Vanden Plas is the name of coachbuilders who produced bodies for specialist and up-market automobile manufacturers. Latterly the name became a top-end luxury model designation for cars from various subsidiaries of British Leyland and the Rover Group, last used in 2009 to denote the top-luxury version of the Jaguar XJ8.
Delahaye automobile was an automotive manufacturing company founded by Émile Delahaye in 1894, in Tours, France, his home town. His first cars were belt-driven, with single- or twin-cylinder engines mounted at the rear. His Type One was an instant success, and he urgently needed investment capital and a larger manufacturing facility. Both were provided by a new Delahaye owner and fellow racer, George Morane, and his brother-in-law Leon Desmarais, who partnered with Émile in the incorporation of the new automotive company, "Societe Des Automobiles Delahaye", in 1898. All three worked with the foundry workers to assemble the new machines, but middle-aged Émile was not in good health.
A coachbuilder, or body-maker, manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. Coachwork is the body of an automobile, bus, horse-drawn carriage, or railroad passenger car. The word "coach" was derived from the Hungarian town of Kocs.
Swallow Sidecar Company, Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company, and Swallow Coachbuilding Company were trading names used by Walmsley & Lyons, partners and joint owners of a British manufacturer of motorcycle sidecars and automobile bodies in Blackpool, Lancashire — later Coventry, Warwickshire — before incorporating a company to own their business which they named Swallow Coachbuilding Company Limited.
Park Ward was a British coachbuilder founded in 1919 which operated from Willesden in North London. In the 1930s backed by Rolls-Royce Limited it made technical advances which enabled the building of all-steel bodies to Rolls-Royce's high standards. Bought by Rolls-Royce in 1939 it merged with H. J. Mulliner & Co. in 1961 to form Mulliner Park Ward.
Hooper & Co. was a British coachbuilding company based in Westminster London. From 1805 to 1959 it was a notably successful maker, to special order, of luxury carriages both horse-drawn and motor-powered.
The Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A was a luxury car made by the Italian manufacturer Isotta Fraschini. It was the successor to the Tipo 8 model, with a new 7.3 litre straight-eight engine to replace the 5.9 litre unit used in the previous model. This new engine could produce 115–160 brake horsepower (86–119 kW). This was the most powerful mass-produced straight-8 engine in the world at that time. The Tipo 8A was offered only with bare chassis and engine for the coachbuilders.
Carrosserie Pourtout was a French coachbuilding company. Founded by Marcel Pourtout in 1925, the firm is best known for its work in the decades prior to World War II, when it created distinctive and prestigious bodies for cars from numerous European manufacturers. Pre-war Pourtout bodies were mainly one-off, bespoke creations, typically aerodynamic and sporting in character. Among the company's customers was Georges Clemenceau, the physician and journalist who served as the prime minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and 1917 to 1920.
The Cunard Motor & Carriage company was a British vehicle coachbuilder. It was founded in London in 1911 and continued in various forms up to the 1960s.
Founded by cabinet maker Jacques Saoutchik, Saoutchik was a top-class French coachbuilding company founded in 1906. In the 1930s the company became famous for their high quality and often extravagant designs. After Jacques died in 1955, the company passed into the hands of his son Pierre. With the great French luxury car manufacturers all going out of business, the market for the ostentatious Saoutchik designs evaporated and the company ceased trading in 1955.
The Delahaye 235 is a luxury car built by French manufacturer Delahaye from 1951 until 1954.
Jarvis & Sons Limited were South London-based motor dealers for Morris and MG, and latterly coachworks providing special bodies for various car chassis until after World War II.
The Carlton Carriage Company was a highly respected London coachbuilder that provided bespoke coachwork for some of the finest car makers of the 1920s and 30s. They are best known for their drophead coupes which are archetypal designs of the British Jazz Era.
Figoni et Falaschi was a French coachbuilder firm which was responsible for some of the most elegant and graceful automobile body shapes seen from the 1930s through to the 1950s. The actual designs were created by Giuseppe Figoni, while his partner Ovidio Falaschi ran the business.,
Carrosserie Vanvooren was a French Coachbuilder based in the north-western Paris suburb of Courbevoie. The company concentrated on producing car bodies for luxury cars, being closely associated, during the 1930s, with the products of Hispano-Suiza, Bugatti, Rolls-Royce and Bentley.
Letourneur & Marchand, located in the prosperous Paris suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a car body manufacturing business which became one of the last French coachbuilders.
Franay was a French coachbuilder of renown operating at Levallois-Perret, a suburb on the prosperous north-western edge of Paris. The company was founded in 1903 by Jean-Baptiste Franay, a carriage upholsterer, following an apprenticeship with Binder. It was later taken over by his son, Marius.
John Charles & Co was a British coachbuilding company founded in 1932 and based initially near Kew Gardens, London.
New Avon was a British vehicle coachbuilder. The company, based in Warwick, was started when a Ben Tilton and a Captain Philips trading as Avon Coachworks went into business in 1919 to make bodywork for cars. Following a change of ownership and financial reconstruction it became New Avon in 1922.
The Duple 425 was a coach design built by Hestair Duple in the late 1980s, and briefly by Plaxton in the early 1990s.
