Daniel Champion: “All my life, I’ve done nothing but tinker”

Thank you Daniel for this sunny ride in the Dauphine in the Normandy countryside.

Fifteen years ago, I found this Dauphine which had only 6500 km in a barn in Corrèze. I immediately bought it because it was, for me, a dream. My second car, after a 4CV, was a Dauphine on which I placed the engine in the central position, instead of the rear seats. I got the worn 13-inch tires from the butcher's courier, and as they had a larger diameter than the original ones, it gave me long gears and with my 4-speed gearbox, I could compete with my friends in R8 Gordini at 5 speeds.

Did you inherit this passion for cars from your parents?

I grew up here, in Carolles, in a family that was not very, but really not very, well-off, but with a lot of common sense. My father was a roadman and my mother was a housewife. To cover our school books, we didn't have pretty flowered paper, so we took the insides of cement bags and inevitably at school they made fun of us a little. At 14, I toured campsites in the summer from 3 a.m. to distribute bread from the baker with only a croissant as my salary. I had a second father, technical after my biological father, Jacques Altmayer, a mechanic from the region who taught me beautiful and good things. He guided me, and if I naturally had this passion for cars in me, he helped me develop it. I have since bought his garage, here in Carolles.

How did you become a builder at just 20 years old?

At the time