The National Motor Museum Trust

For 2008, the National Motor Museum exhibited some of the most well-known and influential customised cars and bikes that this country and the USA have produced since World War II. The Art of Custom celebrated the outstanding craftsmanship and mechanical skill involved in creating these unique automotive masterpieces. In June 2008, a pilot custom car drive-in event was held in the grounds of Beaulieu and attracted over 250 vehicles.

This exhibition has now ended.

Vehicles that were on display:

This car was rebuilt into a hot rod between 1956 and 1959 by Adam Coffee, a well-known customiser based on the East Coast of the United States. Celebrated pop-artist, Gerald Laing imported the car into the UK in 1965.

Taking six years to finish, this award-winning car featured an original but much-modified chassis with a reproduction coupe body made by Rodline of Bournemouth.

In 2006, this car was entered into the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, USA and won its class. Soon after, it picked up another two trophies at the Sacramento Autorama. The same year it secured top prize whilst attending the Billing Fun Run and in 2007 was voted Best in Britain at the Custom & Sports Car Show, Doncaster.

A Fordson van rebuilt with a Ford 302ci small block engine to run on nitrous oxide, this vehicle was overall winner of the custom car drive-in event held at Beaulieu. As part of the prize, this van was displayed in The Art of Custom exhibition.

Bought in 1994 and using it as a blank canvas, Jersey based artist Steph Newington stripped this van down to all single components and airbrushed each individual part (including each nut, bolt and washer) before carefully reconstructing the vehicle again.

Alvin’s Acorn was constructed in the Hollywood workshops of George & Sam Barris, probably the most famous custom and film car designers, responsible for such creations as the original Batmobile and vehicles used by The Beverley Hillbillies and The Munsters.

Rainbow Chaser was one of the first 1950s-style ‘sleds’ to be built in England. In 1982, Andy Saunders took a standard Volvo 121 Amazon into his workshop, removed the roof, ‘chopped’ the windscreen height and lowered the suspension.

In December 2005, Nita Derrick purchased a derelict 1969 Lambretta GP125 for £1,000 and set about designing an outlandish scooter based around the theme of Christmas, complete with Christmas cake seat and Rudolf head at the front.

This car, built by customiser Andy Saunders was inspired by Pablo Picasso’s paintings of his lover Dora Maar, including Weeping Woman. It also encompasses elements from his Three Musicians and Still Life on a Pedestal Table.

A much-modified Bentley Mulsanne built from a crash-damaged chassis, and using various parts from Audi, Ford, Mazda and Volvo. The car was completed in 2003 by Andy Saunders of Poole, Dorset.

In 1992, Arlen Ness, probably the world’s foremost motorcycle customiser, designed a frame that was distinctly elegant. Accentuating the fluidity of line, it featured no angles and married various elements of Harley Davidson’s Softail and FXR models with the long, lean, low-rider look so popular in the United States. Only two or three prototypes were actually fabricated and Battistinis were able to obtain one to build this machine.

Built around a 2002 996cc Ducati Monster S4R L-twin engine, apart from the engine, forks, brake calipers, tyres and Harley-Davidson shock absorbers, everything was home-made by Roger Allmond in his Oxfordshire workshop.

This was the world's first motorcycle sporting the ground-breaking 300mm section rear tyre, and had to be designed completely from scratch. The body was a one-off fabrication and the unique frame featured a single to double down tube.

In 2008, Headturner was the overall winner of the Coles Miller-sponsored Bike of the Year competition. Taking two years to complete, it was built in the owner’s garden shed with a hole cut out of one end to accommodate the eight foot machine.

Evasion is the latest piece to come out of their Bournemouth workshops. It is a one-off fabrication from front to rear and once again raises the bar for the custom bike industry.

In January 2008, custom car builder Andy Saunders took delivery of a brand new Hyundai i10, and was commissioned by the Hyundai’s UK press office to transform it into an ice cream van. The rebuild took just six weeks to complete.

This machine took eight months to build before going to Pro-Street Engineering for finishing. It has a 1,689cc Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle engine set in a Rolling Thunder frame manufactured in Canada.