Old School Edition #30 packing a 6.2-litre V8 with up to 440 hp, an Art Morrison chassis and a Bentley-grade cabin. Why the Icon Thriftmaster costs nearly PLN 1,200,000 and takes 18 to 24 months to build.
Imagine walking into a showroom and buying a luxury apartment in Warsaw. Or three in a slightly less central district. Now imagine choosing instead an old, scratched delivery van that looks as if it had just finished hauling milk cans on a 1952 farm in Alabama.
Sounds like madness? Welcome to the world of the Icon Thriftmaster, where common sense is crushed by a 6.2-litre V8 faster than you can ask: “What's the fuel economy?”. This build proves that electric cars are not the only road to modernity – here, that road is paved with petrol-fuelled nostalgia.
Building a car that looks as if it just rolled off a cliff yet costs as much as a small fleet of private jets is like wearing a Savile Row suit under a holey sweater. It is the ultimate proof that discretion has become the most expensive commodity on Earth.
Meet the Icon Thriftmaster Old School Edition #30. A vehicle that costs as much as a decent yacht and yet looks as if its greatest life achievement would be to avoid rusting through until next Tuesday.
Do not be fooled by the patinated panels. This is not a rusty wreck pulled from the bushes by a Sunday hobby mechanic. It is a restomod worth nearly PLN 1,200,000, built for people who have so much money that an ordinary Ferrari feels vulgar and a Rolls-Royce feels obvious.
This is motoring for connoisseurs who appreciate that every single bolt in this car has been redesigned from scratch. All to handle loads the Chevrolet engineers of the 1950s could never have dreamed of in their wildest visions.
| Model | Engine / Drivetrain | Power (hp) | Price (PLN / Est.) | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Icon Thriftmaster | 6.2L V8 LS3 | 440 hp | ~1,200,000 PLN | Classic Pickup |
| Singer Porsche 911 | 4.0L Flat-6 | 390-500 hp | ~3,500,000 PLN | Sport Icon |
| Eagle Speedster | 4.7L Straight-6 | 330 hp | ~4,000,000 PLN | Luxury Roadster |
| Alfaholics GTA-R 290 | 2.3L Twin Spark | 240 hp | ~1,300,000 PLN | Lightness & Precision |
Under the bonnet, instead of a wheezy lawnmower-strength engine that would choke on every hill, Jonathan Ward – the brain behind Icon 4×4 – has packed a real monster. It is the LS3 E-ROD unit from General Motors, producing 430 to 440 horsepower of pure American fury.
It is the same engine that powered the legendary Corvette. Here, its job is to catapult this aerodynamic brick to 100 km/h in under five seconds – quicker than most of the modern “sport” saloons you will meet on the S7 route in the morning.
Floor the throttle and the Icon Thriftmaster does not just accelerate; it tears the air apart with a roar resembling a jet taking off, leaving behind a cloud of tyre smoke and the bewildered faces of the drivers of the latest Audis.
But huge power is only half the story. If you tried to accelerate that violently in an original Thriftmaster with its rigid axles and leaf springs, you would probably leave the rear axle in another county while the front end landed in the nearest tree.
That is why the maker threw out everything old and primitive and fitted a complete chassis from Art Morrison. You get fully independent suspension on all four wheels – a worldwide first in the world of classically styled pickups.
Add Brembo brakes with six-piston calipers at the front, strong enough to stop the Earth's rotation in the middle of an afternoon. The whole package sits on 18-inch forged wheels that imitate old steelies, but are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport tyres.
Inside the Icon Thriftmaster cabin you will find no cheap, squeaky plastic and none of those huge, glossy touchscreens that look like budget tablets glued on with double-sided tape in modern cars.
Icon has a class today's designers lack. The dashboard is a tribute to the raw 1950s, executed with jeweller-grade precision worthy of Patek Philippe masters. You get hand-stitched leather from the finest tanneries, smelling like an old millionaire's study.
