One might expect that a professional blogger who also happens to be passionate about classic cars would be devoting at least some of his energy to writing about his restoration projects, but Hugo Sebastian Hirsch sees his love of antique automobiles as a means of escape from his online work. In fact, Hirsch has said that his best ideas often come to him while he is working on a repair project, and these ideas typically have absolutely nothing to do with classic cars or anything remotely related to the subject.
“When I am working on a car, I usually do so in a solitary fashion,” began Hirsch, explaining his rationale for not frequently writing about his car projects. “As I get more into it, I feel this sense of calm and clarity that enables me to think deeply on a variety of subjects. There used to be a lot of times when I dropped my tools to find a notebook so I could start writing immediately, but now I just keep a notebook right there in the garage so I don’t have to feel so frantic about the possibility of losing my train of thought.”
Hirsch, whose career as a blogger and consultant allows him to arrange his schedule so he has plenty of time for classic car restoration, sees his passion for writing and for cars as remarkably similar and mutually beneficial. Hirsch has said in the past that his writing would absolutely suffer without his passion for classic cars, and his restoration work would not be so detail-oriented if not for his commitment to writing.
“The art of writing and the art of automobile restoration may not seem to be all that similar, and on a superficial level, perhaps they are not all that alike,” says Hirsch. “In both pursuits, however, it is the process and not the outcome that is most rewarding for me. When the work is complete, I feel a great sense of accomplishment, but I also feel entirely ready to move on to the next project and the next challenge. It is in this way that I enjoy every triumph and failure equally, and I have never felt as though I have ever wasted any time doing either one.”
Given Hirsch’s process-oriented perspective, it is perhaps unsurprising that he rarely keeps the cars he restores. Instead, he usually resells them below market value, turning only enough of a profit so he is able to begin his next restoration project in earnest.