Bob Jankel
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Robert Jankel (1 January 1938 – 25 May 2005) was a British designer of
limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a prof ...
s, armoured cars, and other speciality vehicles. He also founded the automotive company Panther Westwinds.


Early life

Born in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1938, Jankel was educated at St Paul's School and studied engineering at Chelsea College. He was an avid sportsman and a member of the St Paul's rowing team. Jankel built his first car in 1954: he rebuilt and customised a wrecked
Austin 7 The Austin 7 is an economy car that was produced from 1923 until 1939 in the United Kingdom by Austin. It was nicknamed the "Baby Austin" and was at that time one of the most popular cars produced for the British market and sold well abroad. ...
. After an unsuccessful attempt at selling cars, he agreed to join the family
fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...
business, Goldenfelds. During his time as a fashion designer, he still worked on cars, including a classic 1930 Rolls-Royce, 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 Loss, 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
Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...
,
Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The company was named "Panther" because of its similarity to
Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
and "Westwinds" after the Jankel family's home. The company's first car, a prototype two-seater called the
Panther J72 The J.72 was an ultra-exclusive Luxury vehicle, luxury Roadster (automobile), roadster, the first product of the Panther Westwinds company. Styled to evoke the Jaguar SS100 and sold from 1972 through 1981, it used mechanicals from the Jaguar ...
, was powered by a Jaguar engine and modelled after the Jaguar SS100. 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 Ville The Panther De Ville is a neo-classic luxury vehicle which was produced by Panther Westwinds, a British speciality car maker, from 1974 to 1985. The De Ville was conceived by Robert Jankel to appeal to the taste of nouveau riche customers, inc ...
, powered by a Jaguar engine and modelled after the
Bugatti Royale The Bugatti Type 41, better known as the Royale, is a large luxury car built from 1927 to 1933 with a 4.3 m (169.3 in) wheelbase and 6.4 m (21 ft) overall length. It weighs approximately 3,175 kg (7,000 lb) and uses a ...
. The De Ville cost twice as much as a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, and only the wealthiest of collectors could afford it. The Panther Rio, launched after one year, was based on the
Triumph Dolomite The Triumph Dolomite small saloon car was produced by the Triumph Motor Company division of the British Leyland Corporation in Canley, Coventry between October 1972 and August 1980. Background The Dolomite was the final addition to Triumph's ...
. The luxurious saloon cost three times as much as a Dolomite, however, and only 38 were produced. The
Panther 6 The Panther 6 was a British six-wheel convertible produced by Panther in 1977. The car is powered by a mid-mounted Cadillac V8 engine with twin turbochargers paired to a three-speed automatic transmission. Only two cars were made (one in white ...
, a two-seater roadster outfitted with six wheels, followed in 1977, but because of its high cost and unconventional design, only two were produced one black and one white. Both cars were fitted with powerful Cadillac V8 Turbocharged engine. Jankel's most successful vehicle was the
Panther Lima The Panther Lima was a retro-styled roadster of the 1970s built by Panther Westwinds. It used Vauxhall Viva and Magnum mechanicals, including that car's 2.3 L (2279 cc) engine. The later Mark II model used a purpose-built chassis. Th ...
. 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 marques of this model were built.


The Jankel Group

Panther Westwind went bankrupt in 1979, and it was subsequently sold to
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
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 Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North ...
,
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
and Jaguar. From 1983 to 1989, Jankel was the exclusive subcontractor to Rolls-Royce to build more than 100 units of the
Silver Spur The Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit is a full-size luxury car produced by Rolls-Royce Motors, in Crewe, England, from 1980 to 1997. It was the first model in the SZ series. The Silver Spur is a long-wheelbase version of the Silver Spirit, produced ...
Limousine. For Range Rover, he built a number of specialist hunting and all-terrain vehicles for Middle Eastern customers. In 1992, he built the Jankel Tempest, a Chevrolet Corvette-based super car, with ultra-luxury interior and 6.7 litre
supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...
V8, which produced 535 bhp and was capable of 200 mph, as well as holding the 1992 ''
Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' 0-60 mph 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 many police services, including the
Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
. All of Jankel's police vehicles were built on GM and Ford chassis. Jankel bought back the Panther name in 2001 and was working on the design of a new Panther sports car when he died. Jankel was diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...
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.


References


External links


The Jankel Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jankel, Robert 1938 births 2005 deaths Deaths from pancreatic cancer British founders of automobile manufacturers British automobile designers Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom People educated at St Paul's School, London