You've never had it so good

The optimistic class of ’62 kicked off a golden era for British sporting greats with the Triumph Spitfire, MGB and Lotus Elan

- SIMON HUCKNALL

Social historians will argue about exactly when Britain’s post-war blues started to lift. In 1957, then prime minister Harold Macmillan announced that we’d “never had it so good”, but the electorate probably wasn’t getting that vibe until about five years later, in 1962. And what a vibe it was, too, with Britons eager to shake off any residual post-war gloom to the accompaniment of The Beatles’ Love Me Do, and the knowledge that change was in the air.

Car makers were also on a roll, with a raft of new products that jettisoned the grey, austere designs of old for good. They now had to appeal to an increasingly youthful, aspirational buyer – as well as the booming American market – and styling reflected that shift. But three models unveiled in 1962 – all homespun two-seaters, but each at a different price point – were to change the face of The Great British Sports Car for more than a decade, and beyond. They were the Triumph Spitfire, MGB and Lotus Elan.

And what better location to bring this trio together than Goodwood Motor Circuit, which would still have been a prime stop-off for these cars’ first owners 60 years ago? Perhaps the most impecunious of them would have been driving the Spitfire, and feeling ever-so-slightly smug at the thought of showing up fellow drivers in their cheap ’n’ cheerful Austin-Healey Sprites. For the Spitfire, despite its relatively low £729 price and humble Herald underpinnings, looked like a glimpse of the future.