Bill Grimsley, a lifelong car enthusiast decided he wanted to buy a car the old fashioned way. Buying a luxury car used to be a bespoke experience, the consumer would buy a rolling chassis from one of the major manufacturers and then hire a coachbuilder to craft the body and interior, while often adding their own design input.
It was a time when car companies had not yet incorporated design studios in house, making the coach built cars still in existence today vitrually priceless one-offs.
After WWII, the art of coachbuilding disappeared for mainly 2 reasons.
1. Due to the weak economy, fewer sales meant that most old-school coach builders were forced to switch their design and manufacturing expertise to other areas and products, or face bankruptcy.
2. As the car manufacturing process evolved into modern mainstream mass manufacturing, some coachbuilders were absorbed by, and became the design department for the car makers they were building bodies for.
The Gatto is built in Oakland, California by Maul.
74 FOOTWEAR DESIGN CONSULTING 