Go back to the middle of the last century and a very rich man buying a very expensive car was as unlikely to buy one off the lot as he was to buy an off-the-peg suit. Ferrari, Bentley, Bugatti and Rolls Royce customers would select a chassis and drivetrain from an automaker, but commission a genuinely bespoke body from a true coachbuilder.
That’s become less common in recent years, in part because few non-truck vehicles still have a separate chassis and so are hard to rebody. But automakers like Ferrari and Rolls Royce have revived the idea for their most exclusive clients, bringing the coachbuilding process in-house. And now a British company wants to steal some of that lucrative work back for the independent sector, and it’s doing it with the help of another British firm whose amazing work you’ll have seen hundreds of times without even realizing it.
Allesley is based in the English midlands, which was once the heart of the British motor industry. And so is its parent company and technical partner, HPL Prototypes, who for years has been beavering away quietly making one-off concept cars and handling low-volume build projects for luxury OEMs, without receiving any external publicity or praise.
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Together, the two firms want to attract business from both wealthy car fans looking for a truly bespoke vehicle, and also from OEMs. Private individuals will be able to commission a car to their liking, presumably free of the creative limits protective OEMs place on their in-house projects, and OEMs can hand over entire projects, letting Allesley deal with everything from the initial sketch to the final build.
Which all sounds fine, but right now the pair doesn’t have a finished car to show us and most of the pictures we’ve got to go on are just of middle-aged guys in suits – suits which may or may not be bespoke. However, Allesley has released a teaser sketch of its first customer commission, a luxury SUV which it says will be unveiled in 2024.
“Allesley’s first commission will redefine the standards by which bespoke vehicles are judged,” said Paul Abercrombie, CEO of Allesley, without revealing which automaker’s SUV will serve as a donor for job one. “It will blend world-class precision design and manufacturing with unparalleled quality, underscoring our position as the new global leader in ultra-luxurious coachbuilding, setting the tone for what will become a growing portfolio of some of the most exclusive vehicles ever seen.”
