6:09 am, September 3, 2026
For most car dealers, having only a handful of cars available to sell would be a fairly serious problem.
At the very top of the market, however, telling a customer that there are only eight build slots left – or perhaps only four cars which can ever be made – can be one of the most powerful sales tools there is.
Car Dealer got a glimpse into this very different corner of the motor trade at Salon Privé this week, where limited production runs, two-year build times and painstakingly bespoke specifications were common among the businesses displaying cars at Blenheim Palace.
Some impose a strict production limit, others can only build a handful of cars each year, while one company has just four original chassis left and physically cannot make any more.
What they are selling is not simply a rare car, either.
For many, the customer is buying a place in the production schedule and then embarking on a relationship with the company which can last 12, 18 or even 24 months before the finished car is delivered.
Only 20 special builds and 12 sold already
At Talos, 12 of the 20 build slots for its 911 RT have already been taken, despite the conversion alone costing £850,000 before the donor Porsche 911 GT3 RS is added.
The Yorkshire firm was displaying its second build at Salon Privé, with the GT3 RS stripped down and rebuilt with largely carbon-fibre bodywork inspired by Porsche’s racing cars.
Each of the 20 is individually commissioned, with customers able to choose everything from the body colour and carbon weave to the interior and even the character of the exhaust.
Talos CEO Jamie Thwaites said: ‘We’ve got eight left. There’s eight slots left out of the 20, so it’s selling really well.
‘We’re just taking it to America next month, so it’s kind of released over there.’
It is a remarkable level of demand for a car which requires the customer to first have a GT3 RS and then spend another £850,000 having Talos transform it.
But that individuality is a key part of what buyers at this level are paying for, with Talos saying no two RTs will be the same and each customer dealing directly with Thwaites and his team during the specification process.
The M3 Touring BMW decided not to build
Petroyle has discovered similar demand for a car which doesn’t officially exist.
Managing director Gregg Alvarez and his team decided at the end of 2024 to create an E46 BMW M3 Touring, combining M3 and Touring donor cars to build the estate BMW considered but never put into production.
There was no planned production run and, initially, no guarantee anyone would want another one.
Alvarez said: ‘Me and the team decided that we would build one, and then see if anyone else wanted them.’
The response has resulted in 10 cars already being built.
‘There’s been a huge reception,’ he said. ‘It’s gone down really well. We’ve got 10 in build now, so we’re very happy.’
Unlike Talos, Petroyle isn’t creating scarcity by setting a fixed production number.
‘I don’t think we’re ever going to do 100, but we’re happy to satisfy the demand,’ Alvarez said.
Instead, the limiting factor is how many the Oxfordshire business can physically produce alongside its busy restoration operation.
UK customers can currently expect to wait around 12 months for a car, stretching to approximately 18 months for left-hand-drive examples because suitable donor cars are harder to source.
Alvarez added: ‘It’s going to be more a case of how much we can do.’
Demand for the M3 Touring has already led to what he described as ‘a couple of big spin-off projects’, potentially turning an experiment which started with one car into a significant new strand of the business.
Six cars a year – and 6,000 hours to build one
Theon Design takes limiting supply even further.
The Oxfordshire Porsche specialist will deliver just six commissions worldwide this year, with its cars starting from more than £400,000 before the customer supplies the donor 964.
Its latest Targa, displayed at Salon Privé, took around 18 months and more than 6,000 hours of work to create.
It had been commissioned by a customer taking early retirement after being chauffeur driven for 20 years, who wanted a car to enjoy around the Côte d’Azur.
Co-founder Lucinda Bell said Theon’s deliberately small output means it can build around the customer rather than offer a predetermined specification.
‘We work incredibly closely with every client,’ she said.
‘It’s very much a collaboration. We only build a handful of cars so we can make them just how the driver wants them.’
The time involved means customers can spend the best part of two years working with Theon before getting their finished car – something Bell believes actually changes the relationship they have with it.
She said: ‘It’s an insane business model, but it means that we can build cars that people are incredibly excited to take ownership of.
‘I think they have a different relationship with their car because they’ve gone through that two-year process of building and designing and choosing every single element.
