Studio-Garage Space Inspires Infinitely
Photography by Mike Cassidy
Holger Schubert is a man with superb taste (also a previous Petrolicious film subject) as evidenced not only by his amazing 512BBi, but also by the gorgeous workspace/garage/art gallery he’s built to accommodate it. There are no corny framed photos of waterfalls with trite inspirational messages on Schubert’s immaculate glass walls, and he doesn’t need them—the Boxer provides limitless motivation. Schubert shares with us his thoughts on the space and the car.
My childhood love for the 512BBi started in 1982 when, as a 15 year old, I somehow miraculously got my hands on a Maranello factory brochure from a place called Auto Becker, the sole German market importer of the car at that time. It had just been through its second and final refresh, receiving fuel injection, wider Michelin TRX tires, an improved rear valance along with a host of stylistic and detail improvements.
Twenty-five years later, of which roughly 10 were simply spent trying to find the right car (a search which would span Europe, Japan, and the US), I found this one in Newport Beach—the one-owner car with clean history and in perfect mechanical condition. The only thing it lacked was the matte black “Boxer Bottom”, something I added immediately, thereby completing the dream of attaining the brochure car.
My studio/garage space was designed to combine a designated parking spot for my car with my office where I generally spend 8–10 hours per day standing at my desk. Even after years of sharing this space with the car, I still take frequent breaks to walk over and admire it from different angles, taking pictures and just enjoying the constant change of natural light across its surfaces throughout the day. At night, the view is most dramatic; when numerous in-floor and ceiling-recessed halogen lights illuminate the car’s perfect proportions and its supersized blinkers, creating clones on the large floor-to-ceiling window walls.
Apart from being an ever-inspiring work companion, the design of the building is as much about the experience of taking the Boxer for a drive. Several in-floor lights lead the way along a twenty-foot driveway bridge extending to the street with two glass gates concealing my place of “wor(k)ship”. When parked, the car rests on a nine-foot-long steel ramp set flush into the heated concrete floors. By remote control it lifts the front of my 512 just high enough to allow gravity roll it outside before starting the engine—to hear that, check back in a couple of weeks for a video profile capturing my favorite “piece of art” on the move!
