Body shop Graber
The body shop Graber was in Wichtrach ( Canton Bern resident) Swiss manufacturer of car bodies designed, the number of 1926-1970 special bodies for European and American chassis and produced. Some of Graber's creations won beauty awards before and after World War II. The company was known for its restrained but elegant body designs, which have consistently followed the so-called pontoon shape since the 1950s and, contrary to the trend of the time, largely dispensed with decorative details and ornaments. There was a special connection to the British luxury car manufacturer Alvis , whose chassis Graber clad for a period of almost two decades.
Company history
The Graber car body goes back to a cartwright shop in Wichtrach. In 1925 Hermann Graber, the son of the previous owner, born in 1904, took over the business and quickly shifted the activity to the manufacture of automobile bodies.
The first vehicle with a Graber body was built as early as 1926: a two-seater convertible based on a Fiat 509 . At that time Graber had a hinge system patented with which vehicle doors could be opened either to the left or to the right. Accordingly, these versions also had two door handles on the outside. In 1929 a Panhard & Levassor 20 CV car body by Graber won the Concours d'Elegance in St. Moritz . This success contributed to Graber's fame throughout Europe. In the 1930s the company produced numerous special bodies for chassis from Alfa Romeo , Bentley , Bugatti , Duesenberg and Packard .
After World War II, Graber increasingly focused on British chassis. Numerous individual pieces were created on the basis of Lagonda , Rolls-Royce and Rover ; a total of 35 Graber bodies were built for Bentley, 12 of them for the Bentley Mark VI alone .
In 1948 Graber took over the Swiss general agency for the British luxury brand Alvis. Two years later, Graber produced its own body for an Alvis chassis for the first time on behalf of a customer; it was followed by numerous other individual pieces based on Alvis.
In the 1950s, the connection between Graber and Alvis intensified. After the longtime Alvis designer GT Smith-Clarke left the company, Hermann Graber designed the factory body of the Alvis TC 108 / G, which was presented in 1955 . Initially, the factory bodies were built at Willowbrook , later under license from Park Ward and Mulliner Park Ward . However, some details have been revised by Alvis and the bodywork manufacturers. All factory bodies of the T-series up to the last model, the TF 21, followed Graber's designs. In addition, Graber continued to equip Alvis chassis on behalf of customers with custom bodies he had designed himself, of which fewer than ten were made each year. Graber created two-door coupés - saloons in English -, convertibles and four four-door sedans, three of which still exist. Graber's bodies were lower than the factory superstructures and mostly had more inclined A- and C-pillars. A special feature of Graber's individual designs were very thin C-pillars. In addition to the superstructure, Graber also revised the chassis of the cars he bodyworked upon request.
Hermann Graber died in 1970. With his death, the production of special bodies in Wichtrach ended. A total of around 800 vehicles were built at Graber. The company remained as a body repair company. From 1980 to 1996 Graber Sportgarage was an official Ferrari importer. In 2001 the company was taken over by a well-known Swiss classic car restorer and relocated to Toffen .
Gallery: Vehicles bodied by Graber
A Lancia Aprilia (1941) car body by Graber
A Delahaye 135 M with a Cabriolet body from Graber
Talbot-Lago T 26 Cabriolet Graber (1952)
Rear view of the Talbot-Lago T 26
Lagonda 3 liter with Graber body
A Bentley S1 Cabriolet from Graber
The last series from Alvis Cars: A TF 21 from 1967 with a coupé body
literature
- Emil Bohnenblust: Hermann Graber was the uncrowned king of Swiss coachbuilders . In: DrachePost No. 4, June 2005, p. 12 f.
- Kevin Brazendale: Encyclopedia Automobile from Alfa Romeo to Zagato. The 600 most beautiful models . Weltbild, Augsburg 2000. ISBN 3-8289-5384-0 .
- Dieter Günther: Swiss Connection. Model history of the Alvis TC21 to TF21 in: Oldtimer Markt, special issue 14 - luxury, performance and four seats. Gran Tourismo: The big travel coupés
- Rainer W. Schlegelmich, Hartmut Lehbrink: English sports cars . Cologne (Könemann) 2001, ISBN 3-8290-7449-2 .
- Halwart Schrader, David Lillywhite: Classic Automobiles . Stuttgart (Motorbuch Verlag) 2005. ISBN 3-613-02552-3 .
Web links
- Company history with images on the website www.coachbuild.com (accessed on June 3, 2011).
- Internet presence of the Alvis Owners Club with references to the Graber body shop (accessed on June 3, 2011).
- conceptcarz.com: Packard Eight Model 1601 Cabriolet Graber (1938) (accessed October 28, 2013)
- conceptcarz.com: Bentley Mark VI Cabriolet Graber # B136H (1947) (accessed October 28, 2013)
Individual evidence
- ↑ A German motor journalist called an Alvis with Graber body presented in 1955, for example, “the clearest and most modern English car”; quoted from Oldtimer Markt, special issue 14, p. 16.
- ↑ conceptcarz.com: Bentley Mark VI Cabriolet Graber # B136H (1947)
- ↑ Brazendale: Encyclopedia Automobile, pp. 26, 28.
- ^ Schlegelmilch, Lehbrink: Englische Sportwagen, p. 23.
- ^ Schrader, Lillywhite, p. 36.
- ↑ Representation of the model history on the website of the Alvis Owners Club ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed June 3, 2011).
- ↑ Oldtimer Markt, special issue 14, p. 16.
- ↑ Overview of the company's history on the website www.coachbuild.com (accessed on June 3, 2011).
