Rapport International was founded by Ian Leaf, a graduate of Ealing Business School. Ian ran a very successful trading business and eventually purchased the goodwill of Chris Humberstone design, employed Chris and successfully sold specialist cars for several years to many high profile clients.
The company’s extremely costly move to Park Lane Mayfair was ill-advised, resulting in failure. The swish Mayfair showroom and workshop in Woking, Surrey, provided bespoke conversions of Jaguars and Range Rovers to well-heeled clients, along with a curious-looking BMW 7-series estate.
They also did a nice trade in applying their Armalite amour-plating to cars capable of taking it – mainly Mercedes-Benz S-class saloons.
For those with less deep pockets, Rapport produced the Honda Accord-based Ritz range – comprising saloon, sporting estate and convertible – and a convertible Metro, known as the Metrosport. We’ve yet to see any evidence that the Ritz ever made it beyond the four-door saloon version…
