Also in my garage: classic car models

By Charlie Calderwood

| 25 Feb 2026

Classic & Sports Car – Also in my garage: classic car models

What does Bruno Pinha have in his garage? Everything.

Since 2024, this car enthusiast and classic dealer has lived inside his motor house, with its main room becoming a shrine to his passion for cars that’s expressed in both the vehicles themselves and a large collection of scale models.

The idea came to Lisbon native Bruno when, after his divorce, he needed a place to stay.

His dealership, Garagisti, nestled in the wine-making hillside town of Bucelas, already had a kitchenette and a bathroom, so he saved himself a commute and moved in.

Classic car model kits are stacked from floor to ceiling

The back of the garage became his living room and office, although Bruno admits that it does get cold in the huge, high-ceilinged space during the winter, as he gestures to the outdoor patio heater next to his sofa.

To the rear of the garage another room, which is much better insulated, became a bedroom.

As the sort of dealer who only buys cars he is interested in, Bruno’s stock has become not only a question of what he gets to drive on any given day, but also his living room’s décor.

Just beyond the dinner table is a rare Arnolt-MG, next to which is a pair of classic Porsche 911s.

Classic car dealer Bruno Pinha moved into his garage in 2024

It is not just full-size cars in this ultimate bachelor pad, however, because he is also a lifelong model collector.

“This was my father’s obsession,” Bruno says, pointing at a wall of boxes of model kits. “He was a fine scale modeller, but he never did one kit exactly as it came out of the box.”

From a glass cabinet, he pulls out one of his father’s finished models to demonstrate custom details such as windows made of thin foil rather than acrylic, to achieve a more realistic thickness.

Many of the kits – they vary from a Tamiya Porsche 911 GT1 to a Revell E46 BMW 3 Series Austrian Touring Car and an Airfix Triumph TR7 – are unfinished models his father started before he passed away in 2012: “It’s a way of remembering him every time I come home.”

Lego car collection includes James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 (bottom right)

Bruno caught the bug in his own way: glass-fronted cabinets on his walls house a collection of 1:24 and 1:64 models, this time purchased completed.

His 1:64s make a varied group of primarily road cars, from a Citroën 2CV to a Chevrolet Corvette C3.

“Some of them were in my room when I was a child – the F40, EB110 and most of the Mercedes-Benz models,” he says.

The cabinet of 1:24s is a more recent collection that depicts every Rally Portugal winner of the classic era, and on top of the unit sits a backpack from the 1980 event.

One of Tim Layzell’s striking artworks and a classic Porsche 911 in Bruno Pinha’s showroom-cum-house

Elsewhere, Bruno displays a large selection of automotive Lego models: there are familiar sets such as James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 or the Porsche 911 turbo, but also a number of others far too niche to ever receive the official treatment, such as a Mazda 787, a Porsche 917 and a life-size model of one of Ayrton Senna’s helmets.

Bruno says: “An Italian guy, Pasquale Di Stasio, is considered one of the best brick builders around. You buy a set of instructions, stickers and a list of parts from him, then you buy the pieces for the kit yourself.”

Space is getting tight in the garage. Squashed among the cars and other automobilia are a Honda XL350 motorcycle, a host of Martini-liveried objects and a huge metal Tim Layzell artwork.

Bruno’s solution isn’t to move out: his long-term plan is to build a mezzanine level that will provide more – and better-insulated – living space, as well as the perfect viewing platform from which to admire his cars.

Images: Max Edleston

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