Modern Bespoke Luggage, fitted for the Rear Boot of a 308!

By now, I would imagine that most folks are familiar with the Schedoni luggage which was custom designed for the rear boot of our 308’s. (If not, do a Search).

While I’ve always thought that this vintage luggage set was a really neat deal, the age and scarcity of these sets makes them to be extremely expensive. And if you can find a set, they might not always be in the best of condition.

So, searching for a modern alternative, I stumbled across an episode (Season 3, Episode 5 / Alfa Spider and Renault Alpine) of the British TV series "Salvage Hunters: Classic Cars” which highlighted the work of a British custom car luggage company: https://bag-world.co/ And so I reached out to them a while ago and, working together with them, we have custom designed a pair of bags for the rear boot of my USA-spec 308. (Comment: USA-spec cars have a shallower rear boot as compared to the Euro versions, so to allow space below for the USA-spec cat converters).

These bags arrived today, and I am absolutely gobsmacked over their fit and quality. I -Could Not- be more pleased!

Pictures follow:

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Notice the reproduction of the 308’s ‘scalloped’ stitching on the bag lids, the black bag piping which matches the color of my seats, the embroidered black Prancing Horse (mirror matched on the pair of bags) and even their red interior, which again matches my car (and which was a sneaky surprise on the part of the manufacturer)!

While the manufacturer can do leather as a bag raw material, they were unable to find a close color and texture match to a small sample of my interior leather which I had sent across to them. So, instead, the bags are made in a very durable leather-look vinyl which is a very close color match, and which arguably is better served for the function as a bag since it is so easy to clean. Plus the vinyl was roughly half the price of leather, had a suitable leather sample been found to be available.

Speaking of price, I don’t want to comment publicly here about this, as that’s a private matter between the seller and the buyer. But suffice to say that those of you who are used to Schedoni-level pricing will be very pleasantly surprised!

Two Huge Thumbs Up!

 

Yes, absolutely! Check their website for lots of other colors and styles.

If you can view the TV episode that I noted, you will see the feature on their firm. Well worth the view time, and it will also give you a general idea concerning their cost.

Since these are all bespoke to order, you can have them made to 1001 different shapes and sizes, seemingly whatever you might wish.

 

In response to a couple of PM's, I thought that I'd post the info here for posterity.

Each of my bags measures approx. 20-1/2" wide by 12" deep. These dimensions would hold for both a USA- or Euro-spec car. The height dimension of my USA-spec car's bags is 9-1/2" tall, and I suspect that a Euro-spec car would need to be something in the 13" to 14" tall range for this dimension, as noted in my original posting above. Keep in mind that since these are soft-sided bags, there is a bit of inherent 'squishiness' in them, such that the bags will compress a bit.

I made the specific decision to make these pair of bags in the sizes as I have noted, which is -not- the same style as the Schedoni OEM set. There is a pretty good recent photo set and description of such a set here: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/schedoni-luggage/. There is no reason whatsoever why you could not work together with Bag World to copy these Schedoni sizes and shapes, if that's what you wanted to do, as they are very accommodating folks who are very easy to work with. Note that the above link has photos which show the dimensions of each Schedoni bag, which can serve to guide you in your design work. And no, your end result should be -nowhere near- to the huge cost of the above BaT's selling price!

Me, I simply thought that the sizes of the pair of bags which we uniquely developed would be much more useful in the Real World, as compared to the somewhat odd shapes of the Schedoni set. Even so, I can certainly appreciate that some folks would instead have a keen interest in owning a Schedoni clone set, so have at it.

Should anyone here reading this end up working together with Bag World for a set of luggage for their own 308 (or, any other such car - see their website link in the original posting for some ideas of their past work), please do add your pictures of the completed bags here in this thread, so to be handy for future reference.

Enjoy - DM

 

Thanks for the info!

So to make it clear for future reference use, in your opinion and based upon the dimensions as shown in their pictures, are the bags that were offered in the BaT link shown above best suited for a catted USA- or a non-cat Euro-spec car?

 

The video (Salvage Hunters: Classic Cars S3 • E5) noted in my original post appears to be available for purchase here:

Alfa Romeo Spider & Renault Alpine GTA (youtube.com)

No idea if it's available for free viewing on some other website, but Happy Hunting.

Assuming that you are working with Colin at Bag World, I'd suggest that you drop my name to him and have him pull his records for my order as your starting point.

Keep us all posted! - DM

 

Jim - You will not be disappointed. Even though you might not competitively show your car (same as me, aside from those occasional informal Cars And Coffee sort of things), think forward in time to that "someday" when the time comes to sell your car. And imagine the positive impression to be made then when your prospective buyer admires the time and effort you've gone thru today.

Please do advise us all of any updates! - DM

 

Michael - Please do give Colin my best! No, I've yet to meet him personally, but he is a true gentleman and a genuine pleasure to work with, even (for me) from a distance away.

And, simply as a FYI, after receiving his 308 kit, I worked with him to design a pair of similarly fitted bags for the frunk of my 986-era Porsche Boxster. It is my understanding that the 986 frunk is identical in size to the 996, the same era's 911 series. They fit perfectly (as I fully expected!), so should anyone own a 986 / 996, that design work's been already done for you.

As with Jim above, please do post pictures!

Cheers - DM