How did the idea of the steering wheel spacer come out?

It was the year 2008 and I just purchased my first brand new car after about 10 used cars: a Renault Clio Sport with 197 hp.
Beautiful, funny, Group-B looking with those wide vented fenders.

It was my daily driver, but the steering wheel could be only adjusted in height, it didn’t “come out”!

I am 1.82 m tall and I couldn’t enjoy the full potential of that machine just because of this detail.

It was uncomfortable to drive in traffic, and not having the perfect driving position made it less fun.

A couple of years earlier I was proud owner of Audi S6 Avant quattro, with the 5-cylinder 2.2 turbo engine from the legendary Audi Quattro and even though it was a large and heavy station wagon, it had a perfect driving position because the steering wheel could be pulled many centimeters closer to me and this simple fact made it much more enjoyable to drive, despite weighting half a ton more.

I said to myself: “but how is it possible that  cars are still built without depth adjustment nowadays?”.

So I began searching, for a couple of years, both in Italy and abroad, for an adapter, a device, an accessory… SOMETHING that would bring the steering wheel closer.

I kept searching across parts dealers, workshops, tuners, e-commerce websites, and forums.

Nothing.

The Clio steering wheel was so cool: leather, with the marker stitchied at 12 o’clock, the steering wheel buttons. I could have fitted any aftermarket steering wheel, and I would have solved the problem, but how about the airbag in the event of an accident?

I didn’t want to give up with the airbag, so I invented the steering wheel spacer.

I took advantage of my studies, I am a mechanical engineer, and at that time I was as a technical designer in a clutch-brake factory.

For 2 years I’ve been working as CNC operator both on lathe and the mill center.

I made the first prototype, which I thought I’d keep to myself.

How could I imagine that so many people could like it? Socials were on their first steps too, I was more used to forum communities and with a bit of shyness I shared my solution on a UK Clio Sport forum that still exist. It wasn’t easy because I was getting out a depression that made my mind look like ground zero just 2 years earlier, and it’s not something that gives you the required self confidence to propose your own new idea.

Despite this, years later, there are almost 50 models of steering wheel spacers in the catalog, and a company was born that sells all over the world.