“We don’t really have any competition. It’s quite a unique product. So we’re not averse to letting the world see what we’re doing. We’ll be out in the open testing it.”
“We want to make the car as usable as possible”, said Ian Callum. “Is ingress going to be perfect? It’s not bad. It’s easier than some sports cars. We think the inside of a classic Porsche is big enough for most people to still enjoy the car. That, in some ways, has been our dimensional benchmark.”
The Callum company’s total staff now runs to more than 20 people, although Ian Callum says the firm’s intention is always to remain “small and agile”.
As the first all-new Callum model, the Skye succeeds successful programmes unveiled since the company was founded in 2019, including a highly individualistic reinterpretation of the 2001 Aston Martin Vanquish (an Ian Callum original), a string of impressive forays into product design and some still-secret collaborative projects.
Q&A with Ian Callum, design chief, Callum
Did you consider a sports car as your first own-brand product?
“We did but decided it would be a bit predictable. We settled on something that would show our versatility and that we’re about all kinds of vehicles, not just one.”
Will you make more bespoke Callum cars?
“That’s our intention. The Vanquish project was something we did to prepare ourselves for the phase that starts with Skye, doing our own projects. We don’t want just to be an agency for other brands. We have a way of creating simple but beautifully crafted cars with special detail design.”
Would you do the next one in bigger numbers?
“There’s lots to do before we get to that kind of decision, but if things go well we could imagine making our own cars in batches of up to 1000. David, Adam and I have been doing this car creation thing together for quite a few years. It’s not a mystery to us; we know our capabilities.”
