The specialist: Custom Chrome

By Simon Hucknall

| 13 Mar 2026

Classic & Sports Car – The specialist: Custom Chrome

Nigel and Graham Swift established Custom Chrome 47 years ago.

Catering for all ages of classic cars, commercial vehicles and motorcycles, their bespoke exhaust systems have won them a global audience, thanks in part to Custom Chrome being home to the red-coloured Cherry Bomb performance exhaust, which the brothers manufacture at their Nuneaton site.

“I originally ordered a Cherry Bomb from America, but it never arrived,” Nigel says.

Custom Chrome’s founders, brothers Graham (on left) and Nigel Swift; the pair has owned the Cherry Bomb brand for more than 40 years

“Keith Ripp from Ripspeed offered me one and asked if I could copy it, which I did,” he continues.

“We then found Cherry Bomb wasn’t trademarked in the UK, so we had it patented here and then later across Europe. That was more than 40 years ago; we’ve been developing, manufacturing and selling them ever since.”

Off-the-shelf and made-to-order Cherry Bombs comprise much of Custom Chrome’s business, but the company also designs and fits bespoke stainless-steel silencers, which replicate the richer tonal quality of a mild-steel system and eradicate the tinniness normally associated with stainless exhausts.

(Having just had Custom Chrome fit such a system to my Fiat 128, I can verify that claim.)

Custom Chrome has three pipe benders, so classic car exhausts can be built to any specification

The silencers have an ‘echo-revolve-echo-revolve’ chamber that Nigel likens to an “alluvial fan”, in which the exhaust gases fan out from the confines of the pipe.

The silencer – which is manufactured in China by a long-standing partner – has a wadding retainer to improve longevity and, along with the pipe, is made from 304-grade stainless steel, the quality of which is high enough for the firm to offer a lifetime guarantee.

Nigel claims the steel is superior to the lower-grade stainless often used by new-car manufacturers, which is generally only designed to last the term of the vehicle’s warranty.

Custom Chrome can still build you a mild-steel system, but the cost is only around 20% less than stainless, with most customers now opting for the latter.

Custom Chrome’s ‘alluvial fan’ chamber in one of the firm’s bespoke silencers

With three tube-bending machines on site and nearly half a century’s worth of templates to work from, Nigel says Custom Chrome is more focused than ever on creating bespoke solutions for customers.

The brothers often work with clubs, who request low production runs of components, and build jigs to produce systems for popular classics such as 1950s Austins and sidevalve Fords.

Building exhausts from scratch for rare machinery is another speciality.

Recent work from historic racing car restorer Hall & Hall required a system for a 1930s Alfa Romeo, while a Frazer Nash ‘Chain Gang’ and Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster have also visited Custom Chrome in the past few months.

Classic car silencer innards are wrapped in protective wadding retainers

Nothing, however, compared with an order from the makers of a film franchise in 1999.

“We were approached by Elstree Studios,” Nigel recounts. “They had been rehearsing a boat chase on the Thames for the Bond film The World is Not Enough, but the jet boats they were using were drawing complaints from the Houses of Parliament.

“It was going to cost £1m a day to stop filming, so they asked us to make 20 Cherry Bomb systems to reduce the noise, which we did – overnight.

“Someone turned up with a suitcase full of money the next day.”

Cherry Bombs were used to quieten the jet boats featured in a Bond film

Custom Chrome has survived so long by adapting and rescaling where necessary.

In the 1980s, when it was a major supplier of Cherry Bombs to Ripspeed, the brothers employed 23 staff.

And, while the mail-order Cherry Bomb business is still buoyant, the company’s work is now more centred on the bespoke exhaust market, which requires a far smaller headcount.

With retirement looming, Nigel tells us, the brothers’ plan is to find a buyer for Custom Chrome and the Cherry Bomb brand this year. Let’s hope their legacy will continue.

Images: Jack Harrison