Month: June 2011

Chrysler may have been content for the Bagheera to use the 1294 and 1442cc SIMCA power units, but there were people within Matra that disagreed… The Bagheera had always been […]

It’s got pulling power… Vauxhall was onto a winner with its Cavalier Mk2, but the switch to FWD was a radical step for the conservative company, and it wasn’t sure […]

Christina Savvas, Birmingham Post, 27 June 2011 Birmingham’s car manufacturing industry received a huge boost when China’s Premier Wen Jiabao visited the MG plant in Longbridge on Sunday. Mr. Wen […]

Keith Adams A look at some of the less likely extinct cars in the UK, according to data supplied by the brilliant How Many Left? website based on DVLA data. […]

The car you always promised yourself… THE car industry had been going through some liberating times during the 1960s. Fuel was plentiful and cheap, and the Americans were making the […]

The small hatchback Rover commissioned OMNI design to produce a proposal for the company’s upcoming supermini – these were the results. These sketches show two interesting interpretations on the Rover […]

Here’s a lovely advertising video for you – it’s 1981, and you know you want a Capri Injection! Feel the power

The Rancho might be the best known 1100 variant for fashionistas, but the Talbot Wind was an equally faddish flavour – for rather less money. The beach was probably the […]

Various SIMCAs were built in Spain, and the majority of these adhered to their French cousins. However, the Campero was unique to Spain. Graham Arnold tells its interesting story. Spanish […]

MGB for the 21st century? Hinted at for some time in the press, the MG GT Concept marries the well-known capabilities of the MG TF chassis and the KV6 engine, […]

MG’s Sports car for the 21st century RICHARD Hamblin, former Managing Director of OMNI Design, and has managed to give us an invaluable insight into the design of the sports […]

Anglo-French Rover? It wasn’t only Matra’s Renault Espace Gen 3 that MG Rover had been interested in – Longbridge executives could have ended up reviving the MG Midget name with […]

Conceived as an advanced replacement for the Audax range and created with the same set of goals as the Imp, the Swallow could have been the Rootes Group’s swansong… Sadly, […]

The Arrow range was conceived as a smart-suited replacement for the Audax range of Minx/Supermix models and their badge-engineered counterparts. Some have called this the last Rootes car, although the […]

The Aston MGB The 10th September 1979 became known as “Black Monday” among MG enthusiasts around the world, because it was the date that BL finally went public with their […]

The Arrow range was conceived to be a conventional replacement for the Audax Rootes cars – and as such, was designed in Hillman, Humber and Singer versions. The early styling […]

In design Roy Axe’s designs feature heavily on this website, and it was his Sunbeam Rapier that saw him rise to prominence… April 1964 May 1964 Full size clay, January […]

The Rootes Group were a prime proponent of the art of badge engineering; take a basic car and apply several marque names to it in order to cover several market […]

Enduring legend After several unsuccessful attempts to make FIAT automobiles, the most serious step towards production of automobiles was taken by establishment of Iran National Factories (Iran khodro, public joint […]

Active between 1960 and 1964, ADO34 was a project to develop a Mini-based roadster, which would logically have replaced the MG Midget and Austin-Healey Sprite. Different versions were put forward […]

The sporting version of the Imp looks as promising today as it did back during the 1960s. A lack of money would spell its end… Rootes’ engineers knew that the […]