 In 1967 Padoan, who started racing Minis in 1964, ordered a left-hand drive Unipower GT and picked it up at the factory.Back home in Italy, he was unable to have the car certified for road use by the "Inspettorale Generale della Motorizzazione" due to non-compliance with Italian requirements for the size and height of the headlamps.Padoan modified the car's body, creating a new forward-tiling one-piece nose that had larger and higher rectangular headlamps.