5ive Gears in Reverse

2010-03-22T20:53:00.004Z

GENEVA 2010 - GREEN SHOOTS AND GARGOYLES

Geneva may be the neutral ground on which the automotive world meets and displays its most glamorous wares, its visions of the future, but the visitor’s first encounter with Palexpo is a grim windswept concourse populated with fast food stalls, where tickets are bought from a temporary building which looks to have been there since time immemorial.

Inside, once past the displays of garage equipment and car-washes, the industry’s treasure house opens wide.

A NEW ORDER TAKES SHAPE

Seasoned Geneva hands would have spotted it the moment they arrived in Hall X. Mercedes Benz and BMW were in their traditional huge pitches, but Chrysler's place, previously in the prime slot to the left of the hall entrance, adjacent to their German former stablemates, had been usurped by burgeoning Kia, with a new Sportage in prime position.

Elsewhere, juxtapositions served to mislead. The departed or soon to depart components of Ford’s sundered former empire, Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston Martin, sat together, with Mazda close by despite Ford having sold their controlling interest in late 2008.

Last year I stood on the Saab stand thinking this could be the last time. Even a month ago, I seemed set to be proved right, but Saab were there, sitting in the GM expanse, most probably at GM's expense, well distant from improbable new masters Spyker's tiny stand.

Nothing demonstrated the new order more visibly than the scattering of Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge products amongst the rather chaotic Fiat Group stand, with Lancia and Fiat making the greatest sacrifice. Fiat only had ten vehicles on the stand, three of these commercial vehicle derivatives, and one a Suzuki. Lancia had but four, two Deltas, an Ypsilon and a Musa. I found myself wondering how the Chrysler involvement would affect Lancia’s future – Sergio Marchionne previously pronounced himself a Lancia fan, but larger considerations could sideline the marque even further towards irrelevance. At least there was no sign of the Chrysler-grilled Delta shown at Detroit.

THE RETURN OF RESTRAINED ELEGANCE

The first decade of the 21st century was one best forgotten as far as car design is concerned, characterised by wilfully ungainly proportions, awkward and contrived detailing, and spiralling growth in physical weight and roadspace occupied. There were some promising signs of a more graceful future, even in unexpected places.

Peugeot showed the SR1 concept car, a hybrid driveline two seater coupe-convertible in the Mercedes Benz SLK / BMW Z3 mould, but far more elegant than either.

This is one of these Peugeot concepts with no possibility of production. Overweight blonde haired women of advancing years, who consider such things to be the very elixir of youth and beauty, will be inconsolable.

The 5 concept, presaging the 408 is another step in the right direction.

Bless the taming of the gaping maw…

Even GM were on the soignée trail, with the Flextreme GT/E – strip away the artifice and there’s real ‘70s elegance.

Peugeot still had plenty to be ashamed of, worst of all this electric dog’s breakfast, the BB1.2. No more, please!

Which brings us to:

THE EMERGENCE OF THE NEW ORTHODOXY

Just about everyone had some sort of hybrid or all-electric car on show. Like it or not, the window dressing days are over, and the move to hybrid drive looks as certain as the adoption of transverse engines and front wheel drive by almost the entire industry at the end of the 1970s.

Factors such as the commoditisation of the batteries and hardware play their part, as does the cost and complexity of making engines comply with Euro VI emission regulations, but the “killer application” could be the plug-in hybrid, which can run 10-12 miles on low-tax domestic electricity before troubling the internal combustion engine.

There are matters still to be resolved, such as whether the internal combustion engine serves as prime mover, or as a range extender. The diversity of thought makes the technology all the more interesting.

On which matter, I tracked down an example of Lotus’s three cylinder 47bhp 1.2 litre engine used in the Evora hybrid, and which is being tested in a hybrid XJ6.

The impression is that the engine is designed to be cheap simple and light, rather than laden with witchcraft in the BMW / VW manner. Key points are all alloy monoblock construction – end HGF misery for ever – manufacture by an un-named supplier who does not presently make internal combustion engines, and optimisation for use as a hybrid range extender.

THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE

New Jaguar XJ

I’ll reserve judgement until I see it in the real world, rather than the rather artificial surroundings of a show stand – hasn’t stopped me in other cases. Sometimes there’s something of a stretched Ro80 look about it.

I still can’t get on with these glazed D pillars, rather like putting vinyl on an SD1’s pillars. Are Jaguar trying to distance it visually from the XF? If so, why the same, or similar, rather weak Seat Ibiza-ish headlights?

Bentley Mulsanne

No weedy lights with the Grosser Bentley, but that coke-bottle side treatment and the general proportions are put me in mind of a variety of early ‘70s American full size sedans, and leaves me yearning for its predecessor’s unique combination of gracefulness and understated brutality..

I can also report that the Aston Martin Rapide looks splendid, but rear passengers with claustrophobic tendencies should avoid. AM have also done a great job on the Cygnet, but anyone who pays £30K for a Toyota iQ should be sectioned.

DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES

Geneva may be in a Swiss enclave of France, where French inefficiency and Swiss joylessness collide, but the Germans treat the Salon as their home territory.

BMW, Daimler (as we must now learn to call them) and the VW Reich took up vast swathes of Palexpo real estate.

At the past two Salons, I've only given a cursory glance to the VW stand, judging them to turn out some astoundingly dull but no doubt capable vehicles, as well as bewildering horrors like the Scirocco. Not so much Das Auto, as Das langweilige Auto. The dreary line-up is largely the outcome of a policy over the last few years of trying at every turn to be Toyota. Now that Toyota themselves have lost the knack, a rethink should perhaps be in order.

The core brand had plenty new to show, a new Toerag, with a petrol hybrid option, a new Sharan, and the Amarok pick-up.

This last bears out the Toyota emulation notion, apparently bringing nothing new to the Japanese dominated party, but instead matching them for size, features and crudity of engineering in order to bring a share of the sector's profits back to Wolfsburg. A quick look below revealed the most basic of leaf sprung back axles.

If it's good enough for the Marina, why not?

For all that it's an appealing big brute, although the most remarkable facts I could find were that European versions will use heavily boosted examples of the little VW 2 litre diesel four, and that all production comes from VW's plant in Argentina.

The new Toerag could pass for a facelift with the new corporate front end, but is a completely new design, creditably no wider and typically 200kg lighter than the first generation, despite a 40mm longer wheelbase. The big engineering news is the 3.3 litre supercharged petrol hybrid, with 375bhp available from both systems operating in tandem.

Of course we could be looking at another example of Lexus emulation, I'm more inclined to see the offering of a hybrid option as an indication of the foreboding which manufacturers have for the Euro 6 diesel emissions standards to come into force in 2014, which could make diesel engines so expensive and complex that they may only be a viable option for high mileage commercial vehicles.

Elsewhere I have passed acerbic comment on the Audi A1, but having been alerted to the revival of the Wankel rotary engine in a VW group product some credit is surely due. In this case the engine for the A1 e-tron is a tiny 254cc single chamber example under the boot floor, serving as a range extender for a electric powertrain up front. Technologies are always at their most intriguing when they are still far from mature.

Large numbers of show visitors found the new Sharan and Toerag far more interesting than I did, making photography all but impossible.

Hear are some from the model car display.

And the only evidence of the far more interesting Up!

BMW / MINI

The new 5 Series was the star of the BMW stand, whether it is better looking than its Bangle era predecessor is a moot point. The E60 was the best looking of a bad lot, the F10 tends toward disappointing blandness in the manner of the current 3 Series, and is cursed with the same horrible, needlessly aggressive, snout as the poor little X1. There are encouraging signs of a move away from engineering complexity, an example being single turbochargers doing a better job than two previously did. There’s also a rumour that tight cost controls have brought the manufacturing price of the 5 Series close to that of the current 3 Series.

Perhaps of more interest to the readership is the MINI Countryman. In the metal it’s not as awful as some imagined, with the MINI visual signifiers intact. Perhaps I had a secret wish that BMW would have the guts to do an ADO16 impostor.

The harshest criticism of the newcomer is its general uselessness as a family car, with scarcely more interior space than the three-door MINI, and a woefully small boot. Also, only the need to keep the flame of MINI-lust alive with a constant stream of fashion objects can justify selling the even less Clubman alongside the Countryman.

DAIMLER

Only one car aroused my interest on the Mercedes Benz stand.- the F800 Style concept, described as a ‘modular platform’, capable of accommodating plug-in hybrid, hydrogen fuel cell and even internal combustion powertrains.

It hasn’t quite escaped gargoylery, but did hedging one’s bets ever look so good?

TOYOTA

The only signs of ritual humiliation on the Toyota / Lexus stand was the discreet promotion of a four year warranty and free servicing. The Auris Hybrid, to be built at Burnaston, featured in prime position, with the Prius lurking in the background.

The FT-86 Sports concept had its first European airing, a rwd flat-four engined Celica successor based on the Subaru Impreza platform, providing welcome relief from all the low carbon seriousness.

The Urban Cruiser, meanwhile, was no less pointless than it was last year.

Lexus launched the hybrid only CT200h, with a Prius related powertrain in a new front-drive platform.

Beguiling good looks are not one of its strengths, it seems to have been deliberately shortened in the cause of differentiation from the only slightly more expensive IS. The wide track gives the CT something of a “landcrab” look, so perhaps we’ll grow to love it in time.

FORD

The new Focus was probably the most significant premier at Geneva this year.

Ford, know what they are doing in this sector far better than their rivals, but the “grown-up Fiesta” styling was disappointingly predictable to anyone expecting a repeat of the first generation’s tour de force.

As with the previous generation, the wagon is the good looker of the family.

These seem to have crept under my radar:

The were not one, but two new C-Maxes, a “grand” seven seater and a shorter five seater, with not a lot in common.

OPEL / CHEVROLET

The new Meriva, was the biggest news, further evidence that the turmoil in the industry has not led to a spate of suicides, but of suicide doors.

With Opel and Chevrolet’s stands adjacent to each other, there was a good opportunity to compare the US Volt and the European Ampera.

RENAULT

I should of course have paid proper attention to Renault's upcoming all-electric line up, but was sidetracked by not only the Wind…

But also the Flatulence, sorry Fluence

I am reminded of the “Incredibly Rude Frenchman” in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, shouting “I fart in your general directiom”.

HYUNDAI

Hyundai cannot be faulted for trying, perhaps far too hard, to break out of the universal minicab rut in which their larger products are mired.

Under the egregious skin of the i-flow concept was a range of energy efficiency measures – regenerative braking, a heat engine powering ancillary services, and a heat retention system, all based around a resolutely internal combustion only powertrain. It will see production as the i40, replacing the Sonata in around a year’s time, by which time it may look even more like last years vision of the future.

SUZUKI

After the Swift, which hit the supermini bullseye, and some convincing low-cost sub-A sector products, Suzuki have returned to their former role of producing the cars which answer the questions nobody asked. Witness the Kizashi, firmly aimed at the open goal that is untested market for Focus-sized 4WD saloons with 2.4 litre petrol engines.

SUBARU

Despite some progressive engineering, and a touching adherence to horizontally opposed engines, Subaru increasingly look to be losing the plot, with the latest products clothed in styling which looks as if it was rejected by Hyundai five years ago. The B9 Tribeca, which wasn’t even shown, is by far their best looking current product.

