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<\/p>\nIan Callum, the noted automotive designer, has started a new company, simply named Callum Design. It could just as easily be called Unfinished Business.<\/p>\n
Mr. Callum believes there is still mileage left, so to speak, in some notable car designs, and his shop intends to bring certain models of yesteryear forward and show how they retain their vitality in the modern world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in the business of reimagining,\u201d said Mr. Callum, 66, who has been working out of his design shop in Warwick, England, since retiring in 2019 after two decades as Jaguar Land Rover\u2019s top designer. To date, he and his team of stylists, engineers and fabricators have \u201creimagined\u201d the Aston Martin Vanquish and the Jaguar Mark 2; most recently they\u2019ve announced a second-generation Corvette project.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome stories,\u201d he noted with a wink during an online press event, \u201care better the second time told.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tragedy of automotive design, at least from a stylist\u2019s standpoint, is that the industry treats it as essentially disposable. As soon as the design of one model is completed, the race begins to make it obsolete with a successor.<\/p>\n
Great designs often have a shelf life of as little as a year or, at best, a \u201clife cycle\u201d of \u201ca generation\u201d entailing a few model years.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat design, timeless design, comes not from seeing other cars,\u201d Mr. Callum explained at a Jaguar symposium a few years back. \u201cIt comes from not being able to see them, from being to imagine something entirely new, from whole cloth, as it were.\u201d<\/p>\n
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While Mr. Callum has been a devoted fan of Jaguar design since his childhood in Scotland, postmodern American design has fueled his imagination.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the automotive world got from Bill Mitchell and Harley Earl were more than designs \u2014 they were almost the exaggeration of design,\u201d he said, referring to two mid-20th-century General Motors designers. \u201cExpressive, glamorous, the essence of America. Or Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n
To illustrate his point, he revealed that he had bought a 1956 Chevy from eBay Motors, late one night on an impulse. \u201cI clicked on \u2018Buy It Now\u2019 \u2014 the seller was in Cleveland,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was extremely surprised at who wanted to buy it and where I wanted it shipped. But he agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Callum subsequently heaped an enormous amount of love, and subtle design and engineering improvements, upon that cherry-red classic, and perhaps that helped point him toward his newest venture. (His private collection also includes a \u201932 Ford and a \u201993 Mini.)<\/p>\n
Mr. Callum\u2019s first reimagined design involved \u201cbringing forward\u201d his own work on the award-winning Aston Martin DB7 and Vanquish V12 \u2014 cars that were in production largely unchanged from the early 1990s to 2018. That\u2019s an eternity in the automotive world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Vanquish was perfect for its time, but it could be better,\u201d he said. \u201cI know, because I designed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So he has tried to visualize how the design and engineering could be advanced, unconstrained by corporate edicts on model life spans and the pence-pinching of an accounting department.<\/p>\n
The result is the Vanquish 25, of which \u2014 as the number suggests \u2014 25 are being built and made available for sale. The asking price is negotiable, because prospective buyers can suggest bespoke details. Figure the bottom line would be somewhere north of half a million dollars. Despite that, Mr. Callum characterized business as \u201cbrisk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another model he considers not quite ready to be consigned to vintage car shows or museums, despite its age, is the original Jaguar Mark 2. He counts it among his top five automotive designs of all time (and he\u2019s an owner, too).<\/p>\n
Mr. Callum was still in school when it came out; he was so inspired he wrote to its designer, William Lyons, and asked about a position in the company\u2019s design studio. Incredibly, Lyons wrote him back and advised him to study technical drawing.<\/p>\n
So it makes a certain amount of sense \u2014 especially given his dream-come-true stint as head of Jaguar design \u2014 that Mr. Callum would try his hand at reimagining a more relevant Mark 2 for 2021 and beyond. The Callum Mk 2 is a real head-turner \u2014 at first a ringer for the original but, parked next to one, an obvious upgrade, albeit a stunning one.<\/p>\n
This is another Callum Design limited offering with what some people might consider a staggering asking price, starting upward of $600,000, plus a donor car.<\/p>\n
Yet buyers to date hail from Europe, the Middle East and even the United States, where the reimagined models aren\u2019t technically road-legal.<\/p>\n
Mr. Callum\u2019s latest project could be his most ambitious so far: a thoroughly modernized version of the second-generation Chevrolet Corvette, which was in production from 1963 to 1967. He\u2019s working with one of the car\u2019s original designers, Peter Brock, 84, who sketched the original split-window coupe back in 1957.<\/p>\n
The project is calling the vehicle Ava, which stands for the Latin phrase ad vitam aeternam, meaning \u201cto eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ava will offer \u201chypermodern performance enveloped in the body and soul of a classic,\u201d Mr. Callum said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a hugely exciting undertaking,\u201d he said in unveiling the first design renderings. \u201cWe want to write a new chapter in this car\u2019s story, using Peter\u2019s original concept and vision, with Callum Design\u2019s expertise in creation and engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ava, which is to be built in Ireland, will be electrically powered, capable of producing 1,200 to 2,000 horsepower. The asking price, still being worked out, could reach $2.4 million.<\/p>\n
Mr. Callum is coy about what else might be on his future projects list, but it would not be surprising to see something related to the 1965 Buick Riviera. \u201cThat car is still spellbinding to look at,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is my personal favorite; it will never get old.\u201d<\/p>\n