E1: The Builders | Carlos Salaff - Salaff Automotive
In the first episode of The Builders, TheArsenale CEO Patrice Meignan sits down with Carlos Salaff, the founder and design director of Salaff Automotive. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design in California and a former designer at Mazda, where he contributed to vehicles including the Nagare, Furai, Mazda 3 and MX-5, Salaff left mass-production automotive design in 2013 to found his own coachbuilding studio in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The conversation covers vintage design values, the future of mobility, and the philosophy behind building a supercar by hand from a personal vision.
Who Is Carlos Salaff?
Carlos Salaff comes from a family of artists, engineers, and designers. His grandfather was an engineer with a deep appreciation for art, his uncle a metal sculptor, and his aunt Vera Neumann was known internationally for her colourful textiles. Salaff studied at the Art Center College of Design and joined Mazda Design Americas, where he spent nearly a decade on concept and production vehicles before leaving to build what he calls "an art piece that asks a question": a supercar shaped entirely by personal conviction rather than commercial brief.
"An art piece that asks a question"
The Salaff C2: Coachbuilt Supercar
The centrepiece of Salaff Automotive's current output is the Salaff C2, a coachbuilt supercar that merges the proportions and craft of classic coach-built vehicles with a contemporary performance brief. Salaff draws design inspiration from the golden era of coachbuilding, following in the tradition of designers including Ken Okuyama and Henrik Fisker, but applies it with a distinctly American sensibility shaped by his Southern California upbringing and the Midwest workshop environment of his studio. The C2 has been exhibited at the Monterey Car Week and recognised in the Louis Vuitton Classic and the 23rd Festival Automobile Paris Grand Prix Du Design Awards.
"Salaff brand is about future and mobility"
________________________________
Where Vintage Values Meet Modern Design
What makes the Salaff studio distinctive is its refusal to choose between historical craft and contemporary technology. The conversation with Patrice Meignan explores how the past can serve as a creative foundation rather than a limitation, and how independent designers working outside the constraints of volume production can push automotive design into genuinely new territory. Salaff's official studio profile outlines his background in full, and Overstandard's in-depth interview covers his design process, industry views, and vision for the future of mobility.
Discover Coachbuilt and Bespoke Vehicles at TheArsenale
TheArsenale carries the Salaff C2 for those who want to own a piece of this vision. See the Salaff C2 coachbuilt supercar and explore the full range of extraordinary vehicles and automotive objects in the TheArsenale Edition Vehicles collection and the TheArsenale selected cars collection.
Video featuring Patrice Meignan and Carlos Salaff
