Virtual Tour of the Legendary Canepa Shop

Ever wonder what it’s really like in one of those ultra-high-zoot shops where they “RESTORE” (...not just prosaically fix or repair) cars with pedigrees (almost) as staggering as the prices that they fetch.  

It’s all about one magic word: Provenance (whoa, it even sounds important when one just says it). If cars were animals we’d use the word “pedigree” here instead.  

Age, and brand (“marque” is the preferred term here), who owned it, who drove it (if it’s a competition car) what kind of a win/loss record the machine racked up when it was a viable race car, how many of them were made, how much of the car is original, where was it before was where it is now, are all the service records sorted by date and accounted for, and so on...

This level of machine here is generally in the “if you have to ask” range.  And that rides for both the car itself and the tariff that it takes to keep such astronomical valuations at that number and/or above.

Bruce Canepa’s shop up in rustic Scott’s Valley just north of Santa Cruz is one the above facilities.

Visitors are always welcome, but the actual shop floor where the real action takes place is off limits (that old insurance bugaboo) and so they’ve been putting insider’s shop tours “on tape”.

It’s an inventive walk-through of certainly one the best, and probably one of the biggest, of these magic workshops where highly-skilled craftspeople research, repair, rejuvenate, and restore some truly remarkable machines.

Just as the work in the shop changes as cars are finished and others take their place, these Shop Walks are updated by Canepa on a monthly basis, each quite ready to invoke a long sigh from aficionados of some very special automobiles.  

Here’s their most recent … have fun! -DS