The electric revolution was recognised with this R1e, a rather charming living relic from the toilet seat grille era.

TATA

The Nano and Indica Vista (son of City Rover) were shown in fully electric form.

This year Tata seemed happier to open a bonnet, at least when there wasn’t a proper engine under it…

The three box Indica Manza was also shown, the third box looking as if it was intended for some entirely different car.

The Aria SUV was shown, but not the very neat Pininfarina styled Prima mid size saloon which looked a deserving recipient for the Rover badge.

DACIA

A huge inflatable Duster was anchored outside Palexpo, a far more tasteful novelty than the car sized baseball cap BMW used to demonstrate the MINI Countryman’s “street cred”. (Association with the yarmulke of the socially excluded seems to say it all…)

Last year the Duster name was used for a bizarre sports off roader which looked like a prop from a 1960s Eastern European science fiction film and was utterly at odds with the honest to goodness "value brand" identity being cultivated for Dacia. The production car is totally different, a generously sized and affordable SUV, with a line up of petrol and diesel engines from parent Renault.

Trim levels go from appealingly utilitarian to incongruously plush, and the Duster could do well in the thinly populated area between the Kangoos, Berlingos and Doblòs, and the much costlier but no more useful soft-roaders like the Kuga, Koleos, and Antara.

The Duster look like being the first new regime Dacia product to be sold in Britain. Elsewhere on the stand, only one example of the Logan “world car” was on show precedence was given to the five door Sandero , seen here in Stepway trim – their Streetwise. It occurred to me that this could do well sold under the Nissan badge, targeted at those who can’t buy a new Almera any more.

BYD

After missing last year, Chinese battery and hybrid specialists were back with their sights set on European sales with the all-electric 4WD e6. The Aygo, Corolla and Camry clones were also on the stand, but not the Daewoo Lacetti facsimile seen in 2008.

DR Motor

A gloomy, but quite large stand displayed various Chinese Chery products, clones in various levels of shamelessness, imported by DR Motor Company S.p.A, based near Naples.

I found myself wondering whether the grim wares on show were part of a fiendish plot to give the European industry a false sense of security about the seriousness of the home-grown Chinese industry’s intentions.

CARROZZERIA TOURING

An old name, showing a front engined supercar concept waiting for a maker, and this Bentley Continental based sports estate with Scirocco overtones, but looking far, far better than it ought to.

RANTS

Lights

I've seen enough enough Vs and Us. Boomerang shaped light clusters were ever and I’m sick of them. It's high time that the Construction and Use and NCAP dictators insisted that all manufacturers fitted big blocky clusters, with clear, amber and red lenses according to functions, with enough space between them s that they don’t overpower each other. 80s design rules.

AC Cobra

A bit of news that’s passed me by is that the “official” AC Cobra is now built in Germany by Gullwing GmbH of Heyda, to the apparent great delight of still British based AC cars. Traditionalists will be further distressed by the use of a Chevrolet V8, rather than the traditional Ford power and the addition of a gullwing-doored fixed head coupe to the range.

AC, let us not forget, are Britain’s oldest extant car manufacturer, and the insuociance with which we export manufacture of our iconic products is becoming ever harder to take. Can anyone imagine a British company taking on the production of the pre-war BMW 328, making a hardtop version and…

Dammit, maybe not the best comparison!

Citröen Advertising

First it was the C5 - Unmistakebly (sic) German, The new Fünf series. Now it's the “anti-retro” DS3. If it's really anti-retro, why the choice of name? There's certainly not much retro about what is essentially a C3 alternative with some too-clever-by-half styling artifice and rather ambitious pricing, but I was reminded that the shark noses which were everywhere are a hommage to Robert Opron's 1967 updating of the real DS, possibly the best facelift of any vehicle ever.

DISAPPOINTMENTS

Nissan Micra and Juke

Over a decade before the MINI, Nissan invented the retro supermini with the Pike Factory cars, BE-1, Figaro, and Pao. Some of the character of these limited edition cars permeated through to the cheeky second and third generation Micras. Nothing of the sort is to be found in the new generation. There’s a bit of apologetic watered-down MINI hommage in the frontal treatment, but quirkiness is not wanted for the cars new role, as baseline offering in “developing economy” markets of India and South East Asia.

We’ll get the Micra, but I cant see it selling in big numbers unless Nissan take advantage of its low cost Indian production base to undercut the Polo and Fiesta prices by thousands of pounds. Read the City Rover textbook on how not to do it.

Joke or Puke?

Of course Nissan would rather we all bought the mini-crossover Juke, made at Washington. Much as I regret denigrating anything which keeps the UK manufacturing economy alive, it really is a hideous ill-proportioned gargoyle, possibly even more of a styling low-water mark than the notorious Pontiac (remember them?) Aztek. It is to be hoped that such egregious styling excess will give way to more elegant shapes and detail design before this decade is much older.

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

The home supporters were out in force for Fiat Group’s big launch the hastily renamed Guilietta. Another one I couldn’t quite get – styling in the over-familiar Megane / Astra / Mazda 3 et. al. mode combined with a Mito-ish front end and concealed rear door handles does not an Alfa make. Still, despite looking like a Bravo variant, it does have the almost completely new C Evo platform, to be used in widened form by Chrysler.

Audi A1

A Polo for badge snobs. The Germans are far too serious to do a quirky retro supermini, unless it’s penned by an American with uncomprehending reference to the meisterstuck of a long-dead half Greek half German born in a Greek enclave in Turkey. Strange then that the toy Audi is made in Belgium, the epicentre of European surrealism. I look in vain for any DKW or NSU Prinz references, but can humbly report that underneath the back end is unembellished torsion beam rear axle scarcely different from that of the first generation VW Polo neé Audi 50, first seen in 1974.

And can it be right for a small car to have such an angry face?

DESOLATION ALLEY

Fiat Doblò

Desolation Alley is usually the preserve of lower league carrozzerie, but the new Doblò, surely richly earns its place. Just how hard is it to make a box on wheels so ugly?

Valmet? Vomit, more like

Valmet showed this ill-proportioned piece of all-electric awfulness, the EVA.

PLAIN BAD TASTE

Bufori, had a sizeable stand, showing what happens when Australians and Malaysians who should know better get together:

Failed ubermarque Maybach were represented by this lone landaulet.

When are Daimler going to realise that we’ll never see Idi Amin’s like again, and quietly bring an end to this whole sorry caper?

Mansory, purveyors of automobiles a la goût Arabe had this ‘personalised’ Ghost to complement the carbon fibre bodied G Class, Aston Martin, and 911.

Even Bentley had no reason for smugness…

If you want to know how the Lord regardest money, you only have to look at those to whom he gives it…

2008-01-08T00:41:00.000Z

(Just maybe) Looking forward to 2008

The Indian Revolution (1)

It’s not yet time to forget China’s as yet unrealised promise, but the big excitement all seems coming from India these days.

Tata are, we are led to believe, on the brink of owning Jaguar and Land Rover, but even more significant is their imminent launch at the ninth India Auto Expo of the 1 Lakh car - two days away as I write this.

1 lakh=100,000 Rupees – at today’s rate £1288 ($2545). We’ll know much more in two days’ time but the basics are a four seat four door monospace with a rear-mounted twin-cylinder engine. Despite the cylinder deficiency – what do you expect for that sort of money? – the thinking sounds more ‘50s Fiat Seicento than Citroen 2CV or Renault 4.

The Fiat comparison is apposite on a lot of levels. The Italian company is now Tatas's major automotive technology partner, lending huge credibility to their Jaguar and Land Rover bid, and they are reported to be in discussions with Tata to assemble the 1 Lakh car in their traditional Latin American markets like Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

On a far more subjective level, India’s present spirit of creativity, confidence, and enterprise is highly reminiscent of Italy in the 1950s. It’s not stretching a point too much to suggest that the Tatas are already the sub-continent's Agnellis.

The Indian Revolution (2)

Pininfarina have just announced that they will set up a design centre in India, within a 2-5 year timescale. In doing so they ar merely catching up. Dilip Chhabria’s DC Design in Mumbai, operating since 1993 have long since made the move from being a sub-contract prototype builder for major manufacturers to build up a growing reputation as a styling house in their own right, exhibiting at the major European Salons.

Remember that the ability to produce prototypes more quickly and cheaply than anybody else was as important to the Italian carozzerie's many decades of world dominance as their styling prowess.

If further demonstration is needed, Suzuki’s A-Star "show car" also to be shown at the New Delhi Auto Expo is the first concept car in which designers from Maruti Suzuki India’s research and development division have been involved from the initial stage of its styling. It’s not only an advance on the dreary Alto which it will replace, but makes the Splash (q.v.) look unadventurous and derivative. India’s importance to Suzuki cannot be underestimated.- last year they sold more cars there than they did in Japan.

When will we see a good electric car?

A far less admirable Indian product, the grim Reva G-Wiz, continues to set the case for electric cars in the UK back by decades. 5ivegears was heartened by the news that the Norwegian Think car, cruelly abandoned by Ford in 2002, returned to production in November 2007. The Think was vastly better than the G-Wiz even before the new generation’s adoption of Li-ion battery technology developed by Tesla Motors. The small fleet kept by Heriot-Watt University were fondly remembered as doughty dual-carriageway battlers – fully charged not much could touch them for acceleration up to 40mph.

Zombiedom beckons if your name begins with S…
(Subaru and Suzuki of course excepted)

Seat. Having tried in the past to be Volkswagen’s Alfa Romeo and Subaru, this week Seat are mainly playing at being Renault – people carriers in assorted lengths and configurations, including their own take on the Scenic RX4, a derivative liked only by 5ivegears. What’s next? Possibly a re-launch as VW’s sub-Skoda answer to Dacia, otherwise oblivion in the early years of the next decade.

Saab. Last year’s lairy 9-5 style makeover for the 9-3, with yet more hommage to the Citroen Belphegor truck, isn’t going to secure Saab’s future. There are future products planned – a Vectra-based 9-5 replacement next year, along with a Mexican-built (relatively) small SUV sharing its platform with a Cadillac. The following year could see an Astra based A3/1 Series rival. Unease at the dilution of the ineffable Saab essence to near-imperceptibility is balanced by GM’s touching determination to maintain stewardship of their "Swedish Patient", in marked contrast to Ford’s precipitate zeal in unburdening themselves of Aston Martin, Land Rover and Jaguar.

Smart. And in one bound the great carmaker was free of Chrysler. 5ivegears could never have predicted the rapidity of the split which created Daimler AG. No such luck for Smart. Misunderstood and under-exploited by its owners, Smart looks set to remain a burden on its owners when a new generation of ultra low emission small-cars inherits the earth as standard-bearers of the individual’s fight to retain the right to personal transport whatever the price.

2007-12-03T20:11:00.000Z

European Car of the Year 2008 won by Ford Ka Development Hack

The day is fast approaching when Mr. Stavros Dimas's will shall prevail and we Europeans shall drive lightly on the earth, if we are to drive at all. You would scarcely have seen a hint of this in the shortlist of seven in this year's contest, with no ground-breaking emissions reduction technology featuring, nor, with one honourable exception, the sort of pre-End Of The World As We Know It performance car madness we have come to expect from the German prestige Big Three for as long as they believe they can get away with it.

