Surbiton Coach and Motor Works

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Surbiton Coach & Motor Works (also: Surbico ) was a British body manufacturer who designed and manufactured individual bodies for luxury vehicles in the 1920s.

Company history

Bentley 6½ liter Fixed Head Coupé with Surbico body

Surbiton Coach & Motor Works was based in the town of Surbiton , south of London . The company repeatedly used the brand name Surbico (a combination of Surbi ton and Co ach). Little is known about the origins of the company. Some publications refer to the operation as "opaque". There are assumptions that Surbico was primarily a repair shop that only occasionally manufactured new automobile bodies at the request of customers.

Surbico produced some superstructures for Bentley chassis . In 1920 or 1921 the company manufactured an open body called Super Sport for the 3 liter , the first independent Bentley model. Today's best-known Surbico creation is a two-door fixed head body for a Bentley 6½ liter with a wooden body covered with synthetic leather based on the Weymann patent , which was created in 1927. The car (chassis number TW2713), which was retrofitted to the high-performance Speed ​​Six specification, is a high-priced one-off that still exists. It sold for $ 726,000 in 2010.

Around the same time, Surbico produced individual bodies for Invicta , a sports car manufacturer based in neighboring Cobham , and for the Wolseley Hornet , a sports car that was significantly cheaper than the Bentleys. Nothing is known about the time and the reason for the company closure.

literature

  • Lawrence Dalton: Coachwork on Rolls Royce 1906-1939 . Dalton Watson 1975, ISBN 0901564133 .
  • Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 .

Web links

Commons : Surbico coachwork  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Photographs of the Bentley 6½ liter Fixed Head Coupé with Surbico body on the website ryland.zenfolio.com

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://revsinstitute.org (accessed on July 22, 2015): “Obscure”. “Obscure” primarily means “opaque”, but it can also mean “insignificant”.
  2. ↑ Description of a Bentley 3 Liter Super Sports from 1920 with a Surbico body on the website https://revsinstitute.org (accessed on July 22, 2015).
  3. ↑ Description and images of the car on the website www.conceptcarz.com (accessed on July 22, 2015).
  4. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 174.