A SINGULAR VISION

One man was determined to create a groundbreaking British supercar but the Panther Solo II fell short of its ambitious target. Glen Waddington suggests it should be better remembered

- Glen Waddington

MANY ARE THOSE who'll tell you that the 1990s were an era of me-too cars, that they all looked the same. Even Car magazine decried the situation, with a cover line on its July 1990 issue that asked 'Euro-car clones: who'll put a stop to dead-end design?' Yet it was also an era rich in oddities and stylistic and technological digression. How about the bike-engined LCC Rocket and Strathcarron SC-5A? De Tomaso's Guarà? Or perhaps the car you see here: the Panther Solo II. Only 12 were released on an unsuspecting public during 1990, but the headlines had proclaimed it a winner from first sight. 'Behind the wheel of the most important British sports car since the E-type Jaguar, declared Car. 'Britain's most exciting new sports car for 25 years,' hailed Autocar.

The Solo II lays claim to being the world's first mid-engined, four-wheel-drive production car. It also featured a unique and innovative composite monocoque of aluminium and epoxy resin, which combined enormous strength with light weight. Not only that, but its sleek design was honed in a Formula 1 wind tunnel until it generated downforce at both front and rear. Yet the car hadn't originally been intended to be quite so audacious (there's a clue in the 'II'): company owner Young Chul Kim had felt forced into taking a bold new direction little more than a year before it made its debut, somewhat hastily, in 1987.

Panther was a British company founded in Surrey in 1972 by Robert Jankel, mainly building retro-styled cars based on the mechanical components of then-current production models. Its range included the Vauxhall-based Lima roadster, the more luxurious Jaguar-based J72 and De Ville limo, and the slightly crazy Rio, in effect a lightly restyled, aluminium-bodied and extremely expensive version of the Triumph Dolomite. There was also the two-off six-wheeled Panther Six, which was powered by a mid-mounted and twin-turbocharged Cadillac V8.