 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(July 2012) |
Corsica Coachworks was a small British coachbuilding business founded in 1920 just after World War I. They were builders of bespoke car bodies, employing no in-house designer. They realised customers' designs for them. Almost every Corsica body is unique.
Corsica Coachworks was run by Charles Henry Stammers (1884-1945), his brothers-in-law, Joseph and Robert Lee, and Albert Wood. The company name referred to the address of its original premises in Corsica Street, Highbury (Islington, North London). After a few years the business relocated further out of town to an alleyway off The Broadway, Cricklewood (Northwest London). Throughout its existence Corsica Coachworks remained small, never employing more than 20 people.
Most Corsica bodies were fitted to the more sporting types of car, with bodies produced for Daimler, Bentley, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, British Salmson, Frazer Nash, Humber, Lea-Francis, Rolls-Royce and Wolseley models.
At least 14 Bugatti Type 57s were furnished with Corsica bodies. One of the most notable Corsica bodied Type 57 cars was made using a chassis with parts from a famous Bugatti racing car. Bugatti was known for reusing and re-purposing chassis from their racing cars, then shipping the bare chassis to a customer for a new custom body. The Corsica Bugatti Type 57 Surbaisse 3.3-Litre Four-Seat Sports (1937) was made with an English style sporting body, completely unlike the typical Type 57 sporting bodies from continental European coachbuilders. And the chassis rails have been identified as the very same parts used in a Le Mans Type 57 "Tank" Streamliner. [1]
Just as the business was closed at the beginning of the war the company completed a Rolls-Royce limousine for Princess Marie Louise "and there may have been a few others like it".
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Every body would have been unique but a few dealers required short runs of a particular shape. If the owner's ideas on a body shape were too unformed, a contract draughtsman would be called in. The foreman body maker, Bert Skinner, would draw the entire body on plywood hanging on the wall including full-scale side views. After the body's frame had been built, the sheet aluminium or Dural would be shaped around it. Wings (mudguards) would be first outlined freehand in wire, then metal shaped to fit.
At peak:
These details have been supplied from memory[ whose? ] not records.
Sir Malcolm Campbell, Ford Dagenham, Nico Embiricos, 'Taso' Mathiesen, Colonel Giles, Colonel Sorrel (Bugatti London), Forrest Lycett, Cecil Kimber, Donald Healey, A. T. Goldie Gardner
The two most important principals, C. H. Stammers and Joseph Lee, died during World War II. Their premises were sold to S Smith & Sons. Robert (Dick) Lee moved to coachbuilders Alpe & Saunders in Kew, then formed FLM Panelcraft in High Street, Putney, moving later to Battersea (Fry, Lee, McNally). They made the bodies for HWM cars, the famous Gulbenkian taxi and the Tulipwood Hispano-Suiza.
Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North London, and became widely known for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930. Bentley has been a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group since 1998 and consolidated under VW's premium brand arm Audi since 2022.
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 subsidiaries of British Leyland and the Rover Group, it was last used in 2009 to denote the top-luxury version of the Jaguar XJ (X350).
H. J. Mulliner & Co. was a well-known British coachbuilder operating from Bedford Park, Chiswick, West London. The company which owned it was formed by H J Mulliner in 1897 but the business was a continuing branch of a family business founded in Northampton in the 1760s to hire out carriages. In December 1909 the controlling interest in this company passed to John Croall & Sons of Edinburgh. Croall sold that interest to Rolls-Royce in 1959.
A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. Coachwork is the body of an automobile, bus, horse-drawn carriage, or railway carriage. The word "coach" was derived from the Hungarian town of Kocs. A vehicle body constructed by a coachbuilder may be called a "coachbuilt body" or "custom body".
The Bentley Mark VI is an automobile from Bentley which was produced from 1946 until 1952.
The Bentley R Type is the second series of post-war Bentley automobiles, replacing the Mark VI. Essentially a larger-boot version of the Mk VI, the R type is regarded by some as a stop-gap before the introduction of the S series cars in 1955. As with its predecessor, a standard body was available as well as coachbuilt versions by firms including H. J. Mulliner & Co., Park Ward, Harold Radford, Freestone and Webb, Carrosserie Worblaufen and others.
The Bentley 3 Litre was a car chassis manufactured by Bentley. The company's first, it was developed from 1919 and made available to customers' coachbuilders from 1921 to 1929. The Bentley was very much larger than the 1368 cc Bugattis that dominated racing at the time, but double the size of engine and strength compensated for the extra weight. The 4000 lb (1800 kg) car won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, with drivers John Duff and Frank Clement, and again in 1927, this time in Super Sports form, with drivers S. C. H. "Sammy" Davis and Dudley Benjafield. Its weight, size, and speed prompted Ettore Bugatti to call it "the fastest lorry in the world", which was regarded as a compliment. Built in 3 main variants, Blue label, Red Label Speed models all carrying a 5-year warranty, and the coveted and rare Green Label 100 mph cars, which only carried a 12-month warranty reflecting the high state of tune.
The Bentley 3½ Litre was presented to the public in September 1933, shortly after the death of Henry Royce, and was the first new Bentley model following Rolls-Royce's acquisition of the Bentley brand in 1931.
The Bentley Mark V was Rolls-Royce's second Bentley model. Intended for announcement at the Earl's Court Motor Show set down for late October 1939 it had much in common with its predecessor. War was declared on 3 September 1939 and a few days later Bentley announced it had ceased production of civilian items.
James Young Limited was a top class British coachbuilding business in London Road, Bromley, England.
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. Together with chief coach designer and stylist Georges Paulin from 1933 to 1938, Pourtout pioneered the Paulin invented 'Eclipse' retractable hardtop system on four models of Peugeot, several Lancia Belna's and other car makes.
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.
John Polwhele Blatchley was a London-born car designer known for his work with J Gurney Nutting & Co Limited and Rolls-Royce Limited. He began his career as designer with Gurney Nutting in 1935, moving up to Chief Designer before leaving in 1940 to join Rolls-Royce. There he served as a draughtsman (1940–43), stylist in the car division (1943–55), and chief styling engineer (1955–69).
Weymann Fabric Bodies is a patented design system for fuselages for aircraft and superlight coachwork for motor vehicles. The system used a patent-jointed wood frame covered in fabric. It was popular on cars from the 1920s until the early 1930s as it reduced the usual squeaks and rattles of coachbuilt bodies by its use of flexible joints between body timbers.
J Gurney Nutting & Co Limited was an English firm of bespoke coachbuilders specialising in sporting bodies founded in 1918 as a new enterprise by a Croydon firm of builders and joiners of the same name. The senior partner was John (Jack) Gurney Nutting (1871–1946).
Freestone and Webb were English coachbuilders who made bodies for Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars but also built bodies on other chassis including Alfa Romeo, Packard, and Mercedes-Benz.
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.
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.
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