🚩 A 1930s silhouette, a modern Corvette powertrain and a father and son with a decade to spare.
Panache Art Deco Coupé is a Canadian one-off with the confidence to park between two Ferraris and draw a crowd.
It began with a model of Chrysler’s 1995 Atlantic concept and ended with roughly 65 hand-shaped aluminium panels.
Some hobbies rather get out of hand.
♔ The full story
▪️The inspiration: Garry Smith discovered a model of the Chrysler Atlantic in a hobby shop, then visited Chrysler’s museum to photograph the real concept and obtain its dimensions.
Years later, his son Dug joined him in the family garage.
▪️The craft: They scanned the model to make a full-size body buck, then shaped the aluminium over it with an English wheel.
They altered the design as they worked, giving Panache its own identity.
Beneath those sweeping curves sits an extended frame and Corvette powertrain.
▪️The debut: After ten years’ work, the Smiths took Panache to Toronto’s Yorkville Exotic Car Show in June 2026.
Positioned beside two Ferraris, it attracted crowds several people deep. That is a respectable reception for a car built at home.
♔ The Fisherley view:
Panache reminds us what made the great coach-built cars so captivating: somebody imagined a shape, then accepted the gloriously unreasonable task of making it real.
The Smiths have already begun thinking about their next car.
Dug’s ambition?
📍 ‘To build it faster.’
