How Bruce Canepa transforms vintage cars into multimillion-dollar works of art

They don’t make them like Bruce Canepa anymore. To call him a perfectionist is to call Taylor Swift a nice coffee-house singer.

Forget about how meticulous all his cars are, whether we're talking about the ones lining his museum, his showrooms, or his cavernous workspaces at Canepa's Scotts Valley, California, headquarters. 

No, just look at his desk: The stack of old-school messages is all lined up perfectly like a deck of cards. Who does that? Well, Bruce does that.

The auto dealer turned car and truck racer turned prize-winning restoration and sales shop owner is as legendary as his friends, who run the gamut from Jerry Seinfeld to Roger Penske to Gordon Murray. As for his who's who list of clients, many of them repeat customers, he won't be publicly disclosing any, but it's apparent many boast net worths that start with a B.

He demands perfection of himself, his cars, and his workers. The end result is a level of fit and finish that dazzles, as do his prices. Canepa is, of course, mum on such uncouth topics, but it wouldn’t be too crazy if a vintage car that typically sells for $250,000 might cost $400,000 if emanating from his showroom, due to its condition, low miles, special options, and just plain awesomeness.

Suffice it to say, if you ever find yourself calling Canepa curious about a car and its cost, it’s best to have evolved to a financial state best summarized by the idiom, "If you have to ask, don’t bother."

Touring the Canepa shop leaves one particularly slack-jawed. There is a 917 about to be shipped to Europe. A 100-point 280SL that a new owner would like completely disassembled so it can be repainted. And a mid-'50s Mercedes 300SL in bare metal with a Bonneville speed record that Canepa has decided to give the full outlaw treatment.

Autoblog cornered the maestro in his book-, memorabilia- and model-car filled office for a conversation, which is a rare feat given how the man is otherwise constantly in motion. The interview was edited for length and clarity.

Thanks for the invitation into your inner sanctum, Bruce. Let’s get started. What kind of trends are you seeing in the collector car space these days? Is that crowd getting younger?
Well, look out that window there, a young guy is getting out of a Porsche 911 GT3, right? So yes, collectors are getting younger. It all started around COVID. Before that, guys were older and looking for cars from the ‘30s and ‘40s. After COVID, it’s like we stepped up three decades overnight, and that younger collector now wants cars from the ‘70s and ‘80s even.

Are values of classics like Duesenbergs now dropping as a result?
If you have the best example of that car, you’re fine. Someone will always want that to complete a broad collection. But there are just a handful of those.

Your wheelhouse really is the European stuff, Porsche in particular.
Yes. For me, it’s always been about performance, whether it’s an old car or a new one. If it goes pretty fast and stops pretty good and handles decent, I’ll like it. You go to my showroom and you’ll see it all: a Cobra, a Corvette, a 300SL, and Porsches of course. My (Porsche) 356 is probably my most fun car. It's not about top speed, but power to weight (ratios). 

This place has long been known for only selling the best of the best, at a premium as well. You’ve never deviated from that formula. Why?
There was never a formal decision to just sell the best, because that’s just me. I mean, when I was growing up, everything had to be just perfect. I drove everybody crazy. When I got my first car, it was, OK, no one’s wearing shoes in that car. *laughs* And that’s never changed. If I walk through my shop today and see a tiny piece of paper on the floor, I’m picking it up.

You must be hard to work for.
*laughs* Well, it is hard to find good people these days. Jay Leno has talked about this, too. Kids aren’t really learning the crafts and trades that they used to, apprenticing. I’m always short on people. I may employ about 70, but I have 60 projects going on the job wall at any one time. So I still do a lot myself.

You in fact tout the “Canepa Difference” in the cars you sell, but that difference often is you.
Today, we are shipping out a Ferrari F50 and a Bugatti EB110, and I must have circled each car 10 times before they were put on the transporter. I had people hit the horn, check the lights, turn on the AC, and set the clocks. That’s just my mentality, perfection. So yes, everyone else here has to have that same mentality.

Where did this mentality come from?
My dad had me sweeping the floors of his (Santa Cruz) car dealerships, I was probably 12 or so. I would come in after school, and I swept the floors until they were spotless. Then I learned how to wash cars. Then I worked in the detail shop. Then I went to the body shop, and then finally to management. So by the time I was 27, I had 15 years in the car business.

You create prize-winning restorations and sell perfect vintage cars, but you also are the official US representative for Gordon Murray’s supercar, the T.50, and the Kalmar Automotive 7-97 Classic, based on the Porsche 993. Why?

