|
CLASSIC INTEREST
Coach-built cars epitomize craftsmanship
Rolling carriages are highly coveted as collector cars
By David Grainger
Thursday, December 11, 2003
One of the most positive side effects of my work involving classic cars is that I have come to view them more as works of art than transportation. While any artistic merit discovered in modern cars seems to be more luck than intention, there was a time when great automobiles were intentionally created as masterpieces of functional design, and these rolled from elite carriage makers and coach-builders in both Europe and North America. While the wine guzzling effete of the modern gallery crowd may have missed these, many of these cars stand as some of the greatest artistic works of the 20th century. Even the names of the Carrosiers or coach builders who designed and built these cars in smoky little studios have names that ring with as much artistic authority as a roll call of the masters. Fernandez and Darrin, Saoutchik, Figoni et Falaschi and Corsica are but a small example of names that have been immortalized in the classic automobile world and with good reason. The creations that rolled from their shops looked unlike any automobiles created before or since. Sensuous, flowing French curves were combined with outrageously decadent trim and colour schemes to create rolling forms that literally stopped traffic.
The rich of today have very little latitude when it comes to choosing a car that represents their tastes, influence and success. While modern luxury cars abound, they are generally cookie cutter produced lozenges with no more personality than any other car on the road. The only thing that sets them apart from their more common brethren is a bewildering and usually frustrating assemblage of widgetry that defies their owners' attempts to master them.
Ah, but in 1935 the world was a very different place in which the rich could engage and patronize a wellspring of craftsmen and artisans who have since disappeared in our modern age of vacuum formed plastic and machine stamped panels.
In the first half of the 20th century the wealthy could order a chassis and engine from manufacturers like Delage, Bugatti, Packard or Rolls-Royce and then have them shipped to a coach-builder. The owner could then sit down and have an actual part in creating a car that accurately depicted the way he wanted the world to see him as he passed down the boulevard. If the owner was perhaps a little conservative, then a more conservative coach-builder could be sought such as Park Ward or Barker in England. But for the extravagant, who wanted the world to see the joyful use of money, the Carrosiers of France beckoned. If a car with a Grand Prix appearance was favoured, the Italians had design studios that fit the bill.
In many cases Carrosiers actually used retired Grand Prix and other racing cars, stripping off the functional but sparse bodywork and replacing it with flamboyantly finished coachwork and interiors wrought from exotic hides like ostrich and even elephant. These cars were blisteringly fast in their day and were the ultimate in status symbols.
Coach-built cars were found on both sides of the Atlantic but North Americans tended to favour mass production, even before the Second World War. Even the American coach-builders tended to make multiples of most of their designs.
While this may have been far more cost effective, it subdued the flamboyance, since a design had to appeal to a pool of buyers rather than reflecting the tastes of just one individual.
Funnily enough, when a really flamboyant one-off American car was created such as the Rust Heinz Phantom Corsair, it became an instant hit, gathering crowds of admirers as well as the curious wherever it went. But the one-off car, so popular in European circles, never really caught on in North America.
Today that's not the case. Coach-built cars of the 1930s usually command prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and for the most flamboyant and rare, price tags of $5 and $6 million dollars are not unheard of.
Unlike many classic cars that have floundered on the shoals of an apathetic collector market of late, the coach-built car still attracts and commands sophisticated collectors and investors the world over. They are sought not only for their artistic merit, but also for their ability to win over judges at major events like the Concours D' Elegance at Pebble Beach, California and the Concours at Meadowbrook Hall near Detroit. It is invariably a coach-built car that will win the coveted Best in Show trophy.
While most of these cars have been discovered and restored over the last 50 years, there is still the odd one that emerges from seclusion from some dusty storage shed or locked garage.
These finds are literally the discovery of lost treasure and amazingly are not as uncommon as one would think. In the last four years I have been approached twice about incredible coach-built cars that have just come to light.
In one case a French Darlmart Coupe, of which only two coupes and about 40 roadsters were built, was offered to me for $100,000. I could not find an interested buyer in Canada but the American gentleman who purchased it had it restored and then sold it for many times his investment - a telling example of the power of fine art.
Contact: david
| 
