It seems the story about buying a big boat and get a free car isn't the only two-in-one deal pitched recently. We have another one where you now go to an auction, buy a 1935 Bentley and get the company that made the coach built body for free.

In those days, people usually buy a chassis and then end up fixing a body from one of many coachbuilders. This was especially the case with people buying Rolls Royces, Bentleys and the now extinct British car brand Alvis. Coachbuilders like HJ Mulliner, Park Ward, Gurney Nutting, Vanden Plas and Hooper all vied for the same piece of action, making bodies for the car brands stated above.

Of course in the days of separate chassis and body construction it was easy and the business thrived. But since the incorporation of the monocoque chassis by almost all major car manufacturers and also by luxury car manuafacturers, coach building has slowly dissappeared. At the most the companies are limited to interior trimmings and changes to the front grill and fenders at the very least. Some larger ones still have bespoke manufacturing facilities but the jobs a few and far in between.

So recently a 1935 Bentley 3liter saloon with a body and interior, designed and built by Freestone & Webb had sold for