COBURG: Martin Kapp gestures towards the sleek red Italian sports car standing in his barn in the heart of Germany, secure in the knowledge there is not another exactly like it in the world.
By commissioning the 300km per hour Alfa Romeo TZ 3 Corsa the 63-year-old engineering company executive joined a band of custom car aficionados ranging from financiers to rock stars keen to acquire an exclusive exotic vehicle. Anecdotal evidence suggests they are a growing breed.
Advances in computer design and safety testing have helped improve the feasibility of the cottage industry specialised in creating one-off cars for wealthy buyers, helping collectors like Kapp achieve what had been a distant dream.
“Knowing there would only ever be one built, that really appealed to me,” said Kapp, whose home is on the outskirts of Coburg, Bavaria, where he is a managing director and partner at Kapp Group, a manufacturer of grinding machines for the auto industry. Kapp is just one of a crowd of clients looking beyond the standard offerings from upmarket showroom marques such as Ferrari (part of Fiat ) and Porsche (part of Volkswagen ) and have commissioned boutique design houses such as Castriota Design, Zagato, Pininfarina and Carrozeria Touring to create tailor-made models.
Although Kapp won’t say how much he paid for his car, industry insiders say the cost of a one-off vehicle can range from several hundred thousand to several million euros, depending on the design sought by the client.
Kapp worked with Italian coachbuilder Zagato because he wanted a new version of his classic Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ, retaining the low-slung curves and flourishes of the 1960s original but adding modern performance and safety features.
Recent advances in computing power and software have simplified car design, reducing production costs, and new software simulation techniques have cut back the need for costly prototype crash testing procedures.
“Without a doubt, the real revolution that has occurred in recent years has been the official acceptance of mathematical modelling and virtual simulation,” said Andrea Zagato, the third generation member of Milan-based coachbuilding business Zagato noted, saying regulators now accept software programmes to do some of the work previously done through crash testing.
As a result, custom coachbuilding has experienced a renaissance in the past five years, experts and manufacturers say, radically modernising an industry which traces its roots to an era when owners of horse-drawn coaches commissioned a body to go on top of an undercarriage. Reuters