I’ve had so many exotic cars, from McLarens to Porsches, including the 918 Spyder, which I think is one of the best modern supercars there is. And I had a (Murray-designed) McLaren F1 back in the day. So when I heard Gordon was going to build a new car, I jumped at being involved. He’s a genius in so many ways, and like me believes light is fast. It’s all about that power-to-weight ratio. It’s why my Porsche 356 is so much fun.

What’s the T.50 like to drive?
It’s shocking. I mean, it’s 2,200 pounds, and yet it's completely stunning inside and out. Every piece of hardware was engineered for lightness and strength. Add in that 12-cylinder sound and linear-pull from the lowest RPM to 12,000, and it’s just amazing.

Let’s talk about the Kalmar, which makes me think of a Singer, which is based on the 964 chassis. Are they late to the restomod party?
First of all, I consider the 993 the last of the true 911s in the sense that after that the model got heavier and bigger. Now, 911s are really GT cars. Second, yes, everyone in a sense is late to the restomod party, but the Kalmar really is different. Singers are great, but I personally like “less is more,” so I was pushing for an understated look. You take the 993, with its all-wheel-drive system, its six-speed transmission, and its improved HVAC system, and you’re starting at a really great place. So I just play the devil’s advocate here, arguing for the finishes and colors. It’s all really next level. It’s a driver’s car.

You’re also now in the business of making some supercars and race cars more streetable, in particular old racing Porsche 934s and even the Carrera GT. What are you doing to those cars?
On the Carrera GT, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. So we’re doing some stuff to the engine for more performance, some things to the exhaust, we’ll have a clutch that cures all those clutch issues, a lift kit in the front, ceramic brakes. Customers were on me about it, so I figured I’d just solve for the deficiencies in that car that I knew of, and make it better.

I sense you’ll Canepa-ize it a bit in terms of looks. You have a specific style for sure.
Yes, like all the carbon fiber, when I’m done that’ll have a satin finish, not gloss. And those screens (over the engine bay), they’ll be body color but in a matte finish. The wheels will be light titanium or dark graphite colors. And no yellow calipers! I don’t know why people have that. They should either be the color of the wheel or silver or black. I’ll also bring the interiors up to the level of our 959 (Reimagined by Canepa) cars.

If someone wants you to overhaul their supercar, do they just bring you their vehicle to re-do?
It depends. We like to find the donor car, to make sure there are no issues with it. That’s the ideal situation. It can get crazy, though. I even found a 200-mile (959) and took the entire thing apart and started there. I know it’s nuts.

What does the Porsche family think about what you do to their cars?
They’ve all been here, and they love it. They see an Outlaw Porsche and they enjoy seeing where people take things beyond where they took them.

I suppose that includes their iconic racing cars, like that 934.5 Canepa car?
I took a 1973 (911) RSR and made it a street car. Then I did that to a 1974 RSR. And then yes, I did the same for a 934. Jerry Seinfeld has one of them, and he drives it everywhere. I have a video of him in it driving down the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles *Bruce Canepa pulls out his phone and fires up a video showing the comedian grinning as he roars down the highway* He goes everywhere in it, it’s easy to drive. I put a passenger seat in it, soften it up a bit, get the motor so it’s streetwise and you can run it on pump gas. Isn’t that cool?

So instead of those cars sitting in garages or museums, they’re on the road.
Right. It’s a new trend, and I guess I’m one of the guys helping develop it. If you do it right, they’re actually practical and user-friendly cars.

Speaking of race cars on the street, you’re finishing a restoration on a beautiful white Porsche 917. I hear you actually took that down the road here, with no problems from local law enforcement?
*laughs* Yes, I have a different, let’s say, situation. The police wave to me. I did that once with a racing car and some lady went berserk on Instagram or Facebook, saying, “Why does he get to drive this on the street?” I don’t think I was going more than 50 mph but she was hating it. And then she just got hammered in the comments, with people saying “Do you realize that car ran at Le Mans? And have you ever seen videos of that guy racing at a track, he knows what he’s doing.” So that was nice.

You even took a race car through a fast food drive-through window, right?
Yup. It was (noted collector) Bruce Meyer’s Porsche 935 K3, which won at Le Mans in 1979. We’d done some work on it, then took it out on the road. And then, for the hell of it, I drove it right down the take-out lane at the local Jack In The Box. In front of me was the opposite of my car, a Prius with a UC Berkeley license plate frame. So the Prius car moves up and pulls over and the driver just glares at me. But I ordered my fries and smiled. We’re just having a little fun, right?

And that sounds like a bumper sticker for your life, Bruce. Thanks for your time.