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Books Models Highlights Cars
of 1998 More
information can be found here:
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Car
of the Month - October 2005 |
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 It is known that a considerable number of cars from the pre-war period became re-bodied. Even if after after several years chassis and engine were still as perfect as was to be expected from a Rolls-Royce the coachwork might have appeared rather old-fashioned or perhaps didn’t meet the demands of a new owner. Equipped with a new body the cars were given a ‚second lease of life’. After WWII the trade of coachbuilding was a dwindling one. One result of radical changes in the automotive industry was that bespoke coachwork became almost prohibitively expensive and from the mid-60ies onward only a negligible number of coachbuilt cars were made.
From time to time though there were new attempts; these mainly concentrated on conversions of standard bodies. One such attempt was Claus Inhoven’s idea of a cabriolet based on the standard 4-door-saloon body of Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud and Bentley S. A most carefully planned design was executed in very sound quality and thus cabriolets were built that were well in the tradition of those great coachbuilders whose demise some 30 years ago had left a gap. But one detail of the care that was obvious on the new creations: on operating the window lifter of the rear doors the small window did move forward horizontally first before moving down vertically with the rst of the sidelight. |
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There was no difference between carefully made ‚coachbuilt motor cars’ from the past and the new Inhoven creations as regards expenses – their price was a breathtaking high one. However not least due to the fact that around the turn from the 80ies into the 90ies the price level in the vintage car market was at a very high level indeed Inhoven managed to remain in business for several years. Before his company closed down some 20 of his 4-door-convertibles were built; including the lefthand-drive Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III shown here.
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