Commentary: The Fine Art Of Automobile Coachbuilding
Automotive coachbuilding in The Golden Era will not happen again on a large scale but is is happening quietly in specialized bespoke works.
With renewed interest in this field of automotive art, more and more of the world’s wealthy collectors have contracted with design firms to build them their own, individual cars.
Already, Zagato is at it again, building for Aston Martin, so we can look forward to seeing more and more bespoke works of motorized art going forward.
The art of automobile coachbuilding has been revived thanks to a growing number of wealthy enthusiasts who are commissioning individualized Supercars.
Custom coachbuilding has not been seen since its decline in the late 1950’s.
Coachbuilding, not to be confused with customizing car modification. Coachbuilding is the creation of a car that is truly bespoke. Based on exclusive sports cars, often Ferraris that have, in their owners’ minds reached a point of near-ubiquity, these pièces-unique could not mistaken for anything but completely exclusive.
Some car collectors are willing to spend millions of dollars to have their Ferrari look unlike any other on the road.
A man who has been a Key player in the resurgence of coachbuilding is Yoshiyuki Hayashi, who commissioned his very own coachbuilt Ferrari, the 575 GTZ from Zagato.
For Mr Hayashi car Zagato built fitting tribute to the 50-yr old 250 GTZ that is one of the most valuable Ferrari’s in existence.
The 2 agreed that a modern reinterpretation of this icon would make a lovely addition to the well-known Japanese collector’s prized garage of famous Ferrari cars.
The Italian design-house behind many a special Ferrari cars and was keen to showcase, once again, its fine talents.
In the early days of the automobile, and like the horse-drawn carriages that went before for hundreds of years, cars were built on a chassis that was separate from the body that was fixed to it.
This was true of even the mass-produced cars of the age.
However, it was not until the 1920’s that automobiles became truly beautiful, coach-built vehicles borne of the minds of stylistic geniuses.
The 1920’s was a time of renewed interest in industrial design.
Art Deco themes in architecture, as embodied by New York City’s Chrysler Building were soon followed by a similar stylistic movement in the car world.
Car manufacturers, especially high-end marques like Bugatti and Delahaye of the 1930’s, and Cadillac with their 1940’s V16 series, often built naked chassis complete with running gear that were then ‘wrapped’ in sensuous, personalized metal by a dedicated auto body shop.
Each carrozziere, or coachbuilder as these design houses were known, offered their own unique styles that customers could customize before it would be fitted to a chassis.
Coachbuilder’s were not always small, boutique firms.
Some companies with the required skills were retained on contract by the mainstream carmakers to create bodies in bulk for their mass-produced vehicles, such as Fisher Body whose affiliation with General Motors (NYSE:GM) built hundreds of thousands of bodies with the Body by Fisher plates.
The James Young, Hoopers, Park Ward and Mulliner coachworks formed very close partnerships with Rolls Royce and Bentley.
But in special cases, some of the more dedicated, innovative and exclusive coachbuilders, such like Figoni et Falaschi who created the iconic “teardrop” shape for Talbot, Franay, Saoutchik, would custom design coachwork for their clients who often had specific ideas of what they wanted from their new automobile.
The Bugatti Type 57, for example, was built in many different guises by many different carrosseries, to use the French term; karrosserie in German, to suit many different tastes over its 700-or-so run.
The most famous of which is the “Atlantic” body shape that adorned the lower, sportier 57S chassis.
Of the 3 Atlantics built, all were different, but the most famous, black-painted model is now part of the Ralph Lauren collection, and is priceless now..
The Golden Age of the coachbuilt motorcar peaked in the mid-1930’s, and saw a sharp decline after WWII into the late 1950’s.
Since those days, car companies have moved their coachbuilding in-house, making the role of the specialist carrozziere more or less obsolete.
In the case of luxury carmakers like Rolls-Royce and Bentley this was effected by integrating their longtime coachbuilders: Park Ward and Mulliner into their company.
Since the 1970’s, and for reasons of weight, structural rigidity, and cost, the unibody construction method has been adopted across the board, further negating the need for expensive custom coachbuilding.
Legislation on crash safety has also done its part, unwittingly encouraging homogeneous designs that are becoming increasingly bulbous and amorphous in the interests of safety.
Which has all but left the coach-building industry, in its truest form, out of reach and favor.
In the last 10 yrs or so there has been a resurgence in interest in design companies doing 1-off custom coachwork for customers who want something truly bespoke.
Pictured in this article are some super examples of this brand of automotive art and craftsmanship.
Stay tuned…
HeffX-LTN
Paul Ebeling
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