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NOW AVAILABLE IN THE UK AND EU
AVAILABLE IN THE USA IN JANUARY
Andy Saunders’ '
Automotive Alchemist ’ is a roller-coaster ride through the highs and lows of this charismatic man’s life, showing how he began with the basic skills of cutting and shaping metal, then painting and airbrushing, to his mature creations, and restorations, demonstrating the inherent genius of his designs. Andy welcomes us into his workshop and his head: not afraid to express his emotions, as he deconstructs and then rebuilds each vehicle, laying bare his motivations, inspirations, influences, and passions. Intertwined in the narrative is the work involved in the creation of 60 cars, described here with many detailed photographs. Forty-two of Andy’s creations now reside in museums and private collections across the globe, but the most unusual fate is that of Flat Out, the Guinness Book of Records acclaimed Lowest Car in the World, which is now a coffee table in the foyer of a huge Californian corporation. The book is not a technical ‘how to create wild custom cars’ manual. Rather it is a celebration of Andy’s joy of creation and his design genius, though tempered by personal traumas and losses. He has, on many occasions, been referred to as the British George Barris, the American “King of Kustomizers.” Unlike many autobiographies, this book engages the reader with its honesty and humour.
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Andy Saunders Incredible Handmade Custom Cars
Andy Saunders' Claustrophobia
Built by Andy Saunders, The Alchemist, 1998 Suzuki Wagon R
World War 2 Peugeot Converted To Art-Deco Masterpiece
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Author Biography
Andy Saunders grew up in Poole on the south coast of England and
developed an early relationship with the building and customising of
cars. His first project was finished before he was old enough to hold a
British driving license.
Since that first project, his journey to become Britain’s leading and
most recognisable ‘Car Artist’ has evolved. With his painstaking
attention to detail and his knowledge of the styling masters from bygone
eras, his creations have always been unique and, occasionally,
controversial.
Never shy of turning his ideas into reality or taking unexpected
opportunities to fruition, Andy has, on occasions, thrown away the
accepted rule book and created some truly amazing vehicles: making a
Citroën CX into a road-legal alien craft; turning Ford’s 1958 X-2000
‘car of the future’ model into a full-sized reality and creating a Cord
coupe that the factory would have been proud to call their own.
Andy has three Guinness Book of Records certifications: twice for the
‘lowest car in the world’ and once for the ‘lowest van in the world’
which remains unbeaten and has been approached by film companies and
undertaken commissions for major car manufacturers. But mostly he builds
whatever has inspired his creative juices from lowriders, Incantation,
to shortened Minis, Mini Ha Ha; from restyling a Bentley Mulsanne, which
was acclaimed by the Rolls-Royce and Bentley Owners Club as “the most
beautiful coachbuilt Bentley to have been built since WWII", to a 2CV
inspired by Picasso – Picasso’s Citroën; and from his drivable version
of Bertone’s Lancia Stratos Zero to his Art Deco creation of a rare 1939
Peugeot, Metropolis, inspired by Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece of the
same name.
During the past four decades Andy has restored Cord, Pontiac and Rolls
Royce vehicles. Rescued and restored the unique and much-maligned 1957
Aurora Safety Sedan and realised an affinity with the great designer
Alex Tremulis. Andy’s creations have appeared in exhibitions, on
television and in magazines as far afield as Australia, Korea, America,
the UK and Europe and many of his vehicles nowadays reside in museums
and collections from California to Japan and from Europe to the Middle
East.
And so to his latest masterpiece, Déjà: inspired by a 1930’s popular
French girls name, some body panels he didn’t want or need and the
pinnacle of French coachbuilding, Andy has created this Delahaye, a
hand-built steel roadster. This beautiful cross between Joseph Figoni’s
165s and Jacques Saoutchik’s 175 somehow appears to be some eighty-five
years late for her debut at the Paris Salon de l’Automobile.
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The Automotive Alchemist 
