Robert Jankel was arguably the world's most famous designer of
limousineA limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....
s,
armoured carA civilian armored car is a security vehicle which made by replacing the windows of a standard vehicle with bulletproof glass and inserting layers of armor plate into the body panels...
s and other speciality vehicles. He also founded the automotive company
Panther WestwindsPanther Westwinds was a manufacturer of niche sports cars and luxury cars, based in Surrey, United Kingdom. Founded in 1972 by Robert Jankel, the Panther company enjoyed success throughout the 1970s with retro-styled cars based on the mechanical components of standard production cars from other...
.
Early life
Born in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1938, Jankel was educated at St Paul's School and studied engineering at
Chelsea CollegeChelsea College may refer to :* Chelsea College * Chelsea College of Art and Design* Chelsea College of Science and Technology* Chelsea Independent College * Kensington and Chelsea College...
. He was an avid sportsman and a member of the St Paul's rowing team. Jankel built his first car in 1954: a wrecked
Austin 7The Austin 7 was a car produced from 1922 through to 1939 in the United Kingdom by the Austin Motor Company. Nicknamed the "Baby Austin", it was one of the most popular cars ever produced for the British market, and sold well abroad...
which he rebuilt and customised. After an unsuccessful attempt at selling cars he agreed to join the family
fashionFashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
business, Goldenfelds. During his time as a fashion designer, he still worked on cars, including a classic 1930
Rolls-RoyceRolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
, which he completely rebuilt in 1970. On a trip to Spain, a bullfighter offered Jankel £10,000 for the Rolls-Royce. It was this sale that inspired Jankel to found an automobile company.
Jankel married Jennifer Loss, daughter of bandleader
Joe LossJoshua Alexander "Joe" Loss LVO OBE was a British musician and founder of the Joe Loss Orchestra.-Life:Loss was born in Spitalfields, London, the youngest of four children. His parents, Israel and Ada Loss, were Russian Jews and first cousins. His father was a cabinet-maker who had an office...
, in 1962. The couple had three sons and a daughter.
Panther Westwinds
In 1972, Jankel left the fashion industry to found motor company Panther Westwinds in
WeybridgeWeybridge is a town in the Elmbridge district of Surrey in South East England. It is bounded to the north by the River Thames at the mouth of the River Wey, from which it gets its name...
,
SurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The company was named "Panther" because of its similarity to Jaguar and "Westwinds" after the Jankel family's home. The company's first car, a prototype two-seater called the
Panther J72The J.72 was the first product of the Panther Westwinds company, sold from 1972 through 1981. It was an ultra-exclusive luxury roadster, intended to compete with the best of the 1970s motor industry. It used mechanicals from the XJ12, including the 5.3 L Jaguar V12 engine, and was styled like...
, was powered by a Jaguar engine and modelled after the
Jaguar SS100The SS100 is a British 2-seat sports car built between 1936 and 1940 by SS Cars Ltd of Coventry, England. The last one is thought to have been delivered in 1941. In 1936 the name Jaguar was given to a new saloon car and from then on to all the cars...
. Although the asking price for the J72 was around twice that of contemporary Jaguar models, magazine advertisements generated enough interest for Jankel to produce one J72 a week during the car's production. Roughly 500 were produced.
In 1974, Jankel produced the
Panther De VilleThe Panther De Ville was a neo-classic luxury model from Panther Westwinds, the British specialty maker. Offered from 1974 to 1985, the De Ville was conceived by Robert Jankel to appeal to the taste of nouveau riche customers, including singer Elton John and actor Oliver Reed...
, powered by a Jaguar engine and modelled after the
Bugatti RoyaleThe Bugatti Type 41, better known as the Royale, was a large luxury car with a 4.3 m wheelbase and 6.4 m overall length. It weighed approximately 3175 kg and used a 12.7 L straight-8 engine...
. The De Ville cost twice as much as a
Rolls-Royce Silver ShadowThe Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow is a luxury car that was produced in Great Britain in various forms from 1965 to 1980. It was the first Rolls-Royce to use a monocoque chassis, a response to concerns that the company was falling behind in automotive innovation....
, and only the wealthiest of collectors could afford it. The
Panther RioThe Panther Rio was a motor car made by British manufacturer Panther Westwinds, using Triumph Dolomite mechanicals. According to the company, it differed from the family saloon-class Dolomite, in being finished to "Rolls-Royce standards". Only 38 were built between 1975 and 1977...
, launched after one year, was based on the
Triumph DolomiteThe Triumph Dolomite was a popular small saloon car produced by the Triumph Motor Company division of the British Leyland Corporation in Canley, Coventry between October 1972 and August 1980.-History:...
. The luxurious saloon cost three times as much as a Dolomite, however, and only 38 were produced.
The
Panther 6The Panther 6 was an extravagant six-wheel convertible powered by a mid-mounted 8.2 L Cadillac V8 engine with twin turbochargers. It was produced by Panther in 1977. Only two cars were ever made , both of which still exist...
, a two-seater
roadsterA roadster is a two-seat open car with emphasis on sporty handling and without a fixed roof or side weather protection. Strictly speaking a roadster with wind-up windows is a convertible but as true roadsters are no longer made the distinction is now irrelevant...
outfitted with six wheels, followed in 1977, but because of its high cost, unconventional design and relative obscurity, only two were produced.
Jankel's most successful vehicle was the
Panther LimaThe Panther Lima was a retro-styled roadster of the 1970s. It used Vauxhall Viva and Magnum mechanicals, including that car's 2.3 L engine. A later Mark II model used a purpose-built chassis. The body was built of fibreglass in a roadster style reminiscent of an Allard or Morgan. The...
. The Lima was styled like a 1930s roadster but used modern fibreglass technology for the body, which was built around a steel framework and chassis. More than 1,000 of the two marks of this popular model were built.
The Jankel Group
Despite the success of the Lima, Panther Westwind went bankrupt in 1979, and it was subsequently sold to
South KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n businessman Young Kim. Jankel then turned his focus to the Jankel Group, a coachbuilding company he had founded in 1955 but the firm had been little more than a hobby.
For the Jankel Group, Jankel concentrated on building specialist versions of cars for other high-end manufacturers, mostly Rolls-Royce, Bentley,
Mercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
and Jaguar. From 1983 to 1989, Jankel was the exclusive subcontractor to Rolls-Royce to build more than 100 units of the Silver Spur Limousine. For
Range RoverThe Range Rover is a large luxury four-wheel drive sport utility vehicle produced by British car maker Land Rover. The model, launched in 1970, is now in its third generation...
, he built a number of specialist hunting and all-terrain vehicles for Middle Eastern customers.
In 1992 he built the Jankel Tempest, a Chevrolet
CorvetteA corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
-based super car, with ultra-luxury interior and 6.7 litre supercharged V8, which produced 535bhp and was capable of 200mph, as well as holding the 1992 Guinness Book of Records 0-60mph acceleration record of 3.89 seconds.
Most of Jankel's work from the 1990s to his death in 2005 was dedicated to building police vehicles, high-protection armoured cars and exotic luxury stretch limousines. In 1995, Jankel produced armoured cars for law enforcement agencies, including the
Metropolitan PoliceMetropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
. All of Jankel's police vehicles were built on GM and
FordFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
chassis. Jankel bought back the Panther name in 2001 and was working on a new Panther sports car when he died.
Jankel was diagnosed with
pancreatic cancerPancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...
in 2001, but remained an active member of the Jankel Group until his death on 25 May 2005.
The Jankel Group continues to build made-to-order speciality vehicles to this day.
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