Development story

The Talbot Sunbeam Lotus was an unexpectedly wonderful collaboration between Coventry and Hethel. With 150bhp, it was quick and exciting proto-hot hatch. […]

The Hillman Imp was the Rootes Group’s great white hope to beat the Mini at its own game. However, as Keith Adams explains, the project was riddled with setbacks and […]

When the Lotus Esprit burst onto the scene in October 1975, it had a similar effect on fans of the marque as that fateful storm had on the gardens of […]

Just 19 months from conception to introduction, the Sunbeam was the result of a crash development programme for Chrysler in order to secure UK government funding. It worked, too… and […]

What the 1980s needed was a new Mini-Marcos, and Harold Dermott was determined to make that happen. The car he produced, the Midas, was a sensation, and Andrew Elphick tells […]

When launched in 1972, the Ford Granada represented a bold move in Ford’s pan-European strategy. It replaced the Zephyr/Zodiac in the UK, and the P7-series in Germany with a new and stylish Anglo-German design. […]

Updated: The story of the Rover 75’s conception, development, and eventual launch in 1998. And how it was scuppered by events – not least the torpedoing it was given by BMW boss, Bernd Pischetsrieder. […]

Replacing the Montego with a new Honda-based executive car was never going to be straightforward. The Rover 600 development story, with significant input from David Morgan, tells how Rover managed […]

The TVR Tasmin arrived in a flurry of hype at the beginning of 1980, but only really bloomed much later in the decade once its Ford engines had been replaced by some very interesting tuned Rover V8 units… […]

The Scimitar started out as a two-door coupe, but soon evolved into something far more innovative. We pull together the brief, but fascinating story of one of Britain’s most underrated […]

All the elements pointed to a triumphant return of the British sports car for the 1980s: Michelotti styling, a superb chassis, a rust-free body, a range of performance options and […]

The Range Rover P38 development story explains how this car looked the way it did. It took Rover 24 years to replace the Range Rover – but, when it did, […]

Celebrated as one of BMC’s greatest white elephants, the Austin 3 Litre emerged the way it did because circumstance was not on its side. The Austin 3 Litre development story […]

The Chrysler 180 encapsulated the confusion, lack of direction and failure to invest in good products that ultimately brought the humiliation of the mighty Chrysler Corporation offloading its European operations […]

On the trail of the enigmatic Argyll Who says the ‘Car Guessing Game’ is no more than a bit of pointless froth? Not long ago, in a Celtic riposte on […]

The Austin Ambassador was a late-life facelift of the Princess, which added the versatility of a hatchback. In addition to this, it gained new styling and a fresh, 1980s-style interior. […]

The Jaguar E-type redefined people’s expectations of what could be expected from a relatively affordable sports car – race-car handling and a potential 150mph. It rightly defined a generation, and […]

The BMC 1100/1300 was a world-beater from the get go. At the very least, it became a British institution, becoming the country’s best-selling car for much of the 1960s and […]