If you're going to steal, you rob a bank not a grocery store, so I'd rather go after a Rolls..." That was General Motors' design chief Bill Mitchell talking to Autocar back in December 1975. Blatant and provocative those words might have been, but they were also a statement of intent. For years Cadillac, GM's halo brand, had looked like the definition of excess to European eyes, as Mitchell conceded: "We've overdone things - lots of sheet metal, thick doors, overhangs. [But] we're doing a better job now." And if the new Seville was anything to go by, he was. What's more, this pretender to the 'world's best car' throne was coming to Britain.
The audacity! You uld almost hear the bone china being dropped in Crewe's boardroom when Rolls-Royce's management received the memo. There clearly was a whiff of Roller in the way the Seville looked, too. It aped the new Silver Shadow II's key dimensions, being just half an inch shorter, at 203.9in, and less than half an inch wider, at 71.8in. More than that, its restrained and elegant lines, combined with a modest 5.7-litre small-block V8, made it, so Cadillac believed, a proper challenger for Rolls-Royce's freshly revised Shadow.
The Seville was no 'grey' import, either. Lendrum & Hartman of Hammersmith, west London, was given a quota of 150 Sevilles by GM in 1977 to satisfy British demand. L&H took 60 hours to prepare each car for buyers in the UK, including a conversion to right-hand drive. That brought the total cost of each fully loaded Seville to £14,888, and L&H would guarantee delivery within three months. In other words, £10,000 less than the Shadow II, and with 15 months less wait for your new car.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2022-Ausgabe von Classic & Sports Car.
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A Breath of Fresh Air- Alfa Romeo's exotic, V8-powered Montreal was like nothing the marque had made before, but can it compare with a Porsche masterpiece, the 911S 2.4?
The stereotype of the ItaloGermanic automotive rivalry is that the Latin car will be brilliant to drive, but poorly built and ergonomically flawed, while the Teutonic will be the opposite. Yet these 2+2 sports coupés both ran against orthodoxy. In the Montreal, Alfa Romeo created an outlandish-looking two-door more comfortable, more powerful and more refined than anything it had produced for decades. Meanwhile, Porsche continued to refine its back-to-front, austere and increasingly aged 911. Neither took a traditional development path, but both created thrilling and individual cars that have echoed through the decades.
Daring to be diminutive
AMC's Gremlin and Pacer, and Ford's much-derided Pinto, led America's response to the threat of imported European compacts
THE LONG WAY ROUND
There is a great tradition of overland trips by Land-Rover, but the tale of this 70s Aussie epic and the car itself was discovered by chance
Handsome cab
The Phantom V limousine marked the beginning of the end for coachbuilder James Young, but this Rolls-Royce represents the craft at its very best
DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
Racing for their own F1 teams brought some drivers success and an enduring legacy. For others, it turned into a nightmare
20 30 LITRES CYLINDERS, 400BHP......AND MORE THAN A CENTURY OLD
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ICON.
The three top-selling vehicles in the USA in 2023 were pick-ups, topped by the Ford F-Series. This is the truck that started it all
Blurred Lines
lan 'Del' Lines blended the V8 burble of Triumph's open GT with real practicality in his Stag V8 saloons and estates
Home of the brave
The innovative Silverstone proved a hit with keen amateur drivers. To mark its 75th, Healey's club racer returns to the circuit for which it is named
PLAYING ALL THE ANGLES
Alfa Romeo's wild RZ eschewed the jellymould styling of the period to offer a striking, wedge-shaped take on open-topped performance motoring