Longroof Leviathan

The spirit of Simon Chesterman’s rare Brookwood has been kept alive by his enthusiasm and dedication to its transformation into a mean and imposing machine.

- Jon Cass

Sometimes it seems the coupes, sedans, pick-ups and convertibles take all the glory on the American custom show scene, and that’s hardly surprising as it’s often these cars we aspire to own. The faster and sportier models in any manufacturer’s range often came in the traditional three-box design, either with two or four doors, or perhaps a sleeker coupe when it came to outright performance. The more utilitarian load-lugging cars often appeared towards the back of a model’s brochure and seldom grabbed the limelight in the same way as the range-topping stablemate with all the toys would have done. Yet station wagons, or longroofs as they’re widely called today, tend to have an enthusiastic and dedicated if somewhat limited following, keeping their spirit alive.

Forty-eight-year-old Simon Chesterman counts himself among the fans of the long roof: “I’ve always had a passion for station wagons. They’re often better looking than the sedans and coupes they were based on,” he explains. “They are usually really difficult to find because they tend to have led hard lives and were scrapped earlier than their cherished counterparts.” This ’61 pro-touring style Chevrolet Brookwood caught Simon’s eye a few years back, not just because of its rarity, but also due to its particularly striking shape.