Automakers want money, and consumer money wants exclusivity, so automakers are creating exclusivity. Ineos is next up with a “bespoke” division, launching a department called Arcane Works that will hand-finish unique examples of the Grenadier station wagon. The company didn’t detail the extent of options, but it sounds like Arcane Works will take two approaches that serve the dreams of consumers and the company itself. The first approach is as the familiar personalization studio, where buyers able to choose “bespoke design elements” from “a vast array of finishings and color match technologies,” and work with craftsmen in unnamed disciplines to turn a production vehicle into a one-of-a-kind.
The second approach sounds like Ineos Automotive will launch small runs of custom Grenadiers that company designers draw up. These specials will “add new exclusive features” and be “a test bed for new technologies and systems for INEOS vehicles, such as uprated engine modifications, new chassis systems, and many new materials and features.” Each of these runs is also going to get a “tailored” name.
Frankly, this is an excellent new line of work for Ineos — a tangential rebirth of the old-school Land Rover Defender — to get into. Land Rover’s Classic division is still turning out limited-run versions of the original Defender, and it seems that every week we receive a new press release about some company breaking into the $300,000 fully custom Defender restomod market. The coffee at the Fair Trade cafes where these rigs love to gather just doesn’t taste the same without cross-stitched Mocha leather and 17 coats of color-matched Galapagos Dusk paint.
We’ll see the first Arcane Works limited edition next month at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. We have a feeling it will go much further than Ineos’ first special edition, the Grenadier 1924 celebrating clothier Bestaff’s 100th anniversary. That wagon will become available June 26, its 1,924 planned units dressed in contrasting Magic Mushroom and Inky Black paints, sitting on two-tone diamond-cut wheels, with de-chromed matte accents throughout.
