At just 31, this female mechanic bought her first Ferrari: a Testarossa that she would use every day.

In the collective imagination Ferrari Testarossa is associated with the '80s, neon lights, bedroom posters and air-conditioned garages where you can only enter in slippers. At Jay Leno's Garage, the story is exactly the opposite. In front of Jay Leno, a young woman arrives with her 1987 Testarossa to calmly explain that she intends to use it daily, wear it out, live in it, and make it eat up miles.

Her name is Victoria Bruno. She's not a collector, nor an heiress. She's a mechanic. Ferrari, She specializes in vintage cars, those that still smell of hot oil and metal, those where diagnosis is first by ear and fingertip. And above all, she has a very simple idea: if you like a car, you drive it, no matter what other people think.

Stop “dreaming Ferrari” and take action

Victoria doesn't tell the story of a whirlwind rise to fame. Rather, she speaks of a constructed, almost methodical trajectory. She says she went back to school at the age of 27, and has only been in the business for a few years. Her passage through McPherson College, in the United States, is central to her story: training geared towards automotive restoration, with a concrete focus on mechanics, bodywork, metal fabrication, upholstery... in short, everything that transforms a dream of an old car into a real skill.

And this skill, she claims, is a form of freedom. Jay Leno sums it up in his own way: she possesses the most precious currency in the world of old: the ability to maintain and repair herself.

A Testarossa “asleep” for years

The Testarossa she buys is not a perfect car. And that's precisely what makes it affordable and interesting. The car has had two owners before her, and the last one would have kept it for around 23 years... covering only around 2,000 miles in all that time. The result is a Ferrari with very low mileage, but which has suffered from the worst enemy of an Italian mechanic: immobility. The car arrives with the typical signs of a long sleep: original tires, heavy maintenance postponed, and the feeling that a simple restart is not enough, a thorough overhaul is required.

This is where the story gets interesting, because Victoria doesn't just buy a Testarossa: she puts it back on the road. She talks about a major overhaul she carried out herself, with a job that impressed even Jay Leno: removing the cradle to gain proper access to the engine and replace what needed to be replaced. Belts, gaskets, hoses, a new water pump... and all the refurbishment needed to make the car a reliable machine again, not a temperamental diva. She also rebuilt the brakes and had the alternator rebuilt by specialists. Being a mechanic isn't about knowing where to put your time, where to put your standards, and when to entrust a part to those whose job it is.

Black on black

Visually, her Testarossa is a little out of the ordinary: it's black on black, far from the bright red cliché. And it gets better: Victoria explains that her car has “Monodado” rims, with central nut, a detail that speaks to enthusiasts and refers to the competition DNA. She even points out that she still has some rare items in the tool kit, such as the original clamping tool.

Victoria breaks another cliché: that of a Ferrari being “too complicated”. For her, it's all about nuts and bolts. Simple systems, if you enter into them with method and confidence. She talks about mechanical injection (Bosch), distribution... without ever trying to impress.

His goal: 12,000 miles → 112,000 miles

She bought the car around 12,000 miles, and she wants to take it to 112,000 miles. To turn a Testarossa into a high-mileage Ferrari, assumed, maintained. It's almost a manifesto: refusing to be sacralized, refusing the idea that a vintage supercar must remain immobile to be “preserved”.

When you see a 31-year-old mechanic (soon to be 32, she says) driving a black Testarossa, not to provoke, but because she won it by dint of her know-how... you can see why Jay Leno is smiling. It's not just a Ferrari. It's a Ferrari with a life. And an owner who decided the best way to love it was to drive it.