’s movie “La Dolce Vita” (“The Sweet Life”) which, apart from being the winner of Golden Palm prize at the Cannes Film Festival (and also an Academy Award for the Best Costumes), is actually the symbol of the italian way of life of the fifties and sixties. In such movie the actor Marcello Mastroianni (he himself was a car nut, especially about Lancia of which he owned several models, among which a couple of Flaminia Zagato) drove across Rome at the wheel of a black Triumph TR3, the same car of these photos.

When bought, the car had been repainted in British Racing Green and missed the original “Roma” plate: the one bolted on the car is a reproduction but based on the first registration plate; now the car is under restoration and it is supposed to be ready around the half of the next july: then we’re pretty sure that this car will enjoy many further years of sweet life.