‘There’s a real connection.’
In most areas of the motor trade, telling someone they need to wait 18 months for a car would risk losing the sale. Here, the lengthy process and the knowledge that only a handful of other customers will go through it is part of what makes the finished product special.
Bristol only has four Fighters left to sell
For Bristol Cars, meanwhile, the limit isn’t being created to make its product more exclusive – there really are only four cars left.
Five unused original Fighter chassis survived when Bristol changed ownership last year and the first completed car was unveiled at Salon Privé this week.
The other four will now be finished for customers, with the ability to specify right- or left-hand drive and make carefully considered modern upgrades.
Bristol chairman Richard Hackett said: ‘No replicas. No recreations. No modern interpretations wearing a historic badge.
‘These are original Bristol Fighter chassis, completing the story that Bristol began more than two decades ago.’
The V10 remains, producing 525bhp as standard or 600bhp for customers who find that a little too restrained, but the four cars also have an important commercial role to play for Bristol’s new owners.
They are the first product being offered as the company attempts to re-establish a name which has effectively been dormant for 15 years.
Hackett said: ‘We aren’t going to stand here today and tell you that Bristol has returned overnight.
‘Credibility isn’t announced. It is earned, and this is where we start.’
The first car gives potential customers something tangible to see, while the remaining four can be finished to their owners’ specifications.
After that, there simply aren’t any more original Fighter chassis to sell.
Brabus brings its million-pound cars closer to southern buyers
For Brabus TopCars, selling ultra-low-volume cars in Britain has meant expanding its physical presence.
The official UK partner for Brabus already has its purpose-built operation in Sheffield, but has now added a southern location in Sunningdale to give customers another opportunity to see its cars.
At Salon Privé it was showing the new Bodo, the first ground-up Brabus-bodied car and one of just 77 which will be produced worldwide.
Based around Aston Martin Vanquish architecture but comprehensively re-engineered by Brabus, the carbon-bodied, 986bhp GT starts at more than €1.1m (around £990,600) on its website.
Only a handful of the 77 coupés now remain, while a Cabriolet version has also been launched with another tightly restricted production run.
With so few available globally, however, the UK operation isn’t trying to sell them in volume. The new Sunningdale site with SuperVettura helps bring Brabus closer to customers across London and the south.
New hypercar makers still need to win customers
Scarcity is an established part of selling Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other exotic cars, but the challenge is rather different when the badge on the front is one customers may never have seen before.
Giamaro Automobili made the UK debut of its Krafla at Salon Privé, with the Modena-built hypercar offering between 1,600 and 2,100bhp depending on specification.
Every car is hand built and individually specified, with no two intended to be the same.
That gives Giamaro a clear proposition to take to wealthy collectors who may already have garages full of cars from established manufacturers – it isn’t asking them to replace one of those cars with another mass-produced model, but offering them something created specifically for them.
Indeed, Giamaro has said Salon Privé puts it directly in front of the ‘collectors, enthusiasts and discerning clients’ it wants to reach.
Elektron Motors is attempting something similar with its 2,400bhp electric hypercar (pictured above), although it has capped production at 99 examples worldwide.
Orders are already being taken and buyers can expect to wait between 18 and 24 months for delivery depending on the specification they choose.
1,963 Lamborghini Revuelto SV made
For Lamborghini, limited production operates on an entirely different scale. Its new Revuelto SV made its UK debut at Salon Privé with production limited to 1,963 examples, referencing the year the Italian manufacturer was founded.
However, that is a huge number of cars to be made compared to other special editions at the show. That said, it still offers exclusivity to its Lamborgini customers.
Chris Synnott, brand manager at Lamborghini Birmingham, said the SV badge has long been used for the most extreme versions of its V12 models, stretching back to the Miura.
‘Since 1971, we have made Superveloce, starting with the Miura,’ he said.
‘It’s now 55 years of making what we call the pinnacle or the extreme racing performance version of the model.’
With more than 1,000bhp and a 0-62mph time of 2.4 seconds, the Revuelto SV gives Lamborghini’s customers something above the already extreme standard car – but only 1,963 of them will be able to have one.