If a boutique car based unashamedly on a three-year old platform can ever be a worthy Car of the Year, the Fiat 500 (385 points) is it. The interior is even better than the exterior, and there's the promise of a mad parallel-twin engined performance edition. Perhaps the best is yet to come - for those of us wary of the Fiat's retro egregiousness, there's next year's Ford Ka on the same platform and built in the same factory in Tychy, Poland. Given that the Panda won COTY in 2004, do Fiat get to keep the trophy if the Ka wins next time round?

The Mazda 2 (325 points) deserves credit for its intent more than for its execution. The body has a leaf-like gracefulness woefully absent from the current European crop of bloated tank-like superminis. Weight saving is the car's unique selling point, and its 1030kg compares well with the 1160kg of a comparable Opel Corsa, or the Peugeot 207 at 1156kg. The lightweight champion Toyota Yaris weighs 20kg less, so the Mazda's well short of being class record holder. There's some evidence that the "add flimsiness" approach of the current MX-5 manifests itself in its supermini sibling, but overall, a sign of the direction whch superminis should be following.

Manifestly taking the wrong direction is the enormous Ford Mondeo (202 points). Now occupying more road space than the largest Scorpio ever did, and scarcely lighter than that fish-faced behemoth, the Mondeo looks incongruous on congested and constricted European roads. Surely set to be further marginalised on its home territory by its sheer size, the Cortina's tenth iteration possibly makes more sense in the increasingly important markets of China, India, and South-East Asia, where its natural competitor is the similarly-sized Toyota Camry.

The fourth place for the Kia Ce'ed (166 points) largely reflects the influence of Eastern European jurors. The neatly styled Slovakian-built car is remarkable for nothing other than the length of its warranty. The Koreans have certainly caught up with Japan and Europe in many areas, but there's no evidence of a repeat of the impending technological, manufacturing, and commercial dominance demonstrated by Toyota and Honda twenty years ago, which was to be such a wake-up call to the rest of the world's carmakers.

Imagine if Chrysler France had, in the mid-1970s replaced the Simca 1100 with the Rancho, rather than the Golf-manque Horizon. Given the present popularity of soft-roaders, Nissan's replacement of the mainstream Almera with the high-riding Qashqai (147 points) is less bold, but it commendably follows the under-regarded Note in offering practicality and a quirky distinctiveness which recalls '60s and 70's French cars. It's also notable for having soundly beaten VW's dismal, overpriced and pointless Tiguan to the final seven.

Nobody was expecting Mercedes-Benz to replace the C-Class (128 points) with a radical sector-buster, and the latest iteration builds organically on the familiar formula set with all-time 5ivegears favourite, the W201 190E. I'll not yet retract my previous comments that it looks Korean from some aspects, and seems more inspired in its shape by the 1990-97 E36 BMW 3-series than anything from Stuttgart, but more creditable is the hommage to Harris Mann (Ahead Of His Time), in the form of the bold TR7 / Princess-like side swage line. Similarly commendable is the storming, very pre-End Of The World As We Know It AMG C63 - it's unlikely that particular variant swung the opinions of the notoriously anti-elitist COTY jurors!

Deserving something far worse than bottom of the final shortlist, the Peugeot 308 (97 points) embodies the two worst automotive trends of the early 21st century, Bloatedness, and "End of History" styling in a fat caricature of its predecessor with a variant of the downright odd back-end treatment which didn't look right on the Renault Vel Satis and Seat Toledo. It's hard to imagine any right-minded person living out their days and nights in a state of constant desire for this Peugeot.

2007-11-27T22:56:00.000Z

Suzuki Splash - What's not to like?

I like Suzuki cars - but not all of them.

Strong negatives are the abominable "Bigfoot" Vitara, the pointless X-90 and that old Swift which seemed to have long since lost the will to die, and continued to be reiterated like an off-colour joke to the increasing embarrassment of its intended audience. And I never "got" the Cappuccino.

The good ones are mostly straightforward and utilitarian, although neither description fits the "Hillman Imp meets Porsche 911" SC100. The new Swift and Grand Vitara show how well Suzuki understand European markets and I'm a huge Wagon R fan - it's the nearest thing we have to a modern-day Renault 4 or Citroën Ami.

It's somehow appropriate that the Splash, the Wagon R's replacement, for Europe at least, bears the same sort of relationship to the Wagon R+ as that of the Renault 5 to its utilitarian older sibling, although it is based on a shortened current Swift platform. Tragically short-lived Renault stylist Michel Boué's 1972 masterpiece changed little in principle from his first overlay tracing based on the side elevation of an R4, and despite being likened to a Bren Gun Carrier by one of La Regie's managers, remains possibly the best looking supermini ever.

The Splash isn't even remotely in contention for that title, but the dimensions (disregarding the height) - 3,780mm (Length) 1,780mm (Width including mirrors) 1,650mm (Height)Wheelbase: 2,360mm, are closer to the 1972 Renault -3,506mm (Length) 1,525mm (Width) 1,400mm (Height) Wheelbase: 2,434mm - than the present Bloated Supermini norm.

It also weighs (just) under a ton so should shift adequately with the one-up-from-base 86bhp 1.2 litre four. At price of £7-8K, what indeed is not to like?

2007-11-03T19:00:00.000Z

The great Anglo-Japanese identity shift

Has it occurred to anybody else that in the mid-1990s Rover and Honda seemed to be trying to swap identities? Although the phenomenon reached its height around 1995, over a year after links were severed, the process must have started when their destinies were still shared.

Several Rover products of the time had the "technologically advanced and sporty" signature of late ‘80s to early ‘90s Hondas, yet were "stand-alone" Rover designs.

Examples were:

K-Series Vvti engine – a variable valve timing cylinder head with no Honda input at all.
R8 Tomcat – tried to cover the CRX and Prelude markets with one car.
R3 – Closer in character to the 92-96 Civic than the Honda’s own successor.
And strangest of all the MGF – a grown-up Honda Beat, although it’s unlikely the two cars shared anything other than the odd switch.

For Honda’s part, the mid ‘90s products were characterised by a change of direction when the management decided to face Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda directly instead of producing leading-edge cars which often created market sectors all of their own. It's surely no coincident that the start of the gestation period of this first wave of dull Hondas coincides near-exactly with Soichiro Honda's passing from life in August 1991.

Examples were:

96-00 EJ Civic, possibly the second-dullest Honda ever, replaces the brilliant split-tailgate E
The distinctive CRXs disappear to be replaced by a neat but uninspired US-made two door fastback.
The prescient Civic Shuttle gives way to the Odyssey, an unremarkable "me-too" MPV.
The three-door Accord Aerodeck, a car whose only competitors are the discontinued Lancia HPE and Reliant Scimitar GTE, is replaced by a mainstream five-door wagon.
The tall City (original Jazz in the UK) is replaced by the dreary Logo, a car which made the Toyota Starlet look positively alluring.

You get the idea… The Swindon Accord and Civic amply demonstrate that Honda learned the value of one of Rover’s most loyal customer groups, the affluent late middle-aged, and courted them most effectively with not only shiny grilles, wood, leather, and chrome, but also an attentive dealer network.

What’s dispiriting is that the Honda plan worked – they are now the world’s second most valuable car manufacturer. Meanwhile the mid-90s sporting Rovers and MG were merely a entertaining sideshow to the increasingly desperate "English Patient" drama, already unfolding before the last R8 Tomcat left the production line.

2007-11-03T18:46:00.000Z

And there's more...

In the same 1977 magazine, and in the same "Cars you won't see at Earls Court" article, the following from Motor's Midlands Editor, Philip Turner:

"Range Rover for the Masses*

Just think what a splendid car a junior Range Rover would be? Either as main family transport - for thanks to its shrinking it would no longer have that rather massive presence which makes the normal Range Rover a rather awkward shopping car - or as a second car to be used for all weekend and holiday activities. I know who's first in the queue for one. Me."

He only had to wait twenty years, but a few manufacturers other than Land-Rover had got there first...

*Reminds me of George Bishop's splendid comment on the Porsche 924:

"If this is a Porsche for the masses, then say a few masses for me."

2007-11-03T18:12:00.000Z

People Carriers - Britain to blame (2)

Right beside the Vauxhall "utility" in the October 1977 issue of 'Motor' is this rendering of a "multi-purpose vehicle, in family bed and breakfast guise based on the Chrysler Alpine."

It's billed as the work of the magazine's illustrator, Brian Hatton, in a feature of purely speculative renderings of cars the (mainly British) motor industry should be making, but probably never will.

Disregard the resemblance to a corbillard, and what we have is an inchoate Espace. Perhaps Mr. Hatton was brilliantly prescient and Chrysler's UK design studio saw the potential and ran with it.

The other possibility is that Chrysler were already developing the concept, and 'leaked' the idea to Motor to test reactions. Or am I being too cynical...

2007-11-03T15:43:00.000Z

People Carriers - Britain to blame after all...(1)

I recently found this picture in the October 15 1977 issue of 'Motor' - described as a "stylish experimental utility" from Vauxhall.

Is it a contender for the "First MPV" title

There were of course the Fiat Multipla, and VW Microbus, and indeed Borgward's Lloyd LT600, but conventional wisdom gives equal honours for the first modern day MPV to Giugiaro's 1978 MegaGamma and the study originally conceived in Chrysler UK's Whiteley, Coventry design department that which was picked up by Matra and became the Renault Espace.

Just check the chronology:

1978 Ital Design MegaGamma
1981 Nissan Prairie
1982 Mitsubishi Chariot (Space Wagon)
1984 Dodge Caravan / Plymouth Voyager
1984 Renault Espace

The Japanese were unquestionably out in front in this race, yet history seems to have awarded the Americans and French all the credit. Maybe the world has to revise its ideas and accept that the idea could have originated, not in Detroit, nor Paris, nor even Turin or Coventry, but in Luton.

2007-11-03T14:46:00.000Z

High Endeavour - The enigmatic Argyll Turbo GT

For a while I’ve had a notion to set the record straight about the Argyll Turbo GT – I’ve collected a certain amount of published information from various stages of the car’s evolution starting with a road test of the first Rover V8 engined prototype in the September 1976 issue of CAR. The information available online comprises some rather lightweight and contradictory web articles, which hinder rather than help understanding.

I decided that learning more could be a worthwhile project – I had the advantage of being based less than a hundred miles down the road from the Argyll’s unlikely home in Lochgilphead, on a fiord off Loch Fyne.

On my first available free Monday, I set off for Tayvallich, a yachting haven and lobster fishing village on a narrow neck of land between Loch Sween and the Sound of Jura given on a website as the address of the Minnow Fish Carburettor company. Having taken in the scenery and a good meal I made local enquiries about the whereabouts of Minnow House and learned a quick lesson about the reliability of website information. A call from the post office phone (Tayvallich may be less than 100 miles from Glasgow, but it remains a stranger to mobile communications…) and I'm speaking to Bob Henderson himself, turbocharging guru, developer of the Minnow-Fish carburettor and creator of the Argyll Turbo GT. Enquiring as to his whereabouts, I was told "where we’ve always been". Lochgilphead, , is only ten miles away – I was off down the road as quickly as is prudent on single-track roads at the height of the tourist season.

Bob Henderson appeared from behind his XK120, parked in the Minnow House yard, with a variety of other interesting machinery – a Nissan Pulsar GT-R, a Rover P4 105R, and several ‘proper’ Saab 900 Turbos. I had arrived at a good time. Minnow Fish’s dynamometer was being recalibrated, necessitating a break in the workload.

