Dubai # 39; more expensive garage !!!
He did very well, remembers Gerard Lopez, who was one of the people accused of offering the great man driving board, it must have been OK as a dinner invite to follow Putin's dacha There may have been We are involved on vodka, is Lopez says.
This feature appeared in the May 2012 edition of Top Gear Magazine.
Who is Gerard Lopez If you really know your F1, you will recognize the name as belonging to a co-owner of a holding of venture capital called Genii Capital, which bought a percentage of the Renault F1 team in 2009 before move to 100 percent ownership a few years later.
For 2012, the team is now Lotus F1 but still powered by Renault, and Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, is at present very sleek looking indeed Lopez also serves on the board of the Lotus Group - if the entity completely separate - and has significant interests in 60 other companies.
Some people are too afraid to take risks, he said that I fear not to take them, I'd hate to miss something Lopez, 39, speaks softly and moves with low energy stealth Born in Spain and educated in the United United, it's fluent in seven languages.
There were a lot of job offers before even completing his second year at university is a man who dines with President of Russia, breakfast with Bernie Ecclestone, and can spot a good idea how a falcon can spot its prey a field four miles He's also the kind of figure finance that die-hard racing fans think Formula pollutes their unromantically hard sales approach greatest sport in the ass of the world.
Not this, trust me The F1 paddock has always been full of influential people, and Lopez admits he is a great place to network and create new partnerships, especially in technology in the early stages and in the world iT, he specialized in addition, F1 is a business, like it or not, if Lopez blind isn t to its vicissitudes But I seriously doubt you will find a car guy more committed anywhere else in the paddock and pit lane, and not only this obviously big money supercar.
At the launch of the team at Jerez in early February, he confessed that her last purchase was what might be called rare groove I just bought a 1983 Renault 11 Turbo a French doctor, he relented after promising that I would t breathe a word to anyone I'll take on pick him personally.
He'll be joining a collection that's currently hovering around the 85 car brand that Lopez invited us to check.
A few weeks after the launch of the team, we're on a plane Genii Capital is based in Luxembourg, in a building of glass modern offices in a nondescript business park cars are nearby in a building that hides its treasures well, where they're supported by a former French racing driver named Florent Moulin.
Lopez picks us up at the airport in his newly acquired Ferrari FF, which I can confirm, has a surprising amount of legroom in the back admirably led it, like a man who's used to wring the best of a crazily wide variety of cars.
Just how crazy is evident as he leads us in the warehouse of eclectic Garage doesn t closer; random call to it would supplant And this is just the ante room.
Housed inside are three Ferraris - 365 GT 2 2, 330 GT and BB512i - a Jensen Interceptor FF who beat Ferrari by chance his namesake in the model four-wheel drive GT 45, from 7 0 liters Lister Jaguar XJS a Maserati Ghibli, a crank Curio done for the 2003 French film Michel Vaillant, an original Clio Williams, the last ever Lotus Esprit Sport 300, and a beautiful 68 Cadillac Fleetwood with heated seats that adjust their temperature depending of what happens outside.
The engine and transmission for a Bugatti EB110 sits in a large case sentinel Standing over all is a huge pick-up Ford F350 seven tons, powered by a 6 0 liter Duramax turbodiesel A predatory smile spread over the face of Lopez as recounts his adventures in this much fun, he said.
Go through another door and get ready to save your soil jaw He's Mercedes SLR McLaren, Porsche Carrera GT, the Alfa 8C Competizione Spider Ferrari 612 and 430 Scuderia, a Nissan GTR, an Eighties Aston V8 Vantage June 3 and last Lamborghini 6 0 of the line.
But there is also a Lambo LM002 the last of 300 is a 84 Countach QV end of seventy years Camaro SS, Alois Ruf of Ruf Porsche is a friend, a BMW M3 E30 Corvette Stingray, AC Cobra 427 Evo the last DTM M3 ever ran, a group of 4 Lancia Stratos, a 2000 Oreca LMP1, a 2007 Merc C-Class DTM Chris Amon 71 Matra, and, you know, some other stuff which another Clio Williams he refuses to sell me.
And then there's the small matter of Viper racing cars, including Alain Prost ran its 50th anniversary Apparently, 13 percent of total production Viper race car is here, and if they have the brilliant air which is still an odd time done to the inquisition.
Well, he is the winner of Le Mans, Daytona winner and win the world championship here, so there is a major source, said Lopez From the point of view of the collection, look at the Cobra prices today This is the American car racing's most successful nineties and Noughties.
From a personal point of view, they're incredibly fun to drive massive torque, fast, easy to maintain, they were cheap, but they are starting to go up in value The fate of many race cars is that nobody wants they'll never can claim to be a 250 GTO, but owning a car that won Le Mans s not many cars.
It's a nice handful of BMW, including a meticulously restored early Eighties 6 Series ETCC veterans like Gerhard Berger ran by, among others, a new 1 Series M Coupe is next to his predecessor late Nineties.
Yes, I like going on the side, Lopez admits freely, but you must be careful in the old I had one of those years ago, you have a first relationship with a car, and when you will start to remember the strengths, which is when we realize that the car was really special or not is only when you see someone else drive the one you think I need this car back in my life.
This is what I love the guy, he's had two Miuras, in fact, and although his analysis of the Carrera GT is locally If you work up to the more ordinary cars, is a real handful But if you out of a serious race car and in one, it is easier to understand, it is 928 GTS that really lights her fire.
He could buy anything, and, over the years, it ticked a lot of boxes is co-owner of his own F1 team, for the love of God yet top of the shopping list is I currently an edition Golf GTI Pirelli in 1983 not kidding.
I like to use my car, he told me that I'm not interested in whether they break world records at an auction that I really enjoy my cars - I like to discover something that I looked pay massive money for a car, and you probably enjoy more possession you like the car itself wrong for me, it is not really so difficult to find a 250 GTO All you need is a bank account that lets you allow but it is more difficult to find a virgin Peugeot 205 GTI.
There are other revelations that we begin to discuss the auto industry, we are in a Saab Twig conversation before he was Geniuses and a Mr. B Ecclestone, who was briefly in the frame as a potential suitor for the Swedish company.
Buy a car company There are two reasons to do so, Lopez begins you to buy for sales and PL profit and loss, and its assets If you can keep neutral, the company's cash flow and strengthen its assets, you make money, even if it doesn t show at the end of the year, I think that art could have happened to Saab was large middle market, and a well-accepted brand in the United STATES with good references in terms of innovation, safety and performance of recognized brand is one of the key elements.
But not the only thing that continues Lopez A first investor in Skype, he insists that the automotive industry is now ready for an important tipping point we are interested in automotive innovation rarely comes from big players, he said that true throughout the industry for the first time perhaps after World War II, there sa climate in which start-ups and small businesses with a real chance to leave a mark in the automobile industry.
A small business is not going to go to, say, Mercedes and tell them we have developed a new engine, but they could go to them with a digital differential, with things that are software focused on smaller businesses are much better to develop software and interfaces it is culture - it is what they do best.
Watch the multimedia interface, even as good a car as the Ferrari FF wasn t there are modern even 10 years A couple of smart guys could develop an application that is more modern than this because the core stuff isn t Ferrari There are many opportunities in the car right now, you can invest a certain amount of money to help build a business, but you do need to build a huge plant a young company can make its mark if it really can innovate.
They innovate; Gerard Lopez facilitates That's what gets you an F1 team running back and one of the most fascinating car collections in the world, but even here, on the digital frontier, it is good to see quelques- some of the big kicks are still deeply analog Lopez's brain could be a Pentium processor giant, but there is gasoline in his veins.
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