Ralph Schwerdorffer Design

Ralph Schwerdorffer Design (RalphSD) was a French automotive design and prototyping studio created in 2017 by designer and composites specialist Ralph Schwerdorffer. Based first at the Innov’Alès technology hub in Alès and later in Molières-sur-Cèze (Gard), it offered end-to-end vehicle development services—body, chassis and running-gear design, scale and 1:1 prototyping, and composite bodywork construction and repair. The studio operated both as an independent consultancy and as the technical backbone for Schwerdorffer’s low-volume marque Raffer Automobiles, handling styling, surfacing and fabrication.

Under the Raffer banner the firm developed several small-series track-focused projects. It presented the TB02 barquette at the 2022 Mondial de l’Auto in Paris as a minimalist, single-seater-inspired sports prototype. Earlier, in 2021, the team announced Esprit 37, a limited run of 25 road-legal recreations evoking the Lancia 037, to be built using the studio’s composite expertise.