It was an absolute privilege to spend an afternoon with a true automotive and engineering luminary. Subjects discussed included the BMC A Series and Jaguar XK engines, his previous career as Chief Engineer of Short Aviation, the Highlands and Islands Development Board, colonial Malaya, Jaguar under Leyland, Lord Stokes (A Henderson villain!), the relative importance of thermal and volumetric efficiency, and, just occasionally, Argylls.

I’d arrived just slightly too early to see a road-going Argyll. The silver example owned by Andrew Smith, former Scottish autocross champion and partner in the original venture, would shortly be readied for a return to the road, after about ten years’ "rest" as an exhibit in the Scottish Motoring Heritage Centre in Alexandria. Even in a dark corner of the rambling former laundry which has been Minnow Fish’s base for over 35 years, the striking proportions and clever design features, such as the "optical trough" for rear vision, and the ingenious fixed louvred headlights, were clearly evident.

Despite its development in the forests of Argyll and rally stages in the Grampians, this is no Stratos-like compact rally weapon. It is, instead, a generously proportioned grand tourer, with a longitudinally mounted V6 engine and 2+2 seating accommodated with in its 3.0 metre wheelbase. Other key dimensions are: length – 4674mm, width – 1826mm, height 1220mm, front and rear tracks – 1575mm.

Several examples of the chassis were available for inspection, a complex "bird-cage" fabrication of box sections and square and hollow tubes, rigorously triangulated and braced, and possibly owing more to the Clyde shipyards than the "add lightness" philosophy of Colin Chapman. The weight of the completed cars was around 30 cwt (1500kg). Not particularly heavy by the standards of today’s bloated hatchbacks, but comparable with the Rover SD1 and Ford Granada of the late ‘70s. The reason for the over-engineering was a design intent for the cars to last 20-30 years – "protecting the initial investment of the discerning" is how the 1983 sales brochure puts it.

Suspension is by double wishbones all round, the rear system following racing practice with wide-based purpose built wishbones and the facility for adjustment of the geometry which never required to be used. At the front there’s a modified proprietary subframe with rack and pinion steering. Bob Henderson is occasionally given to mischievous reticence and wouldn’t reveal its origins, but my guess is Granada. In the Argyll’s various iterations the spare wheel and fuel tank positions were varied to achieve as near to a perfect 50/50 weight distribution as feasible. The steering column is from a Dolomite, the Marina door handles of the prototype gave way to Volvo fitments, the instrumentation is from the same source. That windscreen is another Henderson Guessing Game – mine is Cortina Mk. 4.

The 1976 CAR article, by one Jim Dunn, praised the turbocharged Rover-engined prototype’s performance, its controllability, neutral handling and unexpectedly comfortable ride, but the interior trim was described as "virtually non-existent…Henderson wants the customers to have them detailed to their own requirements elsewhere". In the years which followed Avon Coachwork of Leamington Spa were engaged to produce a suitably luxurious interior. The use of Scottish leather partly compensated for this being one of the few areas of specialist input sourced outside west-central Scotland.

As a matter of record, the CAR article refers to a Saab engine option, also turbocharged, but none was ever made. In 1976, this would have been a turbocharged Saab engine, not a Saab Turbo engine, production examples of which were still over a year away. Henderson has been prescient throughout his career – his 1974 book "Theory and practice of turbocharging and supercharging" appears to have been the first generally published work on turbocharging written outwith the United States.

In October 1983, an official launch for the Argyll Turbo GT took place at Inveraray Castle. A number of advance orders were already in place, production capacity was stated at 12 cars per year, and the first customer car was being readied for delivery. A price range of £25,000 to £30,000 was quoted. At that time a Lotus Esprit Turbo cost £18,913, a Porsche 911 Carrera £21,464, and a Ferrari 308GTB quattrovalvole £26,181.

The production car remained close in principle to the 1976 prototype, the major change being the adoption of a blueprinted and turbocharged version of the Douvrin V6 from the Renault 30, along with its own transaxle, as the core engine, and refinement of internal and external detailing. The sales brochure lists an alternative 3.5 – 4.2 litre turbocharged ohv V8, no manufacturer is named but it was clearly Rover-derived. In this specification the ZF transaxle, shared with the Maserati Bora and De Tomaso Pantera would be used and the rear seating was omitted.

Bob Henderson told me at the outset that the two things he never discusses are power outputs and production numbers. I fully respect his reticence on this - no published article I’ve read, including Richard Bremner’s 1984 ‘Motor’ cover story has manged to extricate any more infomation.

What is certain is that a steady flow of Argylls left Minnow House over the following seven or eight years. No Rover or Saab-engined customer cars were ever produced, but some were made with a Minnow-turbocharged Lancia Beta engine and transmission in place of the Douvrin powertrain. The most intriguing development came when Argyll managed to secure a small batch of Buick V6 based engines, intended for Indy Car racing but never fielded in competition. With specially cast "Argyll Turbo GT" cam covers, and extensive re-working for road use, these engines were used in a small run of production cars, once again using the ZF transaxle, while providing 2+2 seating, albeit rather diminished by the space for the bulkier power unit. According to a 1989 Sunday Times article there were plans to set up production of an American export version with the figure of 250 cars per annum quoted. Compliance with US regulations was certainly achieved, with relatively few modifications beyond the new powertrain, and I am aware of one car in the US, although contact with the owner has as yet eluded me.

And the final Argyll? It could be yet to come. Bob Henderson’s to do-list includes completing the final Indy-engined car, its chassis presently sitting in the workshop. He hints at the possibility of further cars – the production infrastructure remains largely in place and the latent demand exists.

I said my farewells, and made my way down the A83, trying in my mind to sum up this enigmatic and idiosyncratic car. I’d hoped to identify some production numbers and a timeline, but it was clear that this information was going to remain with the Argyll’s creator.

What I had gained was a clearer definition of the designer’s intent. To label the Argyll as a Caledonian Ferrari or Porsche is crass and lazy.

The Argyll design is instead a very personal car, the physical embodiment of ideas long held by its creator, based on sound engineering principles, refined in competition and enhanced by ingenuity throughout its development process. Production projections were always modest, and the 1983 launch coverage reported that "Astonishingly, the entire project has been privately financed, and has been neither aided nor funded by the Highlands and Islands Development Board, or any other government agency to date". Bob Henderson had earlier that day noted with pride that this remained the case.

There is a far more apposite parallel, close to home than Modena or Zuffenhausen. Consider the designer’s aeronautical engineering background, the uncompromised application of well-understood engineering and aerodynamic principles, the disregard for fashion or change for change’s sake, and the ingenious use of proprietary components. Look beyond its mid-engined configuration, and the Argyll could perhaps be described as Scotland’s Bristol.

2007-03-25T19:59:00.000Z

Britain's Lost Engines - The first Jaguar V6

When the ink was dry on the 1968 merger which created, for better or worse, British Leyland, the company was left with a plethora of engines, some relatively new, some ancient and some still under development. The process of rationalising the range was painfully slow, and we had to wait until 1978 for the first new engines, the Austin-Morris O-Series four, and the Rover sixes to appear.

A few opportunities slipped the net, usually for reasons of internal politics rather than technical feasibility. One such was the V6 based on the Jaguar V12. Given the nature of the V12, a 'half-length' engine would have designed itself, and would have been a far better power unit for the lower-end XJ6 than the woeful 2.8 litre XK.

Surprisingly, it was engineering conservatism which seems to have prevented the original Jaguar V6 from being produced. Jeff Daniels' "Jaguar - The Engineering Story" records "at that time V6s were thin on the ground, and those that existed were not, if one excepts* Lancia's pioneering masterpiece for the Aurelia, particularly inspiring". 5ivegears suspects snobbery too - what's good enough for a Zephyr or Capri had no place under the bonnet of a Jag. (If that isn't irony...)

The V6 wouldn't have solved the problem of replacing the XK, but it have been put into production at very little cost in capital or development time and would have given much needed employment to the chronically under-utilised V12 production equipment.

The V6 could have had applications in other BL products. This alone might have given the men at Browns Lane reason enough to keep the cupboard locked - Jeff Daniels' excellent book also states, referring to the adopton of the 77mm Rover gearbox for the XJ Series III that "From Jaguar's point of view this must have been the only worthwhile thing that ever came out of British Leyland".

*5ivegears would also except the various Ferrari Dino V6s made in 60 and 120 degree configurations.

2007-03-25T19:43:00.000Z

Britain's lost engines - The Rover K3

Seeing a picture of a Rover KV6 cylinder head, it occured to me that this was the top half of a great unrealised engine. Mentioning the idea elicited a reminder that a three cylinder version of the K-Series powered the Mini Spiritual concept car shown by Rover at the 1997 Geneva Show, in this case mounted horizontally at the rear of the car.

Had it been launched at the same time as the four cylinder K-series engines, a high-efficiency three would have added interest to the 1990 Metro relaunch, and a 1250cc 12 valve K3 would have been a far more interesting and effective offering than the poverty spec 1100 and 1400cc K-Series in the R3 Rover 200/25.

Given the likely a cost saving over the four, it could be used to provide a higher level of sophistication - four valves per cylinder, injection instead of a carburettor in the early engines. There's also the possiblility of a 1350cc 120bhp K3-VVC, which would deliver more power than the 1.4 litre fours in the Metro, with a very different character.

Rover could even have been used with an-end on gearbox in the Mini, rather than prolonging the life of the A-Series for one low volume product.

The bottom end would have needed some work - uneven cylinder numbers are hard on crankshafts and bearings, and some kind of balancer shaft would have been a good idea. If Rover ever took the idea seriously, there was already some three-cylinder experience available within the company from the 1982 ECV3 project pictured above.

2007-03-25T16:57:00.000Z

Inspired and Informed

Austin Allegro and Ogle SX1000

The Ogle, built from 1962 to 1963 was a Mini-based sports coupe. The firm, bereft of its founder David Ogle, went on to greater things including the Reliant Scimitar GTE and Raleigh Chopper.

The similarity in parts, such as the grille, side window shapes and "buttressed" front wings is uncanny but, I suspect, coincidental. The Allegro's designer was well capable of creating original shapes, as was amply demonstrated in the 1975 Leyland Princess and Triumph TR7.

2007-03-25T16:36:00.000Z

The Jowett Javelin - Yorkshire's heroic lost cause

In 1947 the conservative Bradford car and van manufacturer launched their Javelin, a medium sized saloon with an extraordinary degree of technical innovation. The car featured an 1.5 litre alloy-blocked overhead-valve flat-four engine with hydraulic tappets, streamlined bodywork inspired by contemporary American designs, and all round torsion bar suspension. All of this was possibly just too much for a small regional company whose core engine, a primitive flat twin last used in their Bradford van had the later distinction of remaining in continuous production, little changed, for 47 years.

The corporate dyspepsia was evident soon after the Javelin's launch with MD and Javelin champion Charles Reilly leaving in 1948, and Gerald Palmer took a post in the Nuffield Group's design office the following year.

Gerald Palmer’s contributions to the Nuffield group from 1949-1955, the Riley Pathfinder/Wolseley 6/90 and MG Magnette /Wolseley 6/90 suggests that he was denied the creative freedom of his Jowett years.

