One Man’s Alpine Awakening. What would it take for you to follow a dream?
Impossibly small, light, fast, and loud, Alpine sports cars have excelled at just about every form of motorsport they were entered in, but especially rally, and hillclimb competition. The cars are unlike anything else—and are just the thing to inspire a man to restore them…many of them.
“Sometimes, when stepping into my garage, and looking at my cars, I am surprised that it is already 30 years and the Alpine hasn’t worn out yet,” says Jürgen Clauss, founder of alpineLAB, a German shop that specializes in these small French sports cars.
“I still like to look, drive, and work on these cars every day,” he says, “To me, it was always unique, always something special; you even had to have certain ergonomic prerequisites to drive an Alpine.”
Dedicated to getting the details right during preservation and restoration, Clauss says that he sees something special in each component of classic cars, but especially an Alpine. “To me, each and every part is a sculpture on its own,” he says. “You just have to open your eyes and see the beauty of those parts (and) to be passionate about this hobby, even without a finished car.”
What started as a hobby and collection based around street versions of the Renault-powered Alpine A110, Clauss now focuses on the race cars. It’s been a long, 3-year relationship with the marque, which invariably led to him being somewhat poetic when explaining his passion.
“Owning an Alpine is quite like a relationship with a beautiful woman: Somedays, it’s exhausting, but in the end, it’s all about maintaining the passion, highlighting her beauty, and loving her.”
We couldn’t agree more. You can visit Jürgen’s website at alpinelab.de (http://www.alpinelab.de)
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