#coachbuilding

Quick quiz for the experts: Name a American supercar from 2006 with a carbon fiber body kit, a 500+ hp V10, and a total production count you can count on your hands. (Hint: It's not a Ford GT). The staggeringly rare ASC McLaren Diamondback Viper deserves its spot in the history books.

The Simpson Design Swift Roadster 

This is the Simpson Design Swift Roadster, it’s a classically-styled sports car with a 0-60 mph time of under 4.0 seconds, it rides on modern suspension and disc brakes, and it gets excellent fuel economy – almost 50 mpg in fact.

Coachbuilding companies used to dominate automobile design back in the early days of the 20th century. People would often buy a powered rolling chassis from a manufacturer before sending it off to have a body built for it to their own specifications.Some well-heeled buyers even had two bodies for their cars – a convertible for the summer and a hardtop for the winter that offered better weather protection.While almost all of the original coachbuilding companies have now faded into history, there are still people out there creating unique bodies for cars, and one of them is a friendly man from Texas named Jim Simpson.

Simpson started out sketching cars before being offered a place with GM, in his earlier years he would do apprenticeships in Europe including a two year stretch with Ferrari.Over the years he started designing and building his own cars, in fact his concept car Blue Ray 3 was chosen to represent Nardi at their 60th anniversary at the Concorso Italiano.

Jim developed a steel chassis for the car as well as a full fiberglass body, he decided to make use of many parts from a donor Mazda Miata in order to give the car modern suspension, braking, performance, and reliability.The interior of the car is beautifully appointed, with a custom dashboard, 1950s period-correct seats, a wood rimmed steering wheel, and a diamond stitch quilted transmission tunnel. The completed car sits on knock-off wire wheels and a modern set of tires.

Intriguing images for an Ian Fleming James Bond Novel Fan (i.e. me), since the finish on this car’s passenger compartment is what Fleming meant in “From Russia With Love” when he referred to Darko Kerim’s...

“...gleaming aristocrat of a car - an old black basketwork Rolls-Royce coupé-de-ville that Bond guessed must have been built for some millionaire of the ’20s.”

Since it’s a 1926 Phantom 1 with a coupé-de-ville body (passengers inside, chauffeur outside) built for the Financial Director of Woolworths(!), this may be the very car Fleming had in mind.

Peter Sellers had a Mini with a luxurious customised interior, and a basketwork-finish exterior painted by a heraldic artist who also worked on royal coaches...

...but it’s just as likely that the pattern on the Rolls was real basketwork, either already mounted on a metal body panel or actually woven in place with tape...

...then sealed down with multiple coats of lacquer. The texture can still be clearly seen and felt, otherwise why go to all that trouble?

I’ve also seen some commentaries suggesting that this sort of bodywork was actual wicker basketweave all the way through. It wasn’t, but the notion isn’t as silly as it sounds and not a long step from a US Woodie...

or UK Morris Minor Traveller...

...though some wooden bodies looked much sleeker, like this 1924 Hispano-Suiza in tulip-wood.

There was a historical precedent for wicker vehicle bodies (which had a wind-and-waterproof lining, for obvious reasons!) They were just the thing for sidecars on early motorcycles, light and cheap, yet sturdy, resilient and shock-absorbing.

...including family size, since bikes and their road tax were (AFAIK still are) considerably cheaper than cars.

Wicker also appeared on cars, but given the difference in cost (these early runabouts were rich people’s toys) basketwork bodies tended to be more of a Statement than a Necessity...

Even when cars in general became much cheaper, some marques stayed pricey. The customer who could afford this 1929 Bugatti...

...or this 1932 Voisin...

...would have specified using basketwork for the look, not to save a few pence.

Of course there’s always room for some eccentricity. In the mid 1920s, German engineering company Hanomag made a tiny compact car, the 2/10PS (2 seat / 10 PferdStarke i.e. horsepower) which looked like an ambitious roller-skate:

They were fitted with other bodies such as delivery vans...

...or this passenger box, with the diced strip and meter that denoted a taxi...

...though occasionally taxis used the standard body and a lot more optimism.

The Hanomag was nicknamed “Kommisbrot” - Ration-Bread - since Army rye bread came out of its baking tins that shape, and as if trying to make them even more loaf-like, several were finished with super-light wicker racing shells like these...

(Like a Chianti bottle on wheels, says @dduane.)

The engine lived in the back, but to me all of these Hanomags, especially the wicker ones, look more like something a child would work with pedals.

Their basketwork may be unquestionably genuine, but they’re a long way from that OP Rolls-Royce...  :->