English Design House Callum kicked off sales of its limited-production “Tarmac rally car” EV last week by parking the prototype mid-week in the local shopping center, coming away after two days with more than a dozen confirmed orders. An auspicious start indeed.
In terms of intelligent design, the launch was as impressive as the car. The shopping center was Savile Row, the street in London where the current meaning of the term “bespoke” originated, and the first showing of the much-anticipated prototype was the highlight of the third running of the “Concours on Savile Row.”
Savile Row isn't all that big, so the number of cars shown isn't large. It's a cut-down classic car show where the quality is extraordinary and the passersby equally so in terms of their discretionary spending capabilities.
Savile Row is in the heart of Mayfair, London's most fashionable district for the last three hundred years, bordered by the Thames, Hyde Park, SOHO and Buckingham Palace.
The educational game Monopoly sold more than 275 million board games in its heyday, introducing a significant portion of humanity to the concept of economics and the value of property. The Monopoly board game was published in more than 30 languages but the two main international editions had Park Lane (American edition) and Mayfair (non-American) as the most valuable properties, where rents were the highest.
Number 1 Saville Row was built in 1693. Tailors began moving into the area in the mid-1700s because the local clientele was "a cut above the rest" when it came to disposable income. It soon became a shopping destination for the wealthy and a resource for the hyper-wealthy.
Savile Row's reputation must have been suitably established by the late 1700s because Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821) is reported to have spent a fortune having his finery made there, with the tailors travelling to France to (be)speak with Napoleon about his exact requirements, take measurements, do fittings, adjustments, deliveries and so on.
It was this extreme level of quality, service and discretion that drew his patronage and that of many others whose time was deemed too important for shopping and whose appearance was required to be immaculate in any setting.
Perhaps there was a Garden Party to attend, or a spot of hunting, a polo match, a wedding or a funeral ... or an important speech to Parliament ... whenever the need was great and money less important than time in getting an appropriate ready-to-wear outfit, the important folk used Savile Row.
Savile Row's tailors offered faster and better service than can now be obtained over the internet. Send a message to your tailor that you required an outfit, and they would visit you, speak (bespeak) with you about your requirements and deliver the outfit ready to wear in a perfect fit. Bespeak described the methodology deployed in obtaining attire crafted for one person for one purpose, and became an adjective on the strength of Savile Row's excellence in doing just that.
That reputation has been growing for 250 years, serving the captains of commerce during the height of the British Empire and subsequently as London has remained one of the world's most important financial pillars and a haven for unspeakably wealthy people bearing any passport.
Common sense (there's not nearly as much as the name suggests) would dictate that the first series production prototype from one of history's most revered automobile designers should be at an event such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Concorso d'Elegenza Villa d'Este or on the concept lawn at the Pebble Beach Concours of Elegance.
Callum chose a different path.
With new automobile launches now just as commonplace at those iconic events as they once were at motor shows, it is increasingly hard for new companies to generate publicity for an upmarket product. Stacked up against the well-staffed communications departments of the giants, smaller companies are finding it ever harder to cut through the information clutter.
Hence going to an environment target-rich in UHNW and HNW individuals where your car is the star of the show makes perfect sense.
What is the Callum Skye?
If you are not a motoring fanatic, you may have not previously heard of the Callum Skye, but the brand (Callum) and the first model (the "Skye") both come with a rock solid credibility that is rare in a relatively new company.
The Callum company was founded in 2019 by esteemed automotive engineer and designer Ian Callum, formerly of Ford, TWR, Jaguar and Aston Martin, and he began his eponymous company with a shopping list of spectacular automotive designs to his credit.
Among the cars on Callum’s resume are the legendary Nissan R390, the Ford RS200 and Escort Cosworth, the Volvo C70, the Aston Martin Vanquish, DB7 and DB9, and the Jaguar i-Pace, F-Type, XJ, XK, and C-X75.
Callum left that comfort to pursue his design passion a little more adventurously than he could in the corporate world, and the Skye is just the first limited-production, very-focussed vehicle we will see under the Callum badge. Some others on the list of projects will surprise you.
Most motoring journalists cited Callum's long list of priors when the renderings of the vehicle were first released, but they almost all failed to mention Callum's association with off-road vehicles, which seems a little more relevant given the shape and raison d'etre of the Skye.
When race car company Prodrive decided to build an off-the-shelf Rally Raid beast so that interested parties could contest events such as the Dakar and other 500-mile-a-day week-long marathons of intentional adversity, Callum was brought in to style the exterior around the athletic skeleton of the monster.
When Prodrive offered the Hunter as a $1.5-million road car, Callum did the interior of the vehicle too.
Callum has been exploring the possibilities for multiple series of bespoke automobiles for more than five years, with an ultimate capacity for limited edition runs of up to 1,000 units being mentioned in interviews with Callum.
The Skye is the first such limited edition, but there will be more, and they will all be targeted to the needs/desires of a very specific target audience.
What we know about the Skye is limited, as the car on display in Savile Row was a prototype, and full technical specs have yet to be released.
Beyond the 247 horsepower, the most interesting number released so far is the Skye's weight of 1,150 kg (2,535 lb) distributed 50:50 front and rear. With all four wheels driven electrically, it will be available with an off-road or on-road bias, depending on your needs, which again highlighted the appropriateness of the launch venue.
We really do look forward to the next chapter of the Callum Skye and some of the other fascinating projects from the Callum company.
One Callum project in particular that has really resonated with me is the Motability Project. The short video covering the project aims is below, and if that interests you, be sure to go to this page and watch the video of Callum facilitating the brainstorming of ideas.