Early engine and gearbox problems, and the resulting consumer distrust led to the Javelin never achieving its sales targets. The car underwent a number of engineering revisions and its integrity was demonstrated by a number of motor sport successes, including an outright win in the 1953 International Tulip Rally.

Perhaps the Jowett can now be seen as Yorkshire's equivalent of the NSU Ro80, another car form a small regional car maufacturer who had world-beating ambitions, withoout the depth of resources to see them through. Javelin production ended in 1953 with just over 23,000 produced.

An honourable departure

Jowett ceased to exist as a vehicle manufacturer in 1955, their owners selling the factory to International Harvester, and continuing in business as a supplier to the aircraft industry. Far from launching Jowett into the big time, the Javelin’s mechanical complexity and manufacturing cost were seen as its downfall.

The decision to abandon car manufacturing, preserve jobs, and provide parts support for past products seems as courageous as the one Jowett made to put the Javelin into production. Better far to exit solvent, and with a continuing committment to past customers, than to die by badge-engineering.

2007-03-25T16:20:00.000Z

An Italian Jowett? not quite...

A near-contemporary of the Jowett Javelin was the Cemsa Caproni, designed by Antonio Fessia for the Italian aircraft manufacturer. The plan to move into car manufacture was abandoned not long after production started, and only two examples are thought to survive.

The similarities to the Jowett are clear, flat four engine and conspicuously aerodynamic coachwork, although the Cemsa had front-wheel drive, and an engine capacity of only 1100cc.

We may lament that Cesma never had the opportunity to become Italy's Saab or Bristol, but at least the Caproni’s designer had the opportunity to use the experience later in his career, as it provided the template for the design of Lancia Flavia launched in 1961, by which time Professor Fessia was head of the Turin manufacturer's Central Technical Office.

2007-02-05T22:36:00.000Z

What must Bruno Sacco think?

Am I alone in thinking that Mercedes-Benz's visual vocabulary is becoming ever more confused?

The big three pointed star in the middle of the grille was the preserve of the SL series from the original 300SL onwards, for the wholly logical reason that the traditional Mercedes Benz "radiator shell" would have looked ridiculous on a low aerodynamic sports car.

Then the W126 S-Class coupe adopted the central star and the floodgates opened. Not only did it re-appear on the second series CLK and the CLS, which had some sort of logic, but also on the M-Class, A-Class, and R-Class, which had none at all.

What's stranger is that the vans and trucks are mimicking the passenger cars. Previously they carried the three pointed star as a discreet badge in the middle of a horizontal black grille, in 1970s Volkswagen style. Now the sculptured grille and oversize badge are near identical to those of an M or R-Class.

The handsome offering above is a Sport version of the new C-class saloon*. The ones which do not distinguish themselves at games have the latest version of the Mercedes Benz "radiator shell", rather handsome with its historically correct 'V' shape in plan.

I'm afraid in Sport form it reminds me of nothing so much as the vulgar mock-SEC grilles which were a favourite means of ruining a 190E in the 1980s and 90s. It's distressing to know that by the first decade of the 21st century, a reminder of such sacrilegeous bad taste is now a factory option.

*Not Vectra, not Hyundai, not Kia, not Honda, as they say in e-bay speak.

2007-01-24T19:03:00.000Z

5ivegears' Automotive Bestiary

In response to a friend's request, here's a non-definitive list of cars (and a few trucks) named after animals.

Mammals

AC Greyhound
Aston Martin Bulldog
Audi Fox
Bedford Beagle
Chevrolet Impala
Commer Cob
De Tomaso Mangusta (Mongoose)
De Tomaso Pantera
Eagle (former AMC)
Fiat Panda
Ford Cougar
Ford Mustang
Ford Puma
Geely Beauty Leopard
Great Wall Coolbear
Hillman Husky
Hyundai Pony
Jaguar
Lamborghini Miura / Gallardo / Espada / Murcielago (all bulls!)
Mercury Bobcat
Mercury Cougar
Mercury Lynx
Mitsubishi Colt
Mitsubishi Pajero
Nissan Leopard
Panther
Reliant Kitten
Renault Kangoo - they obviously meant Kangaroo!
Renault Dauphine (Dolphin)
Riley Lynx
Rover Tomcat
Singer Chamois
Singer Gazelle
Sipani Dolphin
Sunbeam Tiger
Swallow
Triumph Stag
TVR Vixen
Volkswagen Fox
Volkswagen Rabbit

Insects

Bond Bug
Dodge Super Bee
Ford Scorpio
Lancia Scorpion
Plymouth Cricket
Volkswagen Beetle
Wolseley Hornet

Reptiles

AC Cobra
Dodge Viper
Porsche Cayman

Birds

Buick Skylark
Ford Falcon
Humber Hawk
Humber Snipe / Super Snipe
Nissan Bluebird
Reliant Robin
Riley Falcon
Riley Kestrel
Riley Merlin
Saehan Bird
Simca Aronde
Studebaker Hawk
Suzuki Swift
Toyota Tercel

Fish

AMC Marlin
Chevrolet Corvette Mako Shark
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Opel Manta
Plymouth Barracuda

Mythical Category

AMC Gremlin
Iso Grifo
Pontiac Firebird
TVR Chiamera
Vauxhall Wyvern

Trucks

BMC Mini Moke
Dodge Ram
Karrier Bantam
Karrier Gamecock
Leyland Clydesdale
Leyland Mastiff
Leyland Terrier
Reliant Ant
Scammell Scarab
Steyr Puch Haflinger and Pinzgauer

Motorcycles and military vehicles excluded - there's an equally rich seam to be mined.

2006-12-30T17:31:00.000Z

Looking forward to 2007

The Chinese are coming

On all fronts... Daimler Chrysler have just announced their agreement with Chery for production of an un-named car, probably the Dodge Hornet, for the NAFTA territories and Western Europe, Great Wall (Changcheng) have a European dealer network in place for the trio shown here - Perey, Florid, and Coolbear - Cool names apart from Florid which suggests to the Anglophone high blood pressure or the effect of sustained alcohol abuse.

In the UK the established manufacturers are likely to put up the same sort of barricades against the onslaught as they did when Daewoo first entered the market. Franchised dealers could well be forbidden to take on Chinese makes or even accept cars in trade-ins, but the world has moved on since 1994, with car supermarkets now the key players in moving metal. The attraction here must be potential profits - if the products are as cheap as is rumoured they could be sold at £2000 less than an equivalent Fiesta, Yaris, or Micra, and still provide a healthy profit by comparison with the wafer-thin margins the European or Japanese products offer.

Threatened species

Saab

It's becoming evident that Saab is at best an irrelevance, and at worst an embarrassment, to GM's grand scheme. Is there no Scandinavian entrepreneur out there ready to make an offer to allow "The Swedish Patient" to fly free from its uncomprehending American master and recover its true identity?

It would be refreshing to see a successful challenge to current automotive industry orthodoxy, which dictates that a carmaker is neither serious nor viable unless it produces at least four million vehicles a year, covering every market and sector with a portfolio of brands, nurtured by marketing, yet becoming ever more meaningless through adoption of shared platforms and components.

What's not to like about a car manufacturer producing fewer than 100,000 cars a year which understands its history and ethos and the aspirations of its customers. At that sort of volume they could practically know them by their first names. Such a company would have to rely on other manufacturers for key components, but it was very much in the Saab tradition to get by with a little help from their friends. Imagine what a newly independent Saab could achieve with Subaru or Toyota as a 'technology partner' Let?s hope something happens while some of us can still remember what Saab once stood for.

Seat

If rumours are to be believed, post-regime change VW doesn't want three mainstream nameplates, and Seat's the one to be sold off or run down. There's a certain swashbuckling confidence about the Spanish economy at present, as evidenced by recent high profile takeover activity; Santander / Abbey, Telefonica / O2, Iberdrola / Scottish Power.

What's the possibility of a local consortium buying Seat from VW and, possibly with the support of a far eastern manufacturer, setting up a stylish good-value alternative to the Koreans and lower-league Europeans and Japanese?

Smart

Could there be a worse keeper for the Smart brand than DaimlerChrysler?

Probably not on the strength of recent history. The promising but overpriced roadster is dropped after two years for no reason other than the feeling that three products in the range is too many and Daimler Chrysler can't afford to step away from the agreement made with Mitsubishi to supply the ForFour. Then they drop the ForFour anyway. The new ForTwo is launched and is near-indistinguishable from the ten year old one.

So where will Smart's salvation be found? In the USA, according to DC, although the rest of us would think it hardly the most auspicious territory for a sub 1 litre 2.5m long two seater.

So much of Smart's promise still remains. Let's hope DaimlerChrysler see the sense in disposing of Smart to a manufacturer who could make something of it, rather than let the venture disappear into oblivion, saddled with failure.

PSA are right there in the territory both geographically and with the 107 / C1, a far better ForFour than the original. They could certainly handle a third brand, possibly in alliance with Mitsubishi, who make the bits anyway, and whose I-Car is an indicator of how the second generation ForTwo might have looked, had the creative juices not leaked down the drain immediately the original was signed off.

More hopes for the New Year follow...

2006-12-30T14:31:00.000Z

SUVs

It really does seem that the US fixation with ever-larger 4x4s, never used for their intended purpose, is on the wane. Not so here in the UK where SUV ownership seems to be on the crest of a wave, with the bigger the better as first rule. As I write this, the fading winter light in my inner-suburban street is occluded by a Touareg, an X5, a Jeep Commander and a Hyundai Santa Fe. In each case mud and towbars are conspicuous by their absence.

That's the big stuff. The small ones are now adopting the weapon of hideousness as compensation for lack of bulk. Witness the gargoyle-like visages of the Citroen C-Crosser and Peugeot 4007, and the 'gurning' aspect of latest Honda CR-V, which appears to have frontal treatments intended for two different vehicles, both of them ugly. We can now see that Pontiac Aztek was not an abhorrent aberration as once thought, but a product years ahead of its time. (Then again, as I look at the picture - what were they thinking?)

Hopefully something's going to stop the inexorable rise in the sales of these symbols of contempt for neighbours, other road users and our planet itself. It's reached the point where I'd be prepared to suffer a little just to see the back of them.

It's not the end of automotive history

Audi TT, Smart, MINI, I'm referring to you. In the past when sheet metal was expected to last a decade and engines and gearboxes a generation, new bodywork, often concealed barely changed components. Sometimes the less that was new underneath, the more radical the wrapping, for example the 1994 Ford Scorpio and its fish-faced contemporary range-mates.

This year has seen a succession of entirely new platforms and mechanical components under bodies near-indistinguishable from what preceded them. It's arrogant, creatively bankrupt, and will ultimately do the manufacturers concerned no good. Look at Jaguar, whose present woes are at least partly due to their inability to move forwards from a design vocabulary established in the 1960s.

TVR

Not included among threatened species, given its past capacity for survival. The heady days when TVR was the Clown Prince of the British specialist car industry seem a distant memory, the last two years under new ownership have seen nothing but a downward spiral of uncertainty.

The Smolensky era seems to be truly over with the company in administration as of 22 December. With a new buyer sought for the company as a going concern, we once again have some cause to be hopeful. A new owner with a firm commitment to remaining in Blackpool and a return to Griffith / Chiamera era product values would be a great start to 2007.

2006-12-13T23:23:00.000Z

Please give up your Seat...

To somebody who needs it more than you do!

