You've got to love the UK's low-volume car industry. Brimming with ambition, but more often lacking the funds to realise the potential of many of its most exciting and innovative designs, it has left Y in its wake a series of so-near yet-so-far concepts that never quite made the grade. And when it comes to would-be sports cars, this country has an enviable track record.
Some have emerged from resin-dust encrusted workshops in the Midlands to enjoy fleeting fame before being unceremoniously scrapped. Others were conceived to change our perceptions about a brand, before their technical complexity set alarm bells ringing with the bean-counters. And by the time a few more had been unveiled, changing market forces had simply prevailed enough to kill their original business cases.
But not all of our homespun sports car concepts were produced by manufacturers synonymous with such vehicles. Mainstream doyen Vauxhall can take a bow here, in its quest to find a more youthful following during the 1960s. At the other end of the market, Bentley dabbled in the supercar world, while Aston Martin's Bulldog was so forward-thinking that its true mettle wasn't tested until last year. But they all have one thing in common: none ever saw a showroom.
1. Triumph Lynx
In the late 1960s, there were rumours that the lucrative American market was set for an all-out ban on new convertibles, which would have impacted quite massively on BLMC's portfolio. By 1972, Triumph's TR6 successor, the TR7, had been signed off as a fixed-head coupé, but the company was still left with the open-topped four-seater Stag.
この記事は Classic & Sports Car の May 2023 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は Classic & Sports Car の May 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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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.
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