Russian American car Bashny.Net

The history of automotive styling world is inconceivable without that person's name. It can and should be put on a par with the most outstanding creators of automotive beauty of the twentieth century, such as Harley Earl, Joseph Figoni, Flaminio Bertoni, Marcello Gandini, Virgil Exner, William Mitchell, Nuccio Bertone and Battista Farina. His fate was not easy, but happy.

Count Alexey Sahnovsky was born in Kiev, November 12, 1901. His father - Count Vladimir Sahnovsky - was the personal adviser to Nicholas II, the proponent of the development of Russian science; 1 s during World War II served as commandant of the station New Port, the head of the Petrograd port customs and the chairman of the commission on acceptance of vehicles supplied by Russian allies. His mother was the daughter of a sugar manufacturer N.Tereschenko, multimillionaire, who in the beginning of the century tried to establish road links between Kiev and Zhitomir, built for this, with the participation of French engineers, the car factory. The family had a car Sakhnovskaya Mercedes. Alexey a childhood dream to become a designer of cars and go to work in America.

In 13 years, he built a small carriage, which could slide down the hilly streets of Kiev. This activity, however, was considered a danger to others: wheelchair and broke away. Tranquil life Alexei violated social upheavals of 1917-18. His father committed suicide. Alexey joined in 1919 as a private in the army of General Wrangel. In January 1920, he emigrated to Paris, where he lived his aunt. He entered the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and then studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Brussels, which did not finish due to lack of funds. I had to look for a job.

First post Sakhnovsky was quite modest: Junior draftsman Belgian company Van den Plas, which manufactured car bodies for individual wealthy customers. When it became clear that he is not only fluent in French, but also English and German, not to mention rare for these places, but we need Russian, he made his translator. Soon the creative abilities of the young Sakhnovsky were seen firm management. He was given a comfortable room in which he was able to create thumbnails of car bodies. Additionally, he was granted his request to give free time test collected by cars.

Elegantly dressed Count Alexei began to appear on the weekends in the most fashionable district of Brussels, each time in a new luxury car; it flattered his vanity. 27dekabrya 1924 owner of Antoine Van den Plas has appointed 23-year-old Sakhnovsky artistic director, to join him thus to the Brussels elite.
Since the company "Van den Plas' worked with car companies Minerva, Metallurgique and Imperia, its body mounted on the chassis of cars of these brands. On the chassis "Minerva" were established body designed Sakhnovsky: type "konvertibl" for the Indian maharajah, chaise - for Belgian prince. For Adrian Conan Doyle (creator of the epic son of Sherlock Holmes) Sakhnovsky body was placed on the chassis of Rolls-Royce. Until 1929 the body by Alexei Sakhnovsky, used by automotive companies Panhard et Levassor, FIAT, Exselsior, Hispano-Suiza, Mercedes-Benz, Isotta-Fraschini, Benthley, Voisin, Cadillac, Buick, Graf und Stift, Puch, Stutz and Packard. C. has become "the star of the first magnitude" among the designers of the car, the undisputed winner of automotive body "Grand Prix of Monte Carlo." The award of this prize Sakhnovsky Body in 1926 and 1927 were in vehicles Minerva, in 1928 at Rolls-Royce, in 1929 to Packard.

However, Alexei did not leave a dream to go to America - most automotive power in the world. But he did not want to be an ordinary immigrant looking for work in a foreign country. So he decided to prepare in advance the starting base - began to send to the New York magazine «Autobody» their articles with numerous pictures he owned designs. As a result, in 1928 he received two invitations from Detroit.
The first one was from General Motors, which provided for a 6-month stay in the United States Cahnovskogo: it did not suit him.
He received a second invitation from the company "Body By Hayes °» for a period of two years. Located in Grenda Rapids company approved it in the post of artistic director; the contract was signed October 22, 1928. Throughout the preceding period Sahnovsky developed the construction of the bodies only for luxury cars, in 1930 the designer decided to appeal to the mass production of cars.
First, he designed a body for the US firm Marmon, then - Peerless. In addition, he was the first stylist in America "compact" cars, creating a body for a small car American Austin, which was later renamed the Bantam - company later created a prototype future cars such as "Jeep". In 1930, Count Sahnovsky again won the "Grand Prix of Monte Carlo," presented at the exhibition for the 8-cylinder front-drive luxury American car Cord L29 (it was the low and wide from among the models). Alex Sahnovsky the bodywork and other car firms - Auburn, Packard, Willis, Continental, Studebaker, White. With it consulted General Motors and Ford. In 1933 he designed a streamlined car bodies company Nash. In 1937 Sahnovsky became an American citizen.

In the last two years of the 2nd World War he served in the US Army. Demobilized with the rank of colonel. In 1961 S. settled in Atlanta: a body designed for trucks, buses, and participated in the design of aircraft, but the cars have always been closer to his heart.

In the second half of the 30th Count Alexei Sahnovsky created a number of interesting projects for the firm White, which has built trucks that I want to show

Labatt's Brewery Truck