If Reuters is to be believed, the industry is a-buzz with the rumour that one of the first actions of the new regime at VW will be to put Seat up for sale.

I haven't yet trawled the speculation on possible buyers, but surely SAIC and First Auto Works must be front-runners - they're already making many of the parts and must have their eyes out for a bridgehead into Europe. If Seat is Shanghai-bound, the synergies with Roewe/Rover look attractive - the product ranges don't overlap, and Seat would presumably be sold with their European dealer network.

Could a Seat / Roewe / Ssangyong showroom could be a feature of your local motor park some time soon?

It's a possibility, but we need to consider what VW want out of reversing away from Seat.

Seat's greatest strength is that it is a live namplate, with a with a relatively fresh product range and an independent dealer network.

Its weakness is lack of clear identity and historical resonance.

Until the 1984 Ibiza was launched, the company mainly produced Spanish-market variations of Fiat products. Licensing arrangements ensured that they could not be sold in the rest of Europe and were only exported to markets like Malaysia and Egypt. The brand was largely unknown outside Spain as their cars were externally identical to the equivalent Fiats.*

Move on to the Volkswagen era, and the parent company tried to re-invent Seat as an Iberian Alfa Romeo. Even poaching Walter da Silva didn't carry that one off, so they moved swiftly on to producing some of the strangest-looking people-carriers on the planet.

If VW intend to dispose of the brand it doesn't look good for those on the ground in Martorell. Were a Chinese company to buy Seat, the attractions would be the intellectual property, use (even on a temporary or licensed basis) of VW technology, the European dealer network and the badge, in that order. If the buyer was one of the existing VW partners, components from China could easily supplant the VW group shared parts from European factories, reducing costs. Do VW want to sell the company only to create a competitor for Skoda and their own cheaper cars?

It's not improbable that VW's hidden agenda involves putting the Seat name 'beyond use' while limiting the liabilities associated with closure. They could offer Seat with such restrictive covenants on design rights and use of the name that it would be unsaleable. With no buyer the name would soon disappear and downsizing or closure of the production facilities would follow.

Then again, they could encourage a management buy-out, offload the liabilities for a nominal sum to some local entrepreneurs with venture capital backing, who could then go in search of a new partner in the hope of achieving a sustainable future for the business.

Does any of this sound familiar to anybody out there?

2006-12-13T23:21:00.000Z

*With this late 1970s exception. Still looks good even now.

2006-12-04T23:40:00.000Z

Irony Update

If popular rumour is to be believed, BMW, recognising the limitations of the Rover KV6 engine, developed a Valvetronic V6, which was ready for production at Hams Hall when they sold Land-Rover and MG Rover in 2000.

The engine was intended solely for the Rover 75 and Freelander as the parent company's straight sixes wouldn't fit a transverse engine layout. With its intended recipients out of the BMW picture, the V6 was dropped from their production plans.

Move forwards six years and Ford launch a new Freelander with a transverse straight six, despite having no shortage of V6s.

Ironic* or what?

*Fivegears is unable to confirm whether this is an example of Socratic, dramatic, cosmic, or Morrisette irony, having skived off that particular class.

2006-12-04T23:10:00.000Z

Stumbling in the footsteps of Issigonis and Giacosa

It's hard to believe, given the orthodoxy of their subsequent products, but in the early 1990s, deep within the Ford organisation, designers were challenging automotive engineering orthodoxies with some vigour.

At the 1991 Detroit Motor Show, Ford showed the Contour, a radical prototype featuring an aluminium spaceframe, four wheel drive and a transverse 3.4 litre straight eight. The powertrain concept, titled T-drive, featured power taken from the middle bearing of the crankshaft by spiral bevel gears to a longitudinal gearbox which offered the options of front, rear or four wheel drive.

Other highlights were transverse leaf springs (Dante Giacosa would have liked that) the use of plastic and light alloy for doors and unstressed external skin panels, (Pierre Boulanger and Spen King likewise) and remotely located electrically powered auxiliary drives. (Only M&E engineers like that sort of boring rubbish!)

Great claims were made for the layout's advantages for space utilisation, weight reduction and manufacturing flexibility, but even 5ivegears could spot a few flaws. Taking power round 90 degree bends more often than is entirely necessary is never a good idea, and the designers admitted that more engine capacity could only be achieved with fewer cylinders. They had six in mind, but surely a straight seven would have been the icing on a very strange cake.

With the benefit of fifteen years of hindsight, I am not too surprised that nothing in the least like the Contour or T-Drive ever appeared in a production Ford in the years that followed.

2006-12-04T22:34:00.000Z

Inspired and informed

The one 5ivegears missed...

The Ford 24-7 concept was the most convincing element of Ford's unrealised turn-of-the-century bid to seduce the planet's fashion-conscious youth.

Shown at the 2000 Detroit Motor Show, the concept was underpinned by an adaptable platform with pick-up, four-door fastback, and wagon bodystyles.

The potential of the last seems not to have been lost on Honda, who launched their Element SUV in 2003.

The promising 24-7 project disappeared without trace - or perhaps it didn't...

The profile of the 2002 Transit Connect is strikingly similar to the 24-7 wagon. It would only take a modest re-skin and some of the concept's avant-garde interior design ideas to create something with real panache and no direct competition in the European market.

A missed opportunity? Perhaps not. Even Honda, in their infinite wisdom, don't think the Element could possibly be of any interest to anyone outside Japan, the USA, and Canada.

Once again 5ivegears seems to be in a minority of one.

2006-11-27T00:20:00.000Z

Flog the sleeping dog

Those with an interest in the extraordinary journey of MG Rover's temporal remains and intellectual property have been puzzled and perplexed by SAIC's new website for their 'Roewe' brand to be found at www.roewe.com.cn/experience_center

The video shows the car, a mildly facelifted long-wheelbase Rover 75, being driven through a surreal vision of a British landscape. My interest was excited by the introduction, showing a Viking longship appearing out of a misty sea. SAIC don't own the Rover name so the longship reference loses its point immediately. The badge adopted for "Roewe" is an Olde English capital 'R' in a cod-heraldic shield of the type one might find on a pompous idiot's personal letterhead, and which, ever so conveniently, fits the space left by the Rover badge.

It could be that the video was made when SAIC believed that BMW would accept their offer, or is it possible that SAIC think that the Rover name will still come their way? Export plans are on hold for at least two years, so there's time for negotiation.

If a Financial Times article of 18th November is to be believed the Viking Longship's berth at Solihull is but temporary, and it will soon weigh anchor for a long voyage east.

I prefer to think better of Ford than to imagine that they paid BMW £6 milion for the Rover badge in order to sell it on for a quick buck, but there is some logic to selling it on once their legal people have protected any compound names, such as Trail-Rover, Track-Rover or even Street-Rover, which could be identified with Land-Rover.

Solihull to Shanghai by way of the Grand Union Canal anybody?

2006-11-26T19:47:00.000Z

...and get down with the young folks

It occurs to me that Ford may be better served by establishing a youth and fashion orientated brand on the lines of Toyota's Scion and BMW's Mini.

In 1999 the Marc Newson designed 021C concept was launched in a 'mosh-pit' (whatever that is!). At the same time there were indications that Ford would expand the Ka range as a sub-brand - the Puma, StreetKa and SportKa suggested that this was the company's next major marketing direction.

Somehow the idea withered and died in the years which followed, along with the delightful Puma, and, more happily, the StreetKa. At this moment, at least in Europe, Ford's inexpensive small car offering comprises the worthy but ancient Ka, and the current Fiesta, more an item of street furniture than an object of desire. PSA, Renault, Seat, and even GM do far better. Look worldwide and the Ford cupboard is full of possibilities:

Ford do Brasil's EcoSport - Appalling name, but who'd have thought a Ford Fusion could look so sexy?
The South African Ford Bantam pick-up. Based in the old Fiesta, but could be sold very cheaply, with lots of customisation options.
The 2006 Reflex prototype. Drop the hybrid powertrain and silly doors and sell it at Puma money. A convertible would be nice too...
And how about a surfer-orientated Transit Connect? Give it a surfwear designer label connection and some cool Microbus-inspired visuals and open a new market sector at almost no cost.

Apart from the Reflex it's all ready and waiting, and could be an easier route to profit than the PAG brands.

2006-11-17T00:05:00.000Z

Inspired and Informed

The Toyota Porte and the Peugeot 1007. Two solutions to the 'high supermini with electrically operated sliding doors' brief. Didn't coming up with answers to questions nobody asked used to be Suzuki's job?

Both cars were launched in 2004. Did Toyota and Peugeot collaborate on the car as a side project to the development of the 1007 and Aygo? The Porte uses a Yaris platform, the Peugeot is based on 206 / Citroen C3 underpinnings. That two such similar products could appear in the same year seems stranger even than the cars themselves.

And if you had the choice? Well, the Peugeot has the gutsiest engines, but the Toyota shares its title with the Holy Roman Emperors. No contest then!

2006-11-14T23:16:00.000Z

Y Indeed!

Could there be a hidden message of despair in the registration of this X-Type, appearing in Jaguar's current publicity material?

2006-11-13T22:13:00.000Z

Commercial Break

For the last decade the Japanese home market has been gripped by the cult of 'Utilitarian Chic'. Boxy and unashamedly practical vehicles such as the Suzuki Wagon R, Nissan Cube, and Honda Element have been consistent best sellers and the inspiration for dozen of imitators.

The 'Utilitarian Chic' class, in all its permutations of size and form, is imbued with a sense of knowing high fashion which could be characterised as post-modern irony or inverse snobbery.

It is surprising, therefore, to find that the real workhorses in Japan are possibly the most style-free vehicles made anywhere on the planet. Described as 'vans', the ground rules are; five-door estate car at least appearing to be based on a very old small saloon, 1.5 to 1.8 litre petrol engines, a conspicuous absence of brightwork or colour-keyed frippery, and, curiously and invariably a 4WD option.

The four above are the Toyota Probox, the Nissan AD van (the name sounding rather Citroen-ish...), its Mazda doppelganger the Familia Wagon, and the Honda Partner. The first, and youngest, breaks ranks by looking a little er, arch in the company...

Just about every manufacturer offers something in the class, even if they don't make it in their own factory - the Mazda is a re-badged Nissan AD.

I can only conclude that either Japan's plumbers, photocopier repairers and couriers are the world's stingiest and most conservative car-choosers, or else there's some sort of tax break based around a rigidly set specification. Our most basic Kangoos, Doblos, Caddies and Transit Connects look like motor show concepts by comparison.

5ivegears has an enduring fascination for the unpretentious Japanese transport tools which rarely reach our shores; Land Cruiser Troop Carriers, Nissan Crew taxis, and pick-up trucks devoid of the egregious designer-label vulgarity of the UK export offerings.

Something in my Calvinist soul takes a guiltless delight in mid-grey plastic interiors and instrument clusters and control stalks unchanged since Hirohito was a lad. Am I alone in this, or is the western world, ridden with meretricious boutique cars and German status-insecurity symbols, ready for an influx of Japanese anti-fashion, off the shelf, retro anti-chic?

2006-11-08T22:02:00.000Z

Inspired and informed

Rover's 'Spiritual' concept was shown at the Geneva Motor Show in 1997, almost exactly forty years after BMW launched their 600 uber-bubblecar. No more than a stop-gap until the the 'proper-car' 700 was ready, the BMW 600 combined a stretched Isetta platform with a horizontally opposed motorcycle engine, with styling ameliorated by Michelotti.

