A Scale-Model Christmas Present Led To My Obsession With The Lamborghini Diablo

My name is Reza Tavazoei, I live in Tottenham, Ontario, and this is my 1991 Lamborghini Diablo. It’s a car that many young boys tacked to their walls and their desires, and I was no different in this sense; my obsession with this particular bull began many years ago, when my brother gave me the most formative Christmas gift I’ve received thus far: a 1:18th-scale Diablo, AKA a litmus test for whether or not a 12-year-old kid will get hooked on impractical scissor-door supercars.

Ever since I got my hands on that model, I inserted the Lamborghini into my life wherever I could: posters, computer screen savers, brochures, more models, computer printouts—name it, I had it. And now, I have the real thing! Well, this is actually my second Diablo—I sold my first to start my family (keep your priorities in place!)—but this 1991 example is one that I plan to keep forever.

So while I was captivated by the idea of owning a full-size Diablo at the ripe pre-teen age of 12, it was a dream in the greatest sense of the word. See, when my family and I first moved to Ontario, we were a six-person household living in low-income housing, for years. What I’m saying is, I don’t come from money. We’ve all worked our asses off, and we’ve come so far since then. Dedication, motivation, whatever you want to call it, it can pay off sometimes. And I can say that it is totally worth it. Surely material things should never surpass the importance of family and a full life, but who’s going to deny the allure of a V12 supercar with pop-up headlights and zero rear visibility?!

I love my wife and two kids more than any amalgamation of carbon fiber composites and ridiculous horsepower of course, but the Diablo is truly another dream come true for me—I simply love everything about it. The styling, the curves and angles melding perfectly across its sunbeam bodywork. The ride—like an unsprung tractor—is perfect for the curving roads outside of Tottenham, and my favorite sensation is to hear the echo off the dense trees in the hillside roads where I can find stretches of road that belong only to me in the moment.

The Diablo was a defining piece of my adolescence, and the ability to walk to the garage and heave the door up to sit inside it still brings a wide smile to my face each time. Everyone has their dream car, and I am lucky enough to own mine. Let me be proof that if you dedicate yourself to something, it’s possible!