IT’S YESTERDAY ONCE MORE…
Exactly 50 years ago in 1968, former Garelli executives Mario Agrati and Henry Keppel founded Fantic Motor in northern Italy, based just south of Lake Como, to produce mini-bikes, go-karts and street enduros, originally mainly for the American market.
The following year at the Milan Show, the Fantic Caballero street scrambler made its debut – named after Kessel’s favourite brand of cigarette – powered by a 50cc two-stroke Minarelli engine. This brilliantly-styled, affordably-priced Latin lovely caught the wave of teenage desire and surfed it all the way to the top of the hit parade, becoming a global best-seller that was swiftly joined by 100cc and later 125cc versions, also powered by Minarelli engines, but now built specifically for Fantic.
If you turned 17 anytime during the next quarter-century before Fantic production ceased in 1995, chances were you were dreaming