Remarkably, the 1997 concept originated within Rover as a proposal for a new Mini and had already been rejected by BMW two years before.

Could stylist Oliver Le Grice's apparent homage to BMW's 1957 proto-monospace pehaps be a polemic against the faithful, but sometimes uncomprehending Issigonis pastiche which the German parent approved for production?

2006-11-03T23:26:00.000Z

Hansa-man Vibrations (1)

5ivegears could not have made this up...

Christian Borgward, grandson of Carl Borgward is seeking venture capital to support the revival of his grandfather's marque, dormant in Europe since the company, based in Sebaldsbruck, Bremen collapsed in 1961.

The plan involves the introduction of a 'prestige compact' car in two bodystyles priced between the Mondeo and Vectra bracket and its intended competitors, the BMW 3-Series, Mercedes -Benz C-Class and Audi A4.

Other details:

Body design by a first-rank Italian styling house, Bertone and Pininfarina being the names mentioned
Production sub-contracted to an established specialist such as Magna-Steyr or Karmann
Production volume 10,000 per annum

Taken at face value, the business plan might be kindly described as audacious.

Herr Borgward intends to enter a market sector where the market leaders are manufactured in volumes approaching 500,000 per annum, are backed by huge R&D budgets, and are widely recognised to be "the best cars in the real world".

Recent history reminds us that the BMW / Mercedes-Benz / Audi hegemony is near-unbreakable. Consider the collapse of MG Rover, GM's tribulations with Saab, and the Jaguar X-Type debacle.

That's the half-empty glass view. Reading a little further, I discover the project has interest from a number of potential Far Eastern backers. Its best hope would be to have a proper carmaker as component provider and underwriter.

There are already several Chinese manufacturers who would fit the frame, and then there's Hyundai who were reputedly interested in Jaguar when Ford hinted it may be for sale. Hyundai Kia Borgward. Could just work...

My favourite potential partner for neue-Borgward would be Subaru. The Impreza and Legacy could provide a pair of platforms Carl Borgward would have admired and would return a favour in the process. (Of which more later...)

If the re-launch of Borgward really does happen it's not going to change the landscape of the global motor industry, but what's not to like about the return of an old name, and the possibility of righting a historical wrong. The best of all possible luck to Christian Borgward.

2006-10-30T23:17:00.000Z

Uninspired and ill-informed...

I'd have thought we could have counted on Mazda to have known better.

The Verisa, presently for Japan only, appears to be an attempt to make a pointless tall supermini appealing by dressing it up as a Porsche Cayenne.

Readers will excuse me for not including an illustration of the latter for comparison purposes. If you don't know what a Porsche Cayenne looks like, just count yourself lucky.

2006-10-30T23:03:00.000Z

Necro Cars

Another car which is Not For Us. The lucky Chinese will soon be offered this resurrected Peugeot 206 wearing a Citroen mask.

Ironically it looks more at home in the present range than the European C2. That car was, of course, designed by an elite cabal of Max Power readers in a darkened room with a school geometry set and photocopied images of an Audi TT, a Bond Bug, and a Lancia White Hen.

5ivegears suspects that Flaminio Bertoni wouldn't have rated either offering.

2006-10-24T22:02:00.000Z

Viva Retro!

5ivegears has had something of a Disraeli* policy towards car magazines recently, but one that's always eagerly awaited is Retro Cars.

For the unenlightened, the magazine's constituency is (mainly UK) popular cars from 1960 to the early 1980s upgraded with modern components. To the hardened 'classicist' this might seem sacrilegeous, but the ingenuity and rather skewed regard for history is a constant source of delight. The magazine is reminiscent of nothing quite so much as mid-70's 'Hot Car' except that the modifier's pallet is augmented with components from thirty years into the future.

Many of the shibboleths are familiar - VG95 pads, 829 cam, 28/36DCD... To these can be added the Vauxhall XE, this being the modern engine of choice regardless of the marque of the receiving vehicle. (I seem to recall this elite group included a revived Munch motorcycle) It's a living reminder that nerd-ery was very much alive when the zenith of desktop technology was a multi-function sliderule.

More to test the philosophy than stretch it to the outer limits, I mentally concocted 5ivegears' fantasy Retro Car.

Casting away thoughts of a VW Passat VR6 powered Lancia Fulvia, or a Honda Z600 (see above) with a Blackbird motorcycle powertrain in place of the back seat, I came up with a Mk.1 or Mk.2 Escort shell with a fast road / tarmac rally suspension set-up. Restored bodyshells are available, at a price, but far more rigid and rustproof than when they originally left Halewood. Just about everything else can be bought new. Power would come from a 2 litre Zetec with a Type 9 five-speed gearbox. According to the adverts (always a signifier of a publication's quality) an engine management system is available which allows an internally unmodifed engine to develop a reliable, economical and tractable 204bhp. (There may be some significance in this figure...)

The whole thing would probably cost more than a new Focus ST, or a decent used E46 M3, but would test my notion that a powerful and utterly reliable modern engine in a light 1970s bodyshell, unencumbered by windbags, air-con, powered electrics and intrusion bars, but with evolved tyres, dampers and bushes, could be a perfect recipe for driving pleasure.

Other demands on my limited funds will ensure it won't happen, but I can still find £3.99 for the entertainment Retro Cars provides. Follow my example, buy it in vast quantities, be inspired and amused.

Or, as Mr. Honda said, "Never underestimate the power of dreams".

* Former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) - "When I want to read a novel I write one"

2006-10-21T21:07:00.000Z

All for one...

The elegant saloon above is the new Fiat Linea, launched at the Istanbul Show. The choice of venue might give the clue that it's Not For Us. Built in the Fiat / Koc Group joint-venture factory that gives us the Doblo, the new car is a big brother to the 'world-car' Palio/Siena and is destined for Turkey, China, and South Africa. As with the Palio Weekend, the car will be sold in some EU markets, but as a supplementary offering rather than part of the mainstream Fiat range.

That's a summary of the basic facts. What excited my interest is that the car uses the platform of the Grande Punto (not joking there, Luca!) but is 4.6m long - in my money only five inches shorter than a Mondeo.

In this era of the enormous supermini, it seems wholly possible that volume car manufacturers could base their entire ranges from supermini to Mondeo class car on one platform or at least component set. VW's Passat and Golf already have far greater commonality of parts than their comparative sizes would suggest.

Of course such a strategy would restrict top end variations like petrol and diesel V6s, and pumped-up all-wheel-drive uber-sedans for the speeding policeman market, but in Europe nobody much buys these anyway. The continent's demand for the universal two-litre turbo-diesel may have peaked, but the sales success of VW's 1.4 litre petrol TSI engine suggests that engine capacities could begin to reduce.

That's one trend. The Fiat Linea may set its own. It may be a car for the developing world, but it could well point the way for the developed world's carmakers.

2006-10-12T19:05:00.000Z

Just supposing...

(Looking at the X-Type from a different perspective)

Imagine a hypothetical scenario whereby Ford had managed to obtain the Triumph name as part of the deal with BMW which brought Rover home to Solihull.

5ivegears thinks the world could be ready for a 21st century Dolomite, and the X-Type could make a perfect platform. The sketches show how the transformation might be achieved.

2006-10-11T23:00:00.000Z

The cat that choked on the cream

You may have noticed that, unlike either Peugeot-Citroen or Ford's Premier Automotive Group, 5ivegears has had some difficulty in upping and moving outwith Coventry's city limits. I feel a Lancia article coming on, but there's some unfinished Warwickshire business still to be done.

It seems an opportune time to consider that perplexing and ill-starred car, the Jaguar X-Type - forever to be known in 5ivegears-speak as "the Mark X Cortina".
Four years have passed since the launch of the X-Type, in a wave of hyperbole which spoke of annual production volumes of 200,000. This car, promoted as the Jaguar for 'Generation X', would, unlike any before, bring Ford's PAG strategy to fruition by 'leveraging' components shared with mainstream Fords into the compact prestige sector. The new product would challenge the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Audi A4 and the BMW 3-Series, the car credited with establishing the segment, although this orthodoxy will be challenged to this day in Solihull and Canley, or even by a few old men in Bremen and Dingolfing.

Sisters under the skin

As a basis for their new compact car, Jaguar's design team pondered the alternatives of either a shortened S-Type platform, or the CD132 Mondeo underpinnings. The S-Type option was quickly rejected on grounds of cost. The CD132 platform was front wheel drive, but a 4x4 estate had been developed and this provided the inaugural X-type chassis, curiously shortened by two inches by comparison with the Ford original in order to avoid a conflict with the scarcely more spacious S-Type.

The design priority for the 4x4 Mondeo had been traction in demanding terrain and conditions, and it had been criticised from its launch for transmission noise and general lack of refinement. It can be assumed that considerable effort went into endowing the drivetrain with the finesse expected in its upmarket role, as the all wheel drive 2.5 and 3.0 litre petrol V6 X-Types launched in 2002 made a favourable impression for their dynamics, refinement, and performance.

Any European observer of real-world buying trends in the 3-Series class would have recognised the contrivance behind the platform strategy. Around 80% of sales in the sector are near-baseline four-cylinders, and Jaguar would have to reduce specifications ruthlessly to compete in the heartland of this class. Purists feared that a front wheel drive X-Type with a 1.8 Zetec engine and plastic wheel trims was just around the corner.

Ironically, as potential X-Type buyers worldwide stayed away, unconvinced by the extreme mutation of the Jaguar identity, the features incorporated to retain a veneer of affinity with the company's historic ethos were stripped away in pursuit of market share and profit. Front wheel drive came first, with a sub-£20,000 2.1 litre V6 in late 2002, rather sooner than we had expected. Conversely, the four cylinder diesels considered essential to class competitiveness did not appear until early 2004. All had their undoubted merits but were they Jaguars? How could a front wheel drive estate car built in Halewood with a four cylinder Ford diesel ever be?

The unasked question

It's never been asked before as far as I know, but how difficult would it have been to re-engineer the 4x4 Mondeo platform to accommodate a longitudinal engine and rear wheel drive? The propshaft and rear suspension were already in place. Observers of recent car design will recall the Renault 21, which accommodated transverse and longitudinal engines, and also the Escort Cosworth, but there is a much more relevant paradigm in the shape of the 2000 Ford Transit, the X-Type's stablemate and near contemporary, whose engine compartment allows either transverse front wheel drive or longitudinal rear wheel drive configurations to be built as production line options.

So near yet so far...

Geoff Lawson and his styling team produced a shape which touched on brilliance, but were ultimately defeated by the constraints of the Mondeo platform. The work around the rear three-quarters evokes both the original XJ6 and Pininfarina's 1979 Series 3 facelift, but surpasses both. The XK8 inspired tail is a particularly elegant solution to the perennial problem of retaining the tapering Jaguar leitmotiv and incorporating decent luggage space.

Regrettably, forward of the front bulkhead, the CD132 componentry overwhelmed the best intentions of the styling team. The high bonnet line, short nose, and long front overhang precluded anything resembling the signature long bonnet, which had been a distinctive Jaguar feature since the company produced their first cars in Blackpool.

