Arguably the most elegant and flamboyant cars of all times have been created in the golden era of coachbuilding between the 1920 and 1950s. The borders between art, architecture, fashion, and car design were permeable and affluent customers invested not-so-small fortunes into their tailor-made automobiles. Countless highly creative workshops all across Europe, filled with skillful artisans, beat bare metal sheets into aerodynamic sculptures and fast-paced works of art. With a new concours season on the horizon, we scrolled through the Classic Driver Market and picked our favourite coachbuilt classics. These are cars that we could very easily imagine making an impression at the Villa d’Este, Pebble Beach, Chantilly or one of the many other world-class beauty contests. Until then, just take a moment and marvel at the flowing shapes of the Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS ‘Goutte d’Eau’ or the Bugatti Type 57 ‘Aérolithe’ – and imagine what an impression they must have made roaming the dusty country roads of 1930s Europe.
