Jake Fumagalli said his family always thought his obsession for cars as a kid was a little odd to them, many years later not much has changed.

By: Arijona Taipi

About 18 years ago, at the age of 7, Jake Fumagalli started watching the Fast and Furious movies. It was early elementary school days for him. The movies helped him discover his love for cars. 

He remembers having remote controlled vehicles or hot wheels and playing racing video games all night long, making him feel like he was driving a real sports car. Now at the age of 25, not much has changed as his love for cars grows.

“Playing racing video games was a big part of my childhood,” said Fumagalli. “My parents would have to take them away from me, I couldn’t get my hands off them.”

When Fumagalli got his license at the age of 17, things took off. As he got his hands on his first car, a 2001 Mustang. 

A few years later, he purchased his current car, a 2015 Nissan GTR. And his 2019 Ford Ranger.  

He describes buying his own cars as a big accomplishment and the beginning of a car collection he dreams of owning one day.

“My cars mean a lot to me, I’ve always been into cars since [I was] a little kid,” said Fumagalli. “I’ve put a lot of time and effort into learning how to work on cars, and they’ve always been like the coolest thing in the world to me.”

Fumagalli spends most of his time researching when his dream cars, such as the 1999 Nissan Skyline R34 GTR and Porsche Gt3rs 2013, can be imported to the United States from Japan and Germany. The idea of owning race cars that are street legal makes him work hard as he hopes to own them in the future and add to his collection.

“Going for a drive is what brings me joy every day,” said Fumagalli. “The future for me is cars, I hope to own a successful automotive performance shop.”