Canepa

[Dick Steinkamp]

I lived In Scotts Valley, CA, for 12 years before moving to Washington State. Canepa's shop was in Santa Cruz...about 5 miles away. It was always fun to drop in and check out his latest projects. No museum then. Some pretty neat and exotic stuff that seemed sort of out of place in a sleepy (then) beach town. It was always a surprise to see what was there. A fairly wide range of race cars, hot rods, restorations, but not anywhere near the quantity and variety of today.

He moved to a 70,000 square foot shop in Scotts valley about 15 years ago. The video is my first look at it. Amazing!

It's 50 minutes long, but was worth every minute of my time. Trust me. You will likely feel the same. Besides, what else would you be doing today?

A car guys dream come true. . Very few have the talent, vision and business sense of Bruce Canepa.

 

[JFENG]

Cool,
Hard to believe there was a day where nobody wanted these things.

John

 

[TedS]

Wow. Where in Santa Cruz was it?

 

[HB Chris]

Scott’s Valley

 

[Dick Steinkamp]

His shop is in Scotts Valley now. His original shop was in Santa Cruz (Capitola).

 

[TedS]

I lived in Santa Cruz 30 years ago, was curious where.
I crashed my motorcycle in Capitola. Nice place other than that.

 

[Stevehose]

This was great, thanks for posting

 

[bluecoupe30!]

Wow! Thanks for posting this Dick. Favourite moment ? When Bruce shut the door on the Green 959, did you hear that?

 

[Norm!]

In non COVID time they have a monthly cars and coffee in the summer. You get to see amazing cars in the parking lot, the museum and cars currently for sale, but the best part is touring the shop to look at current projects. Five years ago Canepa was restoring a Porsche 917 and an original Porsche 917 engine mechanic from Germany was their working on a motor. My buddy and I had a great conversation with him as he talked about the engine. A Porsche 959 owned buy a very funny collector was in the shop as well. Not your normal doughnut shop cars and coffee for sure.

 

[Dick Steinkamp]

Wow! Thanks for posting this Dick. Favourite moment ? .....

Mike, I thought for sure you would say 11:38

 

[bluecoupe30!]

OK, I did notice that, but trying to stay, well, Marque specific

 

[Stan]

Canepa was kind enough to allow the participants of Targa California to stop there for lunch several years ago.

 

[Nicad]

I'd love to see those in person one day. What a mind Mr Canepa has. I don't think he paused for a second getting all that detailed information out. Pure Excellence.

 

[Stevehose]

The 959's are amazing

 

[tferrer]

Canepas is pretty amazing. Walked through many times and it always floors me with the mixture of rare machinery.

Where else do you see a Cizeta Moroder (Giorgios personal car!) next to a 288 GTO.

 

[tferrer]

One of my all time favorites is the Lancia Montecarlo... Amazing car. Also look at the gas and brake pedal placement in the Mercedes. Imagine going 198mph in that position!

The Tyrrell 6-wheeler is awesome as well.

 

[vince]

Thanks for posting these great pictures! The dude in the white baseball cap in the first 6 wheeler photo looks totally photoshopped in.

I was intrigued by the 6 wheelers as a kid, what was the advantage? Better aerodynamics? Seems like any gains would be lost by the complexity of the steering and suspension. If anything, it would take just much longer in in pits to change all of those tires.

 

[HB Chris]

Is the Merc a recreation? Hard to believe MB doesn’t have all that were made and I don’t recognize that one.

 

[tferrer]

Is the Merc a recreation? Hard to believe MB doesn’t have all that were made and I don’t recognize that one.

Not sure Chris. I was surprised to see it there. I recollect it was supposedly driven by Fangio and was on loan/getting something done there. It looked like it had the patina to be an older restoration or copy? It was amazing either way...

 

[tferrer]

Thanks for posting these great pictures! The dude in the white baseball cap in the first 6 wheeler photo looks totally photoshopped in.

I was intrigued by the 6 wheelers as a kid, what was the advantage? Better aerodynamics? Seems like any gains would be lost by the complexity of the steering and suspension. If anything, it would take just much longer in in pits to change all of those tires.

The design was initially developed to lower the front wing and tire areas to reduce drag. The wheels were something like 10 inches so the tire patch was small leading them to use 4 instead of 2. It worked too. If memory serves me it placed 3rd in its first race. Jody Scheckter and Depaillier were driving them. Here's a fun fact from some various car site..

"The new design was unveiled at the Heathrow Hotel in late September 1975. The car was initially kept under a tarpaulin with hoops over the wheels to make it look conventional, leading to astonishment when the tarp was pulled off. Some in the audience were convinced the design was a publicity stunt. "