A gifted artist, Villa drew many pictures of an automotive nature, and through his uncle he found employment as a riding mechanic with the Italian racing driver Giulio Foresti who held the British franchise for the Itala automobile.
The then Captain Malcolm Campbell owned the franchise for Ballot in England and raced one of its models at Brooklands and was considering buying a new model for a Grand Prix campaign so Foresti and Villa were despatched with the car that French star Jules Goux had driven in the Grand Prix Villa had missed.
It was a successful partnership that was only broken upon Campbell's death in 1967 whilst attempting his eighth world water speed record.
[2] After Campbell's death Villa spent his time at home in Reigate in Surrey with his wife Joan, where he took up gardening.
Villa was also granted the Freedom of the City of London and he went on to write three books about his record-breaking career, two of them written with Kevin Desmond.