Indian designs on Europe

PUNE: Carrying coals to Newcastle maybe a worn out cliche but Britain, long regarded as the home for its expertise in designing and manufacturing high end, one off cars, is now set to off shore this activity to India.
Specifically, to India''s best known automotive designer, Dilip Chhabria (DC) Designs.
"We are collaborating with DC Designs for sports cars from donor vehicles.He has an established presence in India; we intend to take this to Europe, for the very high net worth individual who wants a bespoke sports car," Barrie Wills, business development director, ideasfactory, said.
Ideas Factory is a UK based design house and the new venture is likely to be branded Chapman DC, after Colin Chapman, the legendary founder of Lotus cars. And the cars they expect to work on are Mercedes, Jaguars, Bentleys.
"The customer decides on the car, what he wants done. We will design according to customer specification without disrupting the integrity and safety elements of the car. It is a facelift where we will change the exteriors and interiors to the client''s requirements," Mr Wills said.
These kind of bespoke wheels carry an average price tag of upto $500,000. And Mr Wills said business would be "good" if they do 40-50 cars annually.
"These are the people who go for custom designed jets and yachts," he added.
For Mr Wills, it seemed to be more a re-creation of a bygone era: of the late 1920s to the 50s, when the coach builders of the UK were a breed apart.
"The industry was at its peak in the 20s to the 50s when we had, in Britain, dozens of bespoke coach builders. They would take running chassis and put unique bodies on them. Then, the costs went up, the skills became rarer and OEs introduced higher volumes. The mass production process lead to the industry dying out in Britain by the 1950s. Bentley and Rolls Royce still make a limited run, of 50-100 vehicles but the art of building a single vehicle has died out," he said.
Seeking to revive this art, Mr Wills said they have proposed that DC Designs'' skills will be used along with their own.
"We have our own design centre where we will mix DC Designs with some of ours. Modern technology for design allows for very quick work and an average of 20 weeks should be enough to deliver the car," he said. The plan is that the manufacture, the panel beating, will be done at DC''s new plant at Pune.
Ideas Factory has done some design work for Ford and Nissan rarely for the other mature car manufacturers. However, most OEs have begun to source styling work from emerging countries.
"This is a new venture for us, not for Dilip Chabbria who has designed for the India market," Mr Wills added.