The 1910 Brooke Swan Car: Perhaps the World's Oldest (and Most Shocking) Custom Car

The Swan Car, or the 1910 Brooke Swan Car by its full name, is often described as the first custom car in the world and an unmistakable work of art. Whether it's the first or not doesn't even matter all that much, but it's definitely unmistakable: a contrived, pointless instance of excellent craftsmanship, packed with incredible "tech" for its time, and dipping more than a single toe into tacky territory.

It's outrageous, it serves no real functionality, and it's over the top in whichever way you can think of. The Swan Car is more than worthy of your attention.

Credit for the existence of this custom vehicle goes to Scotsman Robert Nicholl Matthewson, a very wealthy and eccentric engineer living in British India. Apparently, Matthewson also had a unique sense of humor, so he came up with the idea to build for himself the wackiest car the British elite living in Calcutta had seen at that point.

For that, he turned to UK-based shipbuilder Brooke Marine, which had by then branched out into carmaking. No more than a dozen Brooke cars were built in total, and the basis for the Swan Car was among them. It started out as a sedan with an inline-6 engine developing 30 HP and mated to a 3-speed transition. Top speed was 69 kph/37.3 mph.

At the time, a Brooke was up to 10 times more expensive than a Rolls-Royce, so Matthewson got a good start on his idea of showing his fellows how it's done.

The swan that goes over the car and effectively doubles as the hood to the engine was handled by the country's foremost maker of fairground rides. The whole thing is wood, so the vehicle tips the scales at over 6,615 lbs (3,000 kg) – the 30 HP Brooke sedan was very heavy by itself because the makers used wood in the construction, just like they did for their boats.

The idea behind the Swan Car was to represent a swan (duh) gracefully gliding over a pond of golden lilies. To that end, the rear part of the vehicle is covered with lily flowers in gold leaf and small fish – even the door handles are shaped like fish, and the attention to detail in the execution is astounding.

But the strangest part about this vehicle today is the way in which it was "proofed" for Calcutta traffic. For example, the swan's beak opens, and you can make it spit out steaming water directly from the engine's cooling system to get pedestrians out of the way. The idea is unseemly by modern standards, but it was clearly not so for Mr. Matthewson.

The list of gadgets doesn't end here, either. The eyes of the swan glow amber, presumably also to make for a more startling presence on the road among peasants, and large brushes work continuously to keep the wheels clean of elephant dung.

The driver's cabin is partly enclosed, but the rear, where the passenger would sit, is not. Communication between the two spaces is possible by means of a patented "telegram" system, where the passenger could inform the driver where to go or how fast without having to talk to them.

The passenger cabin is clad in the finest Indian silk and has the earliest air-con system ever: a double roof to offer extra protection in the scorching heat. Also here is a small keypad that controls the exhaust-activated, eight-tone Gabriel horn mounted on the sides of the vehicle, allowing him to make the Swan sing.

The Swan could also poop, and that's perhaps the most outrageous piece of gadget included in the build: at the press of a single button, a valve at the rear would open to let out whitewash, creating the impression of large bird droppings.

Matthewson commissioned the car in 1909, and it was completed one year later. It only saw limited use under his ownership: it caused such a frenzy and panic on the streets that police were forced to ban it after only a couple of outings. With a reported cost of £10,000 to £15,000 (that's about $1.9 million and $2.8 million in today's money), Matthewson was now left with a car he could no longer use.

So he sold it. The Maharaja of Nabha loved the eccentricity of the vehicle and bought it for an undisclosed amount. In 1920, he commissioned the Cygnet, a fully electric smaller vehicle matching the Swan Car in design but not gadgets, which his son could drive around the property. From what we can tell, the Cygnet could only turn the head from side to side while in motion.

The Maharaja's family owned the pair of vehicles for 70 years before they were abandoned and fell into disrepair. Evert Louwman bought them in 1991 and conducted painstaking, faithful restorations on both. They've since found a home in his famous Louwman Auto Museum in the Netherlands.

In the years that followed the restoration, the Brooke Swan Car has made countless appearances abroad, including several at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. It was also featured on Jay Leno's Garage, with the presenter and collector barely able to contain his giggles at the outrageous gadgets but still in awe of the incredible craftsmanship of the build.

All things considered, the Swan Car is precisely the kind of custom vehicle you can't but laugh at – even as you're in awe of its incredible details.