JS Inskip Inc.

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JS Inskip Inc. ( Inskip for short) was an American body construction company that manufactured individual bodies for luxury automobiles in the 20th century. Inskip is regarded as the successor to the traditional New York bodywork manufacturer Brewster and, like the latter, had a close relationship with Rolls-Royce . Today the company is active in the automobile trade on the American east coast.

Company history

Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith with Inskip body (1947)
Silver Wraith
Interior of an Inskip-Silver Wraith

The company was founded in 1937 by John S. Inskip (1885–1961).

John S. Inskip, the grandson of an American Methodist preacher of the same name, had entered the automotive business around the age of 30. At that time he became a New York City representative for the American automobile manufacturer Locomobile . Inskip moved to Rolls-Royce in 1922; he initially worked as a salesman in the company's luxurious branch on Eighth Avenue , which he took over shortly thereafter. At that time, Rolls-Royce had its own assembly plant in Springfield , Massachusetts , which operated as an independent company under the name Rolls-Royce of America . The Rolls-Royce chassis manufactured in Springfield corresponded technically completely to the British constructions. The bodies for this chassis were primarily supplied by the New York body manufacturer Brewster, who had also been Rolls-Royce importer since 1914. In 1926, Brewster was taken over by Rolls-Royce. The design of the bodies was now carried out in close consultation with JS Inskip, who, as head of the New York sales outlet, bundled the wishes of Rolls-Royce customers. Brewster then offered up to 30 different, largely standardized bodies for Rolls-Royce chassis in the late 1920s.

As a result of the global economic crisis, sales of Rolls-Royce vehicles fell sharply at the beginning of the 1930s. In 1931 Rolls-Royce gave up the American subsidiary in Springfield; the cars sold on the North American market were then re-imported from Great Britain. Orders for Brewster also fell. In 1933 the company only clad 70 chassis. Brewster was on the verge of insolvency. In 1934 the traditional body manufacturer, founded in 1810, was renamed the Springfield Manufacturing Corporation . The management was taken over by JS Inskip, who tried in the following years to keep the business alive with specially designed sports cars with Ford chassis. However, this car called the Brewster Town Car was not a success.

In 1935 Brewster or Springfield Manufacturing was insolvent. After an interim period in which the company Dallas E. Winslow belonged and was in a connection with Pierce-Arrow , it was dissolved as a result of another bankruptcy. From the bankruptcy, JS Inskip, who at the same time became New York's sole importer for Rolls-Royce, took over a substantial inventory of materials from Brewster, as well as numerous former Brewster employees and some unsold chassis from Rolls-Royce of America.

On this basis, he founded JS Inskip Inc. in 1937, which was based in Brewster's former factory in the New York borough of Queens (Long Island City). Inskip built numerous bodies for Rolls-Royce chassis in the following years, most of which were imported Wraith and Phantom III chassis. Inskip also bodyworked some older Rolls-Royce of America chassis that had not previously been sold. Apart from that, Inskip also made superstructures for Packard chassis. Here the company occasionally used leftover, i.e. H. Brewster bodies made-to-order and unsold that have been modified to fit the Packard chassis; In some cases, new designs were also developed, many of which were based on European models. The designer in charge at Inskip was Carl Beck, who joined Brewster in the late 1920s.

After the end of the Second World War , Inskip initially continued the body shop. The company dressed a number of Silver Wraith chassis for the North American market.

Inskip has focused on the automotive trade since the 1950s. The company established offices in Providence , Rhode Island , and West Palm Beach , Florida , and sold Rolls-Royce, Bentley , Aston Martin , Riley, and MG , with some models having body changes from the production models. This applies, among other things, to the MG TD , which Inskip offered a four-seater version with an extended wheelbase in the 1950s.

The company still exists. The Rhode Island-based operation is now part of the Roger Penske consortium .

literature

  • Michael Lamm, Dave Hollis: A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design , Lamm-Morada Publishing Company, 1996, ISBN 9780932128072 .
  • Richard M. Langworth: Automobiles of the 1930s . Beekman House, New York 1980. ISBN 0-517-309947 .

Web links

Commons : Inskip coachwork  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michael Lamm, Dave Hollis: A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design , Lamm-Morada Publishing Company, 1996, ISBN 9780932128072 , p. 40.
  2. ↑ Description of the Inskip-MG on the website www.mg-cars.org.uk (accessed on July 3, 2015).
  3. ↑ homepage Inskips Warwick Automall (accessed on 3 July 2015).