Coachbuilding's New Generation

Coachbuilding, the craft of clothing a proven chassis in a bespoke body, never quite died. It spent decades as a curiosity and has now returned as a serious business, serving collectors who want rarity and design authorship that series production cannot offer. The new generation of coachbuilt cars is defined by small production runs, carbon-fibre construction, manual gearboxes where the donor allows, and prices that are published or quoted on application. This is a survey of what is verified and current.

Coachbuilding, the craft of clothing a proven chassis in a bespoke body, never quite died.

Touring Superleggera: Milan's continuing school

Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, founded in Milan in 1926, remains the reference point for the modern coachbuilder. Its current work spans three distinct projects.

The Veloce12 is a comprehensive reworking of the Ferrari 550 Maranello, the 1990s V12 grand tourer, unveiled at Monterey Car Week in 2024. Touring strips each donor car, reinforces the chassis, and fits entirely new carbon-fibre bodywork that stays faithful to the original's proportions while refining every surface. The 5.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 is rebuilt with a new cooling system and exhaust, producing a claimed 503 bhp, a 25 bhp increase over the standard car, and the gated six-speed manual is retained. Suspension comes from TracTive with adaptive damping, and braking is by Brembo with 380 mm discs. Production is limited to 30 coupes, with a Barchetta variant unveiled at The Quail in 2025, also limited to 30 examples. Pricing has been reported from around 690,000 euros before the cost of the donor car.

The Arese RH95, named for Touring's Milanese home of Arese and the initials of its first patron, marked the company's 95th anniversary. Built on Ferrari's mid-engined V8 platform with a carbon-fibre body and scissor doors, it is limited to 18 examples, each taking around six months to complete. Power is quoted at 720 hp with 770 Nm of torque, and pricing is disclosed only on application. The earlier Sciadipersia, a rebodied Maserati GranTurismo, was planned for 10 units. Together the three projects show a house working at three price points and three eras of donor car, united by a single method: proven mechanicals, hand-built carbon bodywork, and interiors finished to the customer's specification.

Zagato and the Twin Tail

Zagato's current flagship project is the AGTZ Twin Tail, a collaboration with the Polish supercar dealer La Squadra, unveiled in prototype form at FuoriConcorso on Lake Como in May 2024. The car is a modern interpretation of the Alpine A220 Le Mans racer of the late 1960s, built on the Alpine A110 as donor car and clothed in a predominantly carbon-fibre body designed and assembled by Zagato.

Its defining feature is the removable elongated rear deck that gives the car its name: with the extension fitted, the car is 622 mm longer than a standard A110, and it can be run in long-tail or short-tail configuration. The base car contributes its turbocharged 1.8-litre four-cylinder, quoted at 248 bhp in standard form with a sub-five-second 0 to 100 km/h time, with optional upgrades to engine, suspension, brakes and exhaust available. Zagato quotes more than 1,000 hours of hand assembly per car over 15 weeks.

Production is limited to 19 examples, priced from 650,000 euros excluding taxes. The first customer-specification car was shown at Retromobile in Paris in early 2025, confirming the project has moved from prototype to deliveries. For a four-cylinder car, the price is among the highest ever asked; it is a price for design authorship and rarity, and it is stated openly.

Nardone Automotive: the French 928

The third current project comes from France. Nardone Automotive has spent several years developing a restomod of the Porsche 928, the transaxle V8 grand tourer that has long lived in the 911's shadow, and delivered its first production car in mid-2026.

The specification is thorough: the original 5.0-litre V8 is rebuilt to produce 450 hp and 522 Nm, managed by a Motec ECU, and paired with a custom-built six-speed manual transaxle with a mechanical limited-slip differential. The steel bodywork is replaced with carbon-fibre panels over a widened track, with electronically adjustable suspension, quicker-ratio steering and Brembo brakes. The interior is completely retrimmed in leather and Alcantara with a redesigned digital instrument cluster, while retaining the 928's trademark central tachometer. More than 3,000 new parts are manufactured for each car.

Pricing has been reported from around 480,000 euros before taxes and the donor car. The Nardone 928 matters because it extends the coachbuilt logic to a car the market had undervalued: the donor is chosen for its engineering interest rather than its auction price, and the value is created entirely in the rebuild.

The new coachbuilding contract

What unites these projects is a consistent proposition. The donor car supplies proven engineering, crash-tested structure and serviceable mechanicals. The coachbuilder supplies design, carbon-fibre craftsmanship, modernised dynamics and strict limitation: 30, 19, 18, 10. Prices are stated or quoted without embarrassment, production numbers are contractual, and the manual gearbox appears wherever the donor permits it, a deliberate choice in an age of automation.

For readers of the driving roads in this publication's drive section, the relevance is direct: these are cars specified for the long way over the pass rather than the short way around the circuit. And for the study of the driving position, they offer a reminder that the best interface between driver and machine is still designed by hand, fitted to the individual, and built in the dozens rather than the thousands.