In a world where car interiors resemble the cockpits of spaceships from cheap sci-fi films, Icon delivers an analogue nirvana. It is like listening to a vinyl record through a valve amplifier while the rest of the world has gone deaf from digital noise.
The headliner is lined with dark Alcantara, and thick, genuine wool mats lie under your feet. Even the technology has been treated with proper distance. The Bluetooth audio system and media controls are discreetly hidden behind a panel.
It looks like an original glovebox so as not to spoil the view of the Dakota Digital analogue gauges. Those look retro but are in fact microprocessor-controlled and report engine parameters accurate to a single degree Celsius.
The biggest luxury, however, waits at the rear. The load bed is lined with exotic White Oak with brushed stainless-steel inserts, finished so beautifully that you would feel bad about putting even a shopping bag on it.
This is craftsmanship on a level that makes the serial production of the most expensive luxury SUVs look like plasticine modelling. If you are looking for technical details on other models, check our catalogue for comparisons of different drivetrains.
What separates the Icon Thriftmaster from thousands of other restomods is a fanatical attention to detail. Jonathan Ward hates plastic, so nearly every visible element has been CNC-cut from solid aluminium or steel.
If something looks metal, it is metal. If something looks old, it is most likely a modern ceramic coating designed to imitate patina while protecting the bodywork from corrosion. Even the charger for modern gadgets in the cabin has been hidden in a nearly invisible way.
The build cost comes from thousands of hours of manual work. Designing the wiring harness alone takes longer than assembling a budget compact from scratch. Every Icon Thriftmaster is absolutely unique.
The client can choose not only the shade of the wood or the stitching pattern on the seats, but even the suspension characteristics – as soft as a classic Cadillac or as stiff as a track car. This is not a catalogue car; it is a tailor-made suit.
Does spending over a million zloty on a 1952 van make sense at a time when city streets are flooded with premium SUVs leased left, right and centre? From a purely logical point of view – absolutely not.
For that money you could have the latest Porsche 911 Turbo S, which screams about your wealth at every step and does not make your neighbours wonder whether you have just gone bankrupt and started selling potatoes at the market.
But that is exactly the point of this brand's philosophy. The Icon Thriftmaster is a giant, roaring middle finger aimed at boring, predictable modernity. It is a machine for someone who wants fighter-jet performance with limousine comfort.
It is a brilliant toy proving that the true soul of motoring does not live in giant screens or autonomous systems, even though today's electric cars keep trying to convince us otherwise.
The real passion is a roaring petrol V8 and the smell of natural leather. The Icon Thriftmaster is absurdly expensive and completely impractical, yet unequivocally magnificent. Visit our catalogue to see how this build compares with modern icons.
The price of the Icon Thriftmaster comes from the fact that the car is built from the ground up. It uses a unique Art Morrison chassis, an LS3 E-ROD engine and thousands of hours of manual craftsmanship.
A classic restoration aims to return the car to factory condition. A restomod (restoration + modification) keeps the classic look but hides modern technology underneath: powerful engines, independent suspension and high-performance brakes.
The LS3 E-ROD is a 6.2-litre V8 from General Motors. It produces 430-440 hp and around 575 Nm of torque. The engine is made almost entirely of aluminium.
The original leaf-spring suspension has been replaced by an Art Morrison frame with independent front suspension and a multi-link rear setup. Adjustable coil-over dampers from Strange Engineering are used.
The Icon Thriftmaster focuses on mechanical safety. It has a powerful Brembo braking system and a safe steering column. However, you will not find airbags or electronic driver assistance systems here.
In the Old School Edition, selected American White Oak is most commonly used. The wood is seasoned, precision-cut and finished with multiple layers of varnish to protect it from the weather.
The wait for a finished Icon Thriftmaster is usually 18 to 24 months. This is because the workshop only builds a few units per year, focusing on the highest quality of every detail.
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