Inside Ares Design: building the cars that manufacturers daren't

The requirements of clients are developing as fast as the business itself, he tells us: from initially providing individuals with new trim and body decor for their cars, Ares’ work now requires much more specialist design and engineering. A launch staff of five has progressed to 110, most of them engineers or dyed-in-the-wool northern Italian artisans.

In a nutshell, says Bahar, Ares is positioning itself as a “concept to creation” coachbuilding facility, where you, Mr Well Heeled Customer, arrive with a car and idea and then use the in-house creativity of Ares’ people to turn it into whatever you want. The only limits are that whatever the company does “respects safety and certification”.

Bahar notes two fast-developing trends: one is that unique cars sometimes seem so desirable when finished that (with the original owner’s permission and an adjustment of costs) there’s a demand to progress them into batches of five to 15 cars; the other is a fast- expanding desire among classic car owners to maintain the looks of dearly loved cars while equipping them with modern suspensions, brakes, engines, ventilation and connectivity. It’s an accelerating trend, says Bahar. “We’re not reinventing the wheel,” he says, “but this business is leading us to a position we never expected.”

We cross the concrete apron and start to walk the production line, if that’s the right word for a line of expensive cars that don’t move. We tune up on a couple of conventional projects, a Mercedes S-Class and Mercedes-Benz V-Class that are in for wood, leather and connectivity improvements, and then we encounter one of Ares’ true stars, a Bentley ‘Brooklands 2’ long-door coupeà that started life as a four-door Mulsanne saloon and still uses its wheelbase and seating package.

It’s beautiful; the more so if you’ve heard other designers explain how hard it is to make long coupes look right. Ares has orders for seven of these - at £640,000 a pop - and may do as many as 15. Suddenly, it’s easier to see how a £27m annual turnover can be earned...

Next up is a massive iteration of the Mercedes G63, reskinned in carbonfibre, which reduces weight by 200kg. It’s called the Ares Design X-Raid (but still registered and certified as a Merc G) and is priced similarly to the Bentley, although when you see it standing there, expensively clad in carbonfibre with its detached dashboard and trim showing the complexity of the interior work to come, the total job seems almost cheap.

Although Ares avoids full compliance testing like the plague, it encourages inspectors from Germany’s TUV standards agency to check its workmanship. This X-Raid has had a grand total of eight visits to verify its integrity and Bahar’s happy with that: TUV verification impresses registration authorities across Europe and in far-flung Australia and Japan.

We stroll on, past Ares’ vision of a Porsche 911 ‘GT3 Targa’, which offers a Targa’s open-air convenience but GT3 RS body details. This one has had extensive suspension changes, a power upgrade (470bhp to 580bhp), widened tracks, resculpted bumpers, a custom exhaust and centre-lock wheels and will set you back £300,000-plus, depending on spec.

Very decorative, highly modified Land Rover Defenders seem to be parked everywhere, mainly because Ares is in the process of building a 53-off batch for a British client, powered either by modified Rover V8s or by newer, supercharged Jaguar Land Rover V8s. Much of the under-skin engineering has been done by Coventry-based specialist JE Motor Works, whose founder and kingpin Jonathan Douglas happens to be present in Modena on separate engineering business.

“We mainly operate under the radar,” he tells me, “but we’ve been in this business 30 years and everything we do is well proven.” Given their remarkable diamond-like paint, their plush interiors, their throbbing V8s and their singular visual impact, the Ares Defenders seem a steal at £180,000 to £240,000. Why precisely 53 Defenders? Bahar’s answer – “because the customer wants them” – neatly displays the culture of car customisation for clients. “People have surprising reasons for doing what they do,” he explains. “You learn not to ask.”

The wonders continue: a 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray has an all-modern powertrain and running gear, plus modern audio and screens subtly integrated into a classic interior. A Tesla ‘Shooting Brake’ is a speculative Ares project soon to be offered at £200,000-ish. Finally, we’re shown Project Panther, Ares’ already publicised Lamborghini HuracaÃn that uses design cues from the De Tomaso Pantera from the 1970s, and then a Ferrari GTC4 Lusso that will soon look like the 365 GT4 2+2 of the 1970s and 1980s.

We take a whistle-stop tour of Ares’ back rooms. Packed drawing offices, a new leather shop, banks of 3D printers and space for a full-sized milling machine seem to suggest Ares can do almost anything. It is a dazzling display but Bahar is carefully modest. As our visit ends, my question is about the supply of customers: can there really be a continuing supply of people who can indulge themselves to this degree and pay these prices?

“We have lots of customers,” says Bahar confidently, “and do you know what’s most surprising? They hardly talk about the money. It’s almost beside the point. We talk about the desires people have. And the fun of making it happen. There are other, bigger-name businesses than ours who charge much more than we do for projects like this, but they seem to be so grudging about it that customers don’t enjoy the experience. When they come to us, we make absolutely certain they will.”