Kahn Design describe themselves as an ‘automotive fashion business’. Their brands include: Kahn Design, Project Kahn, and the Chelsea Truck Company.

Within their brands, they design and manufacture wheels and bespoke automotive components. They do all of this for high-performance, high-end vehicles. These vehicles include various marques, such as: Range Rover, Land Rover, Ferrari, Bentley, Porsche, Jeep, and many more.

Quality is what underpins their work. With the client’s requests for bespoke design, Kahn Design always ensure that all the custom work is carried out with excellence and clarity. No project is too big, neither is it too small.

Q&A with Kahn Design

We simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to speak with the team at Kahn Design about all of the marvellous work that they carry out. Their work is always of a high calibre, and their insights into the automotive industry provide a great foundation for budding car enthusiasts. With the founder of the company, Afzal Kahn, being a car enthusiast himself, you just know that the business was built out of passion and a desire to create within the automotive industry…

What types of services does Kahn Design offer?

“We are an automotive fashion business.

Our discerning customers enjoy the finer things in life. And they drive away with style and motoring supremacy, because you won’t find products like ours anywhere.

Our brands, Kahn Design, Project Kahn and the Chelsea Truck Company are for the individual who will not submit to a life of uniformity and who will only accept perfection. Under these brands, we design and manufacture wheels and bespoke automotive components for high end vehicles such as Land Rover and Range Rover, Bentley, Ferrari, Porsche, and Jeep models to name but a few.

We also coach build vehicles such as the Flying Huntsman 6X6 off-roader and the Vengeance supercar.”

How was the business established?

“The business was established by our C.E.O and founder, Afzal Kahn. Mr Kahn has always had an interest in cars. As a young boy, he used to stand outside car dealerships and work out how he would go about re-designing a particular vehicle.

Many years later, he started off in the car business (as a hobby). He had been studying architecture but pulled out, as he was not interested in building property. He was a petrol head. As time went by, he worked (without a wage) some very long hours at a fibre glass company in the UK in order to master the craftsmanship and aesthetics of different styling packages. He was so hungry and focused that he actually went on to buy the company! By the time he was 19, he had 30 staff. He set out to design his own wheel. He actually manufactured the first wheel in the world with the spoke running all the way to the edge of the rim. He then saved up and bought the tooling in a factory in Italy and they made 1,000 wheels. After this, he took out two small adverts in Auto Trader and Top Car and had the wheels sold before he even landed back in the UK. The rest, as they say, is history.”

What types of vehicles do you work on?

“Under the Project Kahn brand, we design styling components for Land Rover and Range Rover models. These models include: Range Rover Sport, Evoque, and Vogue models.

Under the Chelsea Truck Company brand, we work on: Jeep Wrangler, Land Rover Defender, and the Mercedes G Wagon models.

As for the Kahn Design brand, we work on everything from Bentley to Porsche, Lamborghini to Ferrari, and many more marques and models. We also design and manufacture accessories such as a collection of wheels, exhausts, and countless automotive accessories.”

Has Kahn Design ever won any awards?

“In December 2014, Afzal Kahn was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the ‘Car Dealer Magazine’ awards. The judging panel paid tribute to his achievements, acknowledging that for more than 20 years, he has been setting trends in automotive fashion.

In June 2015, Kahn was honoured with a design and innovation award at the ‘Birmingham Made Me’ awards. The judging panel recognised the significant investment made in both design and manufacturing as part of the ‘Vengeance project’.”

What’s the most expensive vehicle you’ve ever worked on?

“The most expensive vehicle I have worked on is my Bugatti Veyron which is worth over £1 million. I decided ever so slightly, to give part of the vehicle a very slight colour change and also design a set of wheels for the vehicle.

The vehicle is also adorned with the F1 number plate, which I purchased for £460,000 and is now worth in excess of £10 million.”

What’s the most popular vehicle you work on?

“All the Project Kahn Land Rover and Range Rover models are popular along with the Chelsea Truck Company Jeep Wrangler, Land Rover Defender and G Wagon models.

They tend to be purchased by high end clients the world over, so the chances are, you will see these vehicles in the most exclusive of locations.”

Where has your work been featured?

“The vehicles have been featured on TV and on the Silver screen.

Mr Kahn appeared in an 11-part series featured on the National Geographic channel. The series was called ‘Supercar Mega build’. He has also been featured on the BBC’s The One Show. He was interviewed by the entrepreneur, Theo Paphitis.

Furthermore, a Chelsea Truck Company ‘Jeep Wrangler’ was featured in a Tom Cruise movie. The movie was ‘The Edge Of Tomorrow’. The vehicle featured a number of upgrades including: a satin exterior finish, crosshair headlights, a custom grille and Kahn-designed wheels. The requirement for the movie was a military-esque vehicle. After one look at the CJ300 LE, the producers were on the phone to us requesting to have the vehicle on screen.”

What’s been your biggest project to work on?

“That would be the ‘Kahn Vengeance’. It was revealed to many fans at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. It was then showcased at the Top Marques Show in Monaco. The Vengeance is an invigorating combination of: sophistication, engineering, refinement and technology.

Having loved and admired Aston Martin vehicles for many years, I decided to build the vehicle of my dreams. I created a coach built vehicle in the form of the Vengeance, a two-door retro classic coupe. Every inch of the Vengeance is designed for elegance and balance with every line, dimension and proportion working in harmony. The vehicle features: widened rear wings, a ‘signature’ bonnet bulge, aluminium wide-body kit, an aluminium roof, and aluminium doors. In addition, the vehicle is also adorned with: a composite front bumper, a carbon fibre front splitter, a billet aluminium grille, and 21” rear and 20” front tyres.

We started with a core principle that was very prominent throughout the sketch and modelling phase. The very principle which defines my philosophy – timeless elegance. An unprecedented amount of love and attention went into manufacturing each model, all the way from the design phase, to the production line.”

How many employees do you have?

“Including contractors and consultants, we have many employees across the network of our showrooms in the UK: Bradford, Chelsea, and Kensington. Including our dealerships across the world, I would put that figure at over 60.”

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to modify cars for a profession?

“The only advice I can give to someone is to follow your passion. If you look at the money to begin with, you will most probably fail. Once you begin to enjoy working on projects and loving what you do, you will continuously improve and become the best at what you do.

The automotive industry turned into a hobby for me and this created a fierce hunger for success on a grand scale.” – Afzal Kahn.

We would like to say a huge thanks to Afzal Kahn and the team at Kahn Design for taking the time to talk to us about the business.

For more information on the services they provide, visit their websites: Kahn Design, Project Kahn, Chelsea Truck Company.

Insurance for High-Performance Cars

High-performance cars often come with large engines and fabulous specifications. A specialist insurer who offers High-Performance Car Insurance will be able to cover / offer different things as opposed to what you’d find a ‘standard car insurance’ policy will cover.

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We insure lots of different cars, including: Maserati, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, and many more.

For further information, visit our Performance Car Insurance webpage.

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