RE: Jean-Pascal Dauce: PH Meets

RE: Jean-Pascal Dauce: PH Meets

Thursday 14th March 2013

Jean-Pascal Dauce: PH Meets

Project manager for the Alpine-Caterham sports car, Jean-Pascal Dauce is PH's kind of petrolhead



We first bumped into Jean-Pascal Dauce at the Monte Carlo Historique where he was co-driving his own Alpine A110 having entrusted the wheel to Renault CEO Carlos Tavares. Not any old A110 either - Dauce bought this car as a precocious 20-something and has cherished it ever since.

500-franc R8 shed made way for Alpine
500-franc R8 shed made way for Alpine
So why devote a 'PH Meets' to him? Well, apart from being a proper petrolhead with a fabulous back catalogue of cars he's also the man charged with making the Alpine-Caterham sports car a reality. We've already written about this in some detail but Dauce's history developing cars like the Megane R26.R and his subsequent background at Renaultsport's race division both bode well for the project - as does his ability to argue a case for bold ideas against the odds, like limited-slip diffs in hot hatches and a road-going Megane with Perspex windows, no radio or air con and a roll cage where the rear seats were, for instance.

We bumped into him more recently at Geneva, scrutinising the Alfa Romeo 4C. No surprise to find him there, the Alfa's lightweight construction, transverse small-capacity turbocharged four-cylinder engine and dual-clutch gearbox features we deduced likely to be shared with the Alpine-Caterham road car, even if the £50K price won't be.

Dauce (left) with Renault boss Tavares
Dauce (left) with Renault boss Tavares
Love of his life
First some context, though. And the story behind that Alpine of his. "I have had it for 24 years," he says. "When I was 15 I said I would have an Alpine and everyone said I was crazy. They said I would not fit! But I read a story by a journalist who was very tall - 1.88 metres - and he fit OK so I knew it would be OK."

Sizing it up was one thing; buying it was another. Studying maths as part of his engineering training he had the graph of his savings - aided by an abstemious approach to usual student distractions like clubbing, smoking and drinking - set against the rising values at the time. Realising the two lines were getting further apart he managed to get a loan from his parents to bridge the gap, walked into a Parisian showroom as a cocky 22-year-old and told the sceptical salesman he'd be back to buy the A110 1300 they had in. Which he did.

Something of a step up from the 500-franc Renault 8 he'd previously enjoyed. "It only had 45hp but it would do slides on the cobbles!" he recalls. The friend he sold the car to tried to emulate that trick on a grippier surface, and ended up breaking a hub and flipping it before the registration paperwork had even gone through.

His Spider - will it influence the new Alpine?
His Spider - will it influence the new Alpine?
Back catalogue
Other cars have come and gone since, including an Alpine GTA, a Renault Sport Spider and an ex-Patrick Le Quement Ferrari 328, since replaced with a 348 after being scared off by the maintenance costs for 355s. Showing us pictures of his Ferrari he takes a true geek's pride in the fact the gearbox is correctly stamped and the original VIN sticker in place. You get the sense he's just a teeny bit obsessive about his cars. But who's to deny a man that pleasure? And among them all the A110 has remained a constant.

More recent tenures at the Enstone F1 HQ and running Renaultsport's motorsport development side mean the Alpine-Caterham is the first road car he's worked on in a while. But that's OK, because the last one he was involved with was the R26.R. And anyone who can get a car like that past the bean counters has to be onto something. So what makes him tick?

R26.R was the last road car he worked on
R26.R was the last road car he worked on
"Definitely, horsepower is not my philosophy," he says, his 20-odd year love affair with a 1.3-litre Alpine underlining his appreciation of light, simple cars. "With the R26.R the idea came from that I could not have more power. I was saying 225hp is OK for the Phase 1 and for the facelift I want 240," he says. "They tell me this cannot work with all the validation work and I say 'I do not care; this is your job.' They said it was too expensive so I said, 'OK, let's take 100kg from the car,' and we went to that extreme. We went further than we had in mind first!"

Power wars
He has a refreshingly Gallic take on the power wars seen waged among the performance mainstream too. "If I was German and having my 10th Porsche in a row with 240, 260, 270, 300hp then maybe I would say horsepower is good," he shrugs. "I'm not saying it's not important, I am saying I find a different way. For sure, I am a fan of Porsche but I cannot play the same game."

Diff-equipped R put 'red carpet' out for current car
Diff-equipped R put 'red carpet' out for current car
Further R anecdotes fly thick and fast too, like his disappointment that his purist desire for a single colour - like the Clio Williams - failed the marketing test, his amusement at the Porsche drivers reporting their displeasure at being overtaken by a Megane during test sessions to the 'ring office, and the fact the headline 8:17 lap time was actually five seconds off the best the car achieved. "8:17 was enough," he shrugs. And the R26.R demonstrates a bloody-minded determination to argue the case for engineering-led performance too, previously demonstrated by his insistence that hot Meganes should have limited-slip differentials.

