For more than 30 years, Chopard's Karl-Friedrich Scheufele has collected vintage automobiles and raced around the world in them. At the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco, he makes a pit stop to talk about his classic cars, those he still lusts after and what driving can teach you about love
Karl-friedrich Scheufele is standing near the Casino de Monte Carlo alongside gleaming yellow Ferraris as his longtime friend, Belgian racing legend Jacky Ickx, does hot laps around the streets of Monaco. A reserved man with neatly greying hair, Scheufele prefers the noise and chaos of the pit lanes to the more elegant environs of the VIP suite that Chopard has high up in the grandstands. Trackside proximity means he can see only a few key corners of the famous race course, but then he’d miss out on hearing drivers talk strategy, the smell of burning tires and feeling the heat emanating from the labouring engines. It’s a blissful sensory overload for a man obsessed with vintage automobiles.
For three decades, Scheufele has managed to marry his obsession with Chopard, the business his parents bought in 1963 and then brought to the forefront of international jewellery and watchmaking prestige. (Now Scheufele and his sister, Caroline, are co-presidents of the company that is by all accounts still run like a family business.) Since 2002, Chopard has been the official timekeeper of the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco, and each year the company has created a limited-edition watch to commemorate the event and occasionally its drivers. The vintage race, which began in 1997, is typically run two weeks before the Monaco Grand Prix and features around 200 classic Formula One, Formula Three and other bygone sports cars. Depending on the class, competitors complete as many as 18 laps for a golden trophy and a giant laurel wreath.
“This race covers a lot of the values I cherish,” Scheufele says as he waits for Ickx to pull up in his 1936 Silver Arrow. When Ickx steps out of the car in his ivory fire suit, he hands his helmet to Scheufele, who keeps an eye on the large video screens showing live footage of million-dollar race cars from the ’30s and ’40s heading to the starting line.
A well-known and discerning car collector, Scheufele owns more than 30 vintage and modern automobiles. (“Not even my wife knows for sure exactly how many,” he says with a twinkle.) It’s a passion that took hold of him at a young age—his father, Karl, avidly collected Mercedes-Benzes and would take his son to vintage auctions the world over, teaching him about the world’s most beautiful cars. Karl-Friedrich even learned to drive on his father’s 1965 Jaguar Mark II 3.8.
(This story appears in the Sept-Oct 2014 issue of ForbesLife India. To visit our Archives, click here.)