The last Canepa C & C of '17

[John Z Goriup]

Drove to Scott's Valley with a friend yesterday to take in the last 2nd-Saturday-of-the-month Canepa 'Open House' of the year................and I must say, could not have spent the morning in a more enjoyable way. One of the best attended ever, with fascinating cars, some jewels for sale in the showroom, a shopful of treasures and a delightful mix of friends and kindred spirits that made for great conversation and highly enjoyable encounters with new acquaintances - all in all, a wonderful and very fitting end to the 'season', not to mention the sheer pleasure of finally having an opportunity to get away from the smoke and the hacking and coughing from the soot & smoke from the fires to the North of where I live.

I propose to merely post most of the presentable shots I took yesterday in pretty much the order in which I wandered though the entire facility and mostly dispense with my usually verbose, pompous and highly subjective commentary and let those interested enjoy the images from yesterday. After the first few minutes of wandering about, I began making a concious effort to capture a lot of the details in the shop areas, since I was struck during my walk-about by just how all-encompassyingly competent, sound, authentic and fastidious the work being done at Canepa Design really is.

Enjoy, and thanks for looking,''JZG

[John Z Goriup]

Having said I would just post with less commentary and explanations, I will promptly breat the pledge by posting six images of what I thought was the most interesting 'spectator' car there yesterday - an immaculate 2008 2nd generation Subaru Forester, but with a big difference: the owner bought the car with 12 miles on the clock and had the dealer convert it into a completely genuine, fully authentic, utilizing only Subaru Racing /STI - WRX parts, 2.5 liter 300 HP Forester STI. The 'performance Forester' idea was something Subaru toyed with for a long time and finally decided to build in a relatively small series in a watered-down format for sale in Japan and a few other right-hand drive only countries, but never in the US. It's essentially the only left-hand drive, full STI Forester in the world - and only 38k original miles on the clock. Impeccable work, fully documented..............quite irresistible to a Subaru lover like myself. I imagine if AMG were ever approached by Fuji Haevy Industries to build a Subaru to Mercedes standards, this is the result that would probably emerge.

It's a gorgeous autumn day, the wind has shifted, it;s crystal clear and I'm going for a nice long walk with my wife..............see you later in the day to complete this thread - got lots more to post.

JZG

[John Z Goriup]

To continue, a number of images of a car that's shown up before at the Canepa C & Cs, and was duly shown in these threads, but I had never taken notice of the exquisite details, the finesse, absolutely immaculate execution and the delicacy and aesthetic perfection with which the parts making up this remarkable car are crafted.

Photo #9 shows a the engine room of a good friend's brand-new Audi RS3.

Photo #10 - a home-made stress bar in a hot rod

[John Z Goriup]

A few more from the visitor's parking area and moving on into the Showroom. The last three images are some of the first things one encounters when moving into the shop areas.

[John Z Goriup]

Another full set, all from inside the shop area..........by far the most interesting, enlightening reason to visit and my favorite place to hang out while at Canepa's..

[John Z Goriup]

.................and some more from the magic Kingdom of the Canepa shops.

[72targa]

One of my favorite parts of our visit...it was a privilege to make the visit with you and chat during the ride to and from..

[John Z Goriup]

Thank you, Peter, that was indeed a fun trip and a great morning.

Carrying on with coverage from the shops, there is a favorite British expression that's not used much at all on this side of the pond, but by Jove, every once in a while one encounters a situation, where, popular or not, there's simply no substitute to exclaiming that one is 'gobsmacked'. That is precisely the feeling I had when I turned the corner from the main 'customer car' area of the main shop into the 'race car' shop section, where long-term projects are stored to reduce the risk of moving them and thus seperating them from their parts, and came across the startling sight of two flat twelve-cylinder motors on stands.

This is not a common sight by any means - anywhere, anytime and I would therefore like to devote the following two sets to these celebrated, rarely seen treasures - the first, a completed motor which looked ready to install in 'its' car - with the other motor partially disassembled, revealing its innards.

Enjoy !

[John Z Goriup]

............finishing up with a couple of remaining engine shots, and the transmission to handle all that power. Too bad there was no size reference available in the same photo, such as a more familiar 915 or a G50 to give an idea of the massive size of a transmission capable of delivering the HP and torque of the mighty 12 cylinder motor.

A memorable sighting.

[John Z Goriup]

...............and a few more from the shop to help illustrate the vast range of capabilities this organization and its crew offers.