Government urged to back British carmaking -

The government has been urged to do more to support Britain’s specialist carmakers, with the boss of a longstanding Coventry firm insisting the country has the skills and talent to grow. The company works with some of the very best brand names in the classic car and automotive sector, including GTO Engineering, Spyker and Zagato. Brendan O’Toole, Owner and MD of Coventry Metalcraft which has been around for over 40 years, said the UK should focus on its strengths in low-volume manufacturing, engineering and bespoke vehicles rather than trying to compete with mass producers.

Coventry Metalcraft was born out of the separation of ADV Manufacturing in 2018 along with Dynamo Motor Company. The current roots are in fact traced back to 2011, when the company started at the current facility at Bayton Road. Much of the senior team were working together at Coventry Prototype Panels, which built close to 80 off Spykers, 77 off 1-77 Aston Martins, Zagato Geneva show cars, Evoque Convertible, Armoured Arnages, as well as classic E Types, C Types, Healeys, Alfa Romeos and Coventry Climax Cars.

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Mr O’Toole called for clearer access to government funding and loans, alongside greater support for apprenticeships, skills training and British craftsmanship.

Brendan O’Toole told the Express: “I’d like a clear route to some government funding and government loans. If I need to do something specialist, I’ve got to go out and get a certain loan, and it’s always short-term, difficult and expensive."

He also said that more could be done to encourage young people into skilled manufacturing careers, saying apprenticeships were costly for businesses despite being crucial to the industry's future.

"I think support for apprenticeships and skills learning could be better supported. I think manufacturing doesn't get the same support as housing, for example, because housing is a policy."

Manufacturers also need to be better connected with schools so that young people with practical abilities are encouraged towards careers in engineering and manufacturing, he added. University is often viewed as the traditional route, meaning talented young people with practical skills can sometimes be overlooked.

"Us manufacturers, we’re not connected well enough with schools because the route is usually university."

The head of Coventry Metalcraft recalled meeting a young man in the Netherlands who had gone to university because his mother wanted him to before discovering his talent as a mechanic.

Mr O'Toole said: “He had been mechanicising for six months, and I’ve never seen a mechanic like him."

He said he knew from the age of 16 that he wanted to run his own company. From restoration to building one-off cars to prototypes, he got together a team and 'concentrated on quality not quantity.'

He said: "I didn’t want to change the world, I just wanted to have very good people."

He believes that focus puts the firm in a strong position as demand grows for highly specialised and collectible vehicles. The UK automotive industry is no longer about competing on volume, he explained. Its strength lies increasingly in low-volume, specialist products and vehicles where quality, craftsmanship and expertise come before everything else.

"Low volume cars are selling before they even come to market, even before they’re ready."

Coventry Metalcraft has worked on many high-profile specialist vehicles, including Spyker models and Bentley projects, recreations and prototypes. The company’s relationship with Dutch supercar maker Spyker dates back to 2000, when the wider team worked on the first Spyker prototype.

Coventry Metalcraft built the hand-hammered aluminum body for the Spyker C8 Preliator XXV in just six weeks before shipping it to the Netherlands for final assembly. The exclusive supercar was officially unveiled during Monterey Car Week at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering last Saturday, August 15. Spyker will limit global production to just 25 hand-commissioned units. Each car features a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine that produces nearly 800 horsepower, paired with a classic six-speed manual transmission and Spyker's signature exposed gear linkage.

O’Toole said: “Spyker Cars is the best thing we’ve ever worked on."

He said the latest project was pushing the firm's craftsmen to new levels. Spyker owner Victor Muller said demand for the limited-production sports car was strong, with 19 of the 25 cars planned for production already sold. It has been reported that he expects the remaining six cars to be sold by the end of the week. Mr Muller said an in-person unveiling was important because the car’s materials, craftsmanship and attention to detail could not be fully appreciated through online images alone, he told The Autopian.

Victor Muller told The Autopian: "You shouldn't present a car like this only digitally. People need to feel the leather and see the details."

Speaking to the Express on the industry as a whole, Mr O'Toole also warned that the industry was facing a race against time to replace an ageing workforce.

“We need to replace people because it’s an ageing workforce. So we have got it, but we need to have it tomorrow.”

Mr O’Toole said Britain had “generational talent” which could be directed towards manufacturing if the right opportunities were provided and added that he'd also like to avoid losing British brands to overseas buyers.

“The talent doesn’t need to leave the country,” he said. “We need to retain it, keep it here because there’s great things to work on.

“Our innovation is top. Our engineering is top. Our bespoke skills are more in demand than ever before."

He pointed to major British automotive names including Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren as examples of companies that could benefit from retaining that talent.

Looking ahead, Mr O’Toole said he wanted to see a forum of small manufacturers given a more direct voice in government, rather than having their concerns filtered through MPs with competing priorities.

“I’d like a forum to be made up of small manufacturers that actually had a voice in government and not a watered-down voice through MPs who’ve got a lot of other things to worry about."

He said Britain should be proud of the specialist vehicles being produced here.

“The cars that are built in this country, you can sing them from the rafters. They are the top in the world and companies are coming to us because of that.”

Mr O’Toole is highly optimistic about the future of British manufacturing. He said the UK had repeatedly adapted to changes in the automotive industry and could continue to do so if it focused on its strengths.

“I think we should concentrate on being the best at what we do."

And for Coventry Metalcraft, he believes that means continuing to build highly specialised products with a combination of traditional craftsmanship and modern engineering.

“There’s going to be more demand than this country can keep up with."

Its website also reads: "At Coventry Metalcraft the team is proud to be based in the heart of the Midlands, where many of the most skilled engineers and craftsmen work in the UK. The company has invested heavily to bring on and develop apprentices over the years and endeavours to nurture, develop and work to hone their skills on a continual basis and many employees have been with the company over many decades and are true craftsmen of the coach building profession .

"However don’t image for a minute that a Coventry Metalcraft is not embracing technology where it can be seen that the benefits to the company are essential and invests heavily in CAD and 3D imaging technology and it is at the forefront of the bonding technology processes so important in automotive technology not just for new cars but also sometimes in the classic car reconstruction process."