"When we began with Megane RS I thought our contenders would be Golf GTI but after one year we knew that were much better than that," he says, bluntly. "People buy the GTI because they like the badge but the R26.R and even the R26 was something special. The risk is that not everyone feels the difference but those who can feel it I think prefer it."

Dauce's A110 in Monte Historique colours
Dauce's A110 in Monte Historique colours
Split the diff
He then explains how he was convinced by the value of a diff on a slip-road - "my 10 seconds of fun on the way home" - on the daily commute from Dieppe. In the non-diff equipped 225 it would run wide under power across two lanes. With the diff he could go flat out and stay in lane. Convinced by the engineering case, arguing it to the number crunchers was less easy, but he pulled it off and the Megane was the first Renault to use an LSD. "It made the red carpet for the Megane 3," he says, with obvious pride.

So how will all this passion translate to the Alpine-Caterham? Well, Dauce is clear that he's in charge but he obviously relishes working in a small team where decisions can be made quickly, ideas tried, and incorporated or thrown out on merit.

"We have to be commando, let's say," he explains. "I will have to take the best of the best of the two brands, and I told them 'you are the boss now, you have to tell me what to do.' I have to make decisions quickly to progress. If it's a good decision you will beat the competitors; if it's a bad one you will learn very quickly. If you want a front engine or you want a rear engine, I don't care. There is only one choice - you can't have two. I can make mistakes, I don't care. If someone is not happy I just say, hey, I give you 10 minutes and if we just say it was a big mistake? You agree? We change. I have no ego, it's my job."

Dauce spotted taking a keen interest in the 4C...
Dauce spotted taking a keen interest in the 4C...
Moving fast
And with that rapid-fire monologue you get a sense of the fire in the belly that has seen him drive through some challenging projects. Open to ideas and discussion, you also get the sense that once a decision is made, it's made, and he's unapologetic. If the bosses and/or market say small-turbo engine and dual-clutch gearbox he'll make it work. His way, though.

In the often grey and conservative end of the industry it's great to meet a proper petrolhead able to combine steely engineering and business focus, but also grin about taking his kids around the 'ring in the family Espace, tyres squealing and delighting in sharing the passion with his offspring. We await his next road car with renewed interest.

 





Author
Discussion

Roma101

Original Poster:

835 posts

146 months

Thursday 14th March 2013
quotequote all
Sounds like a top bloke!

Hopefully he can carry over some of his RS magic into Alpine/Caterham.

I didn't realise how small the old Alpine is! It looks like a 2/3rds model!

Pedant warning: the R26.R had air con as standard. It was climate control that was optional. Great car.

zefrog

22 posts

161 months

Thursday 14th March 2013
quotequote all
its funny how the alpine spirit is still alive in France, at the time it was a non expensive sport car, i've been lucky enough to seat in one of these and my father use to have an alpine 110 with a R30 engine and not enough cooling surface (i do live in the south of France, it's maybe why...).
so many people wanted to reborn the alpine, and finally its Renault itself who decide to be back on the drawing board with the help of Caterham.
Renault is serious about this project, it's far from a commercial project adding 2 stripes on a normal car, it's actually a REAL sport car made with passion.
can't wait to see the result :-)

KIG1971

74 posts

180 months

Thursday 14th March 2013
quotequote all
"I have no ego, it's my job"

Now that is a man to work for and a man who will make an interesting Alpine.

Good luck to him.


canucklehead

416 posts

145 months

Thursday 14th March 2013
quotequote all
The car industry needs more people like him!

Hope the bean-counters can't crush him like they crushed so many others.

Allez Jean-Paul!

canucklehead

416 posts

145 months

Thursday 14th March 2013
quotequote all
oops, my bad:

Allez JEAN-PASCAL!!!

Mark Benson

7,498 posts

268 months

Friday 15th March 2013
quotequote all
canucklehead said:
The car industry needs more people like him!
It certainly does, what an interesting guy - Renault are very lucky to have him.

MarJay

2,173 posts

174 months

Friday 15th March 2013
quotequote all
Sounds like the car equivalent of Tadao Baba of Honda Fireblade fame. A bit of a maverick, genuinely into cars, not afraid to take risks.

Oooh, I think the Alpine Caterham cars are going to be well worth the wait! biglaughyum

moribund

4,030 posts

213 months

Friday 15th March 2013
quotequote all
Yes, looking forward to this car :-)

dinkel

26,886 posts

257 months

Monday 18th March 2013
quotequote all

rs48635

554 posts

213 months

Tuesday 19th March 2013
quotequote all
Love that car - in that very colour. The first car I ever lusted after as a 6 year old. I spent all my christmas money on a "decent die-cast" model that year. Still got it.
Looking forward to the results here, hope it stays dinky sized.