Master Technician Mickael Lagrange
There was a time when any teenager with a junker car could spend a couple summers in a garage and walk away with a comprehensive understanding of automotive mechanics. Those days are long gone. Even basic consumer cars now demand advanced knowledge of computer, electrical and mechanical engineering in order to fix or repair. The most high-end performance cars, once relatively-simple in design, are now equal parts machine and computer. Master technician Mickael Lagrange is one of the precious few elites in his field who possesses the skills and sophisticated technical expertise necessary to work on these marvels of modern engineering.
Lagrange has been enamored with the intricate inner-workings of all sorts of machines all his life. Born in a picturesque village nestled in the mountains of eastern France, Lagrange first discovered his lifelong love for tinkering when he was just a boy. By the time he was a teenager he was taking apart, fixing and reassembling everything he could get his hands on. Before long, Lagrange landed a dream position working as a mechanic for iconic German luxury and sports car manufacturer Porsche. It was the big break that he would build his career, and colossal reputation, upon. As with everything about Lagrange, the story behind his hiring at Porsche is larger than life.
“It was an extraordinary meeting in an exceptional setting that got me hired at Porsche. At the time I wasn't working on race cars. I was at the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race as a guest spectator, invited by tire manufacturer Michelin. It was just by chance that I ended up in the helicopter with a leader of Porsche France, following the drivers in the race,” Lagrange said, referring to the prestigious, nearly century-old endurance race in Le Mans, France. “After the meeting, I was summoned for a job interview.”
Years of dedication paid off for Lagrange when he completed the rigorous process and earned the title of Master Technician. With his elite training and expertise, Porsche trusted Lagrange with every car lover’s dream job — working on cars that are so rare and so valuable that they demand the industry's best and brightest minds to perform even routine maintenance.
Among the countless Porsches he’s worked on, Lagrange’s personal favorites include the $300,000 911 GT2 RS, the $200,000 911 GT3 RS, and an incredible vintage 1973 911 Carrera 2.7 RS valued at just shy of $1 million. Few people in the world ever even see these monsters of engineering in person, let alone get behind the wheel. It’s impossible to overstate how much trust it requires to allow somebody to take one of these machines apart. David Marciano is among the many clients who has placed his full faith in Lagrange. The owner of a luxury automotive import company that regularly relied on Lagrange, Marciano described what it is about Lagrange that makes him deserving of all that trust.
“It’s good to work with a passionate guy that knows exactly what he’s doing and goes directly to the heart of the problem,” said Marciano, for whom Lagrange’s work included restoring iconic Porsche classics as well as servicing and repairing the carmaker’s latest models. “It’s his knowledge of supercars that makes Mickael what he is: A real professional with crazy skills.”
Lagrange’s ‘crazy skills’ are exactly what Marciano was looking for when a very special project presented itself. He had purchased a classic Porsche in Shanghai, but it was going to take an expert to get it running again. Having worked with Lagrange before, Marciano knew exactly who to turn to.
“The restoration was a 1955 Porsche 356 A Speedster that David brought over from Shanghai, China, but it didn’t work anymore. The engine didn’t start anymore and all the electrical systems had to be redone,” Lagrange said, describing the sad state the car was in before he breathed new life into it. “She had probably been sitting for 30 years in a shed near the sea without any maintenance or work.”
After nearly two decades as one of Porsche’s most elite master technicians, Lagrange made the difficult choice to leave in order to accept an irresistible opportunity to work for Lamborghini.
“With my 17 years of experience at Porsche, in addition to my level of technical knowledge, I acquired the knowledge to work on sports and luxury cars, and I’m really serious about my work on these exceptional cars,” Lagrange said. “I also learned to communicate with a wealthy and demanding clientele.”
In his first year at Lamborghini, Lagrange has already performed his magic on an enviable list of jaw-dropping supercars. Perhaps the most impressive of these are the $500,000 Aventador SV, lauded by AutoTrader as being worth every penny, and the Centenario — a 217 mile per hour beast with a $2.5 million price tag. For Lagrange, who grew up with grease on his hands and a love of taking fast things apart, being paid to work on the most exotic Lamborghinis in the world is absolutely a dream come true.
People who can afford to buy the cars that Lagrange services also tend to be people who want, and expect, the very best that money can buy. Meeting the expectations of his most affluent and discerning clients may not always be easy, but it’s a responsibility he takes as seriously as the priceless and irreplaceable cars he’s entrusted with. With more knowledge and expertise than virtually anyone else in Europe, Mickael Lagrange is the man supercar manufacturers turn to when they need the best.