The Frenchman who rebuilds classic cars from scratch

Christian Thoma opened Toro Classics eight years ago in Jerez, where he restores sports vehicles from the 50s to the 90s and recreates custom models, mostly Porsche, a brand in which he has specialized.

The roar of an engine resonates loudly. Several classic sports vehicles from the 50s to the 90s wait patiently for the hands – and mind – of Christian Thoma to work wonders. They are relics that become the desire of any car lover, although sometimes they are almost junk rescued from a landfill. “The love of collecting cars is an imported culture that is driven by nostalgia,” says this Frenchman with an Austrian father and a Canadian mother from his Toro Classics workshop, in Sherry .

The cars in front of him are not just a means of transportation, they are symbols of a time when they fascinated children of other generations. “When you were little you had a memory of a car and now, as an adult, you want the same one,” says Chistian, 42, who has been enthralled by the world of mechanics to which his father introduced him since his childhood.

The classic look is in fashion and the Frenchman saw the opportunity to dedicate himself to it almost eight years ago. But before, his life circulated on other roads. At the age of 20, while studying Political Science and History at the University of Paris, he completed a professional mechanic's course. “I had a rich man's passion and I couldn't afford it, so I bought cars in poor condition, restored them, then sold them,” he tells lavozdelsur.es .

While working as a logistics manager for events and films, he built a small collection. “My job paid for my life, and the cars paid for themselves,” he says, surrounded by car bodies. Until 2009, with the arrival of the crisis, filming was paralyzed and it remained in standby , so he thought about Spain, a country he had visited for the first time three years earlier, in 2006.

“When I came I met a rich retired Englishman who had many boats and cars, he asked me if I wanted to help him with the reconstruction of a large sailboat,” recalls Christian, who while making some films, chose to work with him managing car and art collections in the United States, Europe or New Zealand.

Between them, there was “a very good connection” that bore fruit. As the Frenchman was not entirely comfortable in Paris and had always imagined himself living abroad, he packed his bags and moved to Spain. From 2010 to 2016 he was working in English until he wanted to have his own adventure. As he says, “fly with my own wings.”

This is how Toro Classics was born, a rarity in Andalusia for restoring vintage vehicles from scratch and carrying out thorough maintenance. He named the business after this animal because for him “it symbolizes this land” and, soon, he began restoring complete collections of Lamborghinis, also with horns in the logo.

In three intense years, eleven cars in a row passed through his hands and other cars from the 40s and 50s, in the case of Alfa Romeo, pure and simple craftsmanship that did not seem to attract much attention to the public. “At the same time, I was doing my own Porsche projects and when clients came they never looked at the handmade cars, but at these,” he says, pointing out the vehicles from this firm that predominate in the workshop.

Christian thought it was a good idea to direct his business towards Porsches and became an independent specialist for this brand that in recent years has “expelled the others.” His workshop is the only one in the area focused on the German manufacturer with followers all over the world and, in Spain, there are only a few, in Madrid, Barcelona or the Basque Country.

"These cars went through a time when they were worth absolutely nothing, when they had cost up to 400,000 euros today, people wanted the newest and most modern, no one wanted them because they were old and there was no culture of looking for a collection item. Now there are very few units and they are worth hundreds of thousands of euros,” he explains in front of a photo of a vehicle that came from a scrap yard in the United States.

Rare cars from the 70s, 80s and 90s such as Diablo Jota have passed through his workshop, of which there are very few units on the planet. “The most interesting for us has been a 1948 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Touring, models that are sent to beauty pageants and exhibitions,” he says.

Christian builds custom cars, restores models, looks for parts where needed and, on occasions, has even made drawings to deduce what they looked like at the time. For materials, welding, upholstery or painting, they rely on suppliers from the province of Cádiz, for example, leather linings from Ubrique.

Once the car is finished, Michel Ligonet Ramírez is in charge of the tuning. This professional pilot who competed for more than 25 years, in addition to working with Christian, is one of his clients, who are both national and foreign, resident or not in the area.

Michel rests his arm on a gray '83 Porsche Turbo look, his first own classic vehicle after having participated in endurance races with different models. “It was a mess, we found it in Barcelona and we went to see it together,” says the 62-year-old driver, who has participated in international championships such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, considered the most prestigious endurance race in the world, or in Daytona, or at the Suzuka circuit, in Japan.

He has also been director of the construction of the Ronda, Monteblanco and Navarra circuits. “I always wanted to have a Porsche, I almost always raced with them. When I was thinking about buying a house, I fell ill and was not ready to get involved in construction work, so I decided to buy one. Christian and I had always talked about doing one together and this was my healing project. I spent two years of hospital visits, chemo, bone marrow transplant, and I needed something to keep me alive and happy,” says Michel in front of the vehicle that took almost a year to bring to life.

When he recovered, he became interested in back dating and in the workshop Christian assembled a light blue car rebuilt based on a mixture of parts from different years. The appearance is from a '73 car, but the chassis is from '85, the technology from 2020 and the engine from '92.

“In the world of porschistas There are two types, those who want a car exactly the same as the original and it is not worth buying copied parts, and those who want a backdate, with an old look, but modern technology,” explains Michel. Collecting is a world to discover that increasingly interests more and more people. Stepping on the accelerator is a pleasure.