It's only a personal opinion, but the X-Type might have had a better chance with a variant of the Mark II-inspired grille which had played a large part in the S-Type's acceptance and success. The oval grill and inboard headlights have become a 1960s visual icon, enduring long after Mark. II production ended. The most succesful of the recent 'British revival' cars, best exemplified by the Mini have a cartoon quality, rather than stilted deference to the original.

The X-Type's 'XJ in miniature' grille appears needlessly reverential to the company's past although the headlight surrounds, intended to recall the air intakes of the Comet airliner, were a stroke of referential genius.

Rights and wrongs

The parent company's notion that Jaguar's growth in sales and profitability should be won in the 'compact prestige' sector demonstrates scant understanding of the recent history of its competitors:

BMW's present reputation, and indeed the company's survival is founded on the 1962 'Neue Klasse' 1500 and 1800, and the 1966 1602/2002, in each case smaller cars than the current 3-Series.

Audi's VW-backed resurgence effectively began with the 1968 100, and 1972 80. Acceptance of the A6 and A8 in their higher-priced market sectors, (Jaguar's heartland) has been hard-won.

When Mercedes-Benz launched their brilliant 190E in 1982, its pricing made clear that it was a compact Mercedes, not a downmarket one. Mercedes Benz's reputation and brand values are arguably founded on design thoroughness and engineering integrity, rather than a particular driving experience or size class.

Defining the values associated with the Jaguar nameplate is a complicated task, but the XJ-era ethos is one of graceful styling, effortless power, supreme comfort and isolation from the outside world combined with dynamic prowess.

The combination of all of these is well-nigh impossible in a compact vehicle - Jaguar's quintessence is founded on large-car strengths.

Was the negative effect of a move downmarket for Jaguar's brand equity considered? Before the X-type, a Jaguar, unlike its German competitors, was perceived as a singular and idiosyncratic £30,000-plus prestige car, not part of a range with a base entry level set below £20,000.

It is an indication of how far the industry has moved on that a competent and apparently reliable car should miss its sales targets and be branded a failure so soon after its launch. Perhaps the reality is that the buying public actually are sufficiently discerning to recognise that they were being offered a set of existing Ford components in moderately seductive wrapping, rather than a design which in any way embodied true Jaguar values and tradition in a compact package.

Future? What future?

I have a feeling that it may not be long until Ford pull the plug on the X-type venture - there's no sign of commitment to a replacement and no investment in the present four year old design. A few rhetorical questions:

What has become of the mid-term facelift?
Where are the four wheel drive diesels, the V6 diesel, or indeed a diesel automatic?
Why is there no Type R hardcore Audi RS4 rival? We have seen the potential of the V6 engine as used in Noble sports cars. Such a variant may not sell in big numbers or save the X-Type single-handed, but the streets of any British business district are full of incontrovertible evidence that the company car user-chooser likes a veneer of RS4 or M3 on his or her four cylinder A4 or 3-Series motorway-pounder.
Where is the high-riding 4x4 estate in the style of the Alfa Romeo Crosswagon Q4? This last idea is mildly abhorrent, but the hardware is all there to produce one within a budget of the sort MG Rover had for product development, and people are buying these things in big numbers.

Doomed?

Ford have lately affirmed their intention to retain Volvo, Jaguar and Land-Rover. In order to assure shareholders that this commitment is not born of inertia and indecision, they will need to demonstrate resolve and ruthlessness, and could well seek a lamb for the slaughter, as did DaimlerChrysler's directors when they axed the Smart Roadster and SmartForFour.

The first indications of healthy demand for the new Freelander, could present the ideal opportunity for Jaguar's masters to cut their losses on the X-Type, shift the under-used X-Type tooling to Chongqing or Chennai, and bury the bad news behind a face-saving Halewood success story.

2006-10-09T19:43:00.000Z

Inspired and informed?

(The one in white is a 1991 Toyota Paseo)

Further evidence that there's some kind of game going in BMW's design studios involving surreptitiously passing off elements of forgettable 1990s Japanese mediocrity in every new model.

They thought they got away with the E90 3-Series' Mitsubishi Carisma tail-lights, but a whole car may be taking it too far...

2006-10-04T19:10:00.000Z

Stranger than this it does not get

With a couple of hours of free time in Coventry I had two possibilities. Visit Coventry Cathedral, and have my spirit uplifted by one of the masterpieces of post-war British architecture, or go to the Museum of British Road Transport.

The choice was really no choice. I knew the museum had an example of the Commer TS3 two-stroke diesel engine which has been an object of fascination ever since I gained a rudimentary understanding of engine design.

This remarkable engine was inherited by Rootes Group through their 1950 takeover of Tilling-Stevens, a small lorry and bus manufacturer based in Maidstone, Kent. Although a comparatively small operation, Tilling-Stevens' history could be traced back to last years of the 19th century, and the company had a lifelong reputation for bold and innovative design.

The two-stroke TS3 upheld this tradition with distinction - there cannot be many production engines which so wholeheartedly defy convention in almost every aspect of their design.

First commercially produced in 1954, the Roots-supercharged TS3's opposed piston design entailed each cylinder having two pistons, four connecting rods and a pair of rocker arms finally transmitting motion to a conventional crankshaft situated beneath the cylinder block. The engine's distinguished antecedents were the Junkers 'Jumo 205' aircraft engine of the 1930s and the 1950 British Napier Deltic engine. The latter, an 88 litre, 18 cylinder unit, was developed to power minesweepers, but achieved iconic status in the eponymous railway locomotives.

Despite its complexity, the Commer engine was a reliable and versatile power unit used in trucks, buses and even a late 1950s bespoke racing car transporter built for Ecurie Ecosse by Alexanders of Falkirk. The engine's unique selling proposition was that, by providing power comparable to an eight litre conventional diesel in a much lighter and smaller package, operators could carry more freight within the prescribed GVW limits. The TS3's specific power output, astounding for the time, anticipated today's high-performance diesels by nearly half a century. In its final production form in the early 1970s, the 3.3 litre TS3 developed around 130bhp. The contemporary petrol Rover V8, 200cc larger in capacity, produced 145bhp in its most powerful version.

The opposed-piston design offered the possibility of developing a modular range and although all production versions had three cylinders, a batch of four-cylinder prototypes was developed in the 1960s but never proceeded to series manufacture. Development of the Commer engine ceased following Chrysler's takeover of Rootes' car and commercial vehicle interests. Those who have heard one say it is one of the best sounding engines ever. It is a pity that the baton has never been taken up by another manufacturer - perhaps they are wary of the two-stroke's problems with emissions compliance.

Good ideas abandoned in the past often re-emerge when the time and supporting technology are right - in 1906 Tilling-Stevens introduced their first petrol-electric vehicles, and continued to produce them for the next two decades.

The observant reader may have noticed that such 'hybrid' powertrains have become something of a cause celebre of late...

2006-10-01T19:01:00.000Z

They've taken my timewarp away

Driving past my neighbourhood Jeep Chrysler dealer this weekend, I discover it's undergone a makeover - new facia, new signage, Jeep and Chrysler branding joined by the Dodge ram's head looking disturbingly Satanic in red on black.

What's noteworthy is not however the new face of Chrysler, but what went before. When Chrysler returned to the UK after a long absence, along with the Jeeps and Neons, there suddenly appeared perfect simulacra of pre-Peugeot, pre-Talbot, pre-1978 Chrysler UK showrooms, with the Pentastar on its light blue and white facia scarcely different from the days of the American takeover of Rootes.

Life on Mars

For those of a certain (fairly advanced) age it's possible to imagine taking a 'Life on Mars' type step into a world of kipper ties, broad lapels, 1970s haircuts, and most importantly, vinyl-roofed Avengers, Hillman Minxes with hose-out interiors, and brand new Hillman Imps.

Of course, it's just a moment's middle-aged fantasy, but the British High Street, or more likely edge-of-town 'motor village', is a poorer place now that this unintended anachronistic throwback has gone for good.

2006-10-01T12:31:00.000Z

Letting sleeping dogs lie

The announcement on 18 September that Ford intend to exercise their option to purchase the Rover trademark from BMW caused scarcely a ripple of excitement even in the automotive press, but the Blue Oval's move prompts some speculation on the future relationship between the established carmakers and the increasingly sophisticated and highly ambitious motor industry in China.

As several Chinese manufacturers such as Great Wall, Geely Automobile, Chery, and Lifeng ready themselves to enter sophisticated western markets with indigenously developed products, a number of names of 'companies which used to make cars' could become very valuable commodities.

Just look round the electrical department of your local hyper-market and you will find numerous resurrected brand-names on generic products from the People's Republic. I don't doubt that most consumers approach the purchase of a car with more thought than buying a kettle or DVD player, but adoption of an established name, even one carrying negative historical baggage, could give an unknown manufacturer a five to ten year advantage in brand recognition in a new market.

Nanjing Automobile Group's purchase of the physical and invisible assets of MG Rover looks shrewder by the day. Even if Nanjing themselves have no use for the Austin, Morris and Wolseley trademarks, they could soon be saleable for far more than was paid for MG Rover's assets.

Such thoughts also bring to mind other dormant nameplates which have the potential to be resurrected:

The various Rootes brands now held by PSA, along with Simca and Panhard
Riley and Triumph, now owned by BMW, probably never to be used
The others, held by Fiat, VW, BMW and possibly nobody - Autobianchi, Borgward, Daf and DKW

Volkswagen Group are unhappily saddled with one unused trademark which the Anglophone now more commonly associates with a genito-urinary disorder, but Simca and Sunbeam could have international potential, and was there ever a trademark given up so carelessly as Triumph?

Rover's Viking longship is unlikely to appear on a Ford product any time soon, although the move does support Ford's reassurances that Land Rover has a future within Premier Automotive Group. The greater significance is that they are willing to outflank SAIC to put the Rover trademark 'beyond use' by potential Land Rover competitors. Let us not forget that thwarted bidder SAIC's portfolio includes a majority shareholding in the ambitious 4x4 specialist Ssangyong.

It may be no more than a straw in the wind, but Ford's purchase is a clear indicator that the established carmaking groups recognise the potential threat of an increasingly autonomous and competitive Chinese industry, and will guard these trademarks as fiercely as they have done the intellectual property rights for their licensed products. If they do not, they could find themselves staring down the barrels of the guns they have just sold.

2006-10-01T12:17:00.000Z

Welcome - look forward and look back

Welcome to 5ivegearsinreverse, a very personal look backwards and forwards at the automotive world. The observations are occasionally informed by an arcane body of obsessively-garnered knowledge, but more often simply by disbelief, bewilderment, and spite.

For most of the past thirty-five years, I've had a car magazine going on inside my head. Few around me knew, and those who suspected despaired that the mental capacity was not put to a more beneficial purpose.

Unlike its real-world counterparts, my one-reader magazine has matured over the years. Bedroom-wall-poster 'Supercars' and activities involving getting from A to A more rapidly than the next fellow were never of more than peripheral interest. Instead my curiosity was aroused by how and where vehicles were made, and the often irrational machinations of the industry's corporate bodies.

The purpose behind this site is to make occasional observations on the progress of a 120 year old industry which still seems far from mature, and seems set, within the next ten years, to undergo a cataclysmic change unparalleled in the previous fifty. We are living in exciting times.

As a lighter counterpoint, this site will take a somewhat idiosyncratic look into the past, celebrating prophets without honour, unsung heroes, heroic failures and downright oddities.

Hold tight for the ride - even I don't know where we're going.