Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[New POD]

Yeah, that's the new land rover. 

[warch]

What's the betting that it makes its way into the executive 4x4 section when SHB hire finally replace their Defender fleet. Shame really because I would like to have a go in one.

[ChinaTom]

That Epica is probably an in-line six cylinder. 
 

anyway, what about this little beauty?

 

 

[lesapandre]

That Landrover thing. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. First proper outing where I drive my 4x4 Landcruiser (muddy narrow rutted lanes, hedges and bushes sticking out, huge potholes and muddy fields) all that stupid plastic would be caked in mud or in tatters. What are they doing! Surely there is a market for a proper 4x4...or is that not profitable or satisfy legislation?

It looks like an 80's kit car 4x4. Rickman Ranger and the like. Will people pay good money to look like ****ers. Probably yes.

Rickman quite elegant in comparison.

[myglaren]

Saw one of these yesterday.  A new one for me.

[lesapandre]

Copen I think. Very small but they look fun.

[bunglebus]

Yes please

 

[JeeExEll]

Triumph Pony.  A what???

4X4 based on the Triumph 1300 fwd but with drive to a rear axle (obv). Could have made an interesting road saloon, a missed opportunity for the Toledo or Dolomite in the 70s?  A Dolomite Sprint quattro.  Hmm.

[High Jetter]

That's interesting. They did convert a 1300FWD with 4WD for rallying, but it didn't last long. Maybe if it had.....

[lesapandre]

An awful lot of time was spent by British manufacturers in developing new vehicles that got close to production but did not make it. Thats an awful lot of wasted talent and ideas alas. 

A lot of it was dropped as companies amalgamated. Some was just not commercial and some was dead end tech or misjudged in the marketplace or where they did not see the future clearly enough.

Rover toiled with their gas turbine  for example when really at the time a great diesel was what they want for the LR etc. They also had two cars production ready that were dropped on the BLMC merger.

Ferguson had their 4-wheel drive and anti-lock braking tech that I think Triumph, Jensen and then Ford UK tried.

So many great things not pursued for whatever reason.

 

[lesapandre]

10 minutes ago, JeeExEll said:

Triumph Pony.  A what???

4X4 based on the Triumph 1300 fwd but with drive to a rear axle (obv). Could have made an interesting road saloon, a missed opportunity for the Toledo or Dolomite in the 70s?  A Dolomite Sprint quattro.  Hmm.

This could have been an MoD contract prototype? As part of a potential supplier proposal that came to nothing?

[chaseracer]

4 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

That's interesting. They did convert a 1300FWD with 4WD for rallying, but it didn't last long. Maybe if it had.....

Some discussion on this over on the blue pages...

http://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/201124/triumph-1300-4wd

[New POD]

3 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

An awful lot of time was spent by British manufacturers in developing new vehicles that got close to production but did not make it. Thats an awful lot of wasted talent and ideas alas. 

A lot of it was dropped as companies amalgamated. Some was just not commercial and some was dead end tech or misjudged in the marketplace or where they did not see the future clearly enough.

Rover toiled with their gas turbine  for example when really at the time a great diesel was what they want for the LR etc.

 

Parts suppliers like Lucas Industries, had some great ideas, but would Only Pursue development from concept into production if they had a customer actually prepared to sign on the dotted line. 

I'm thinking that I knew about the early development of electric power assist steering at Lucas Car Braking Systems site at Fen End, where they were pretty much told by UK customers that small cars did not need power steering and they nearly dumped the idea. 

That was the last involvement I had, until I realised years later that TRW had ended up with bits of Lucas Automotive and they had inherited the Electric power steering and were the world leaders. 

As the man said : the problem with Lucas is that they try to save money, rather thsn working out how to make money. 

[Yoss]

That Pony isn't really a Triumph, it was built in Israel using the Triumph engine and box by a company who's name I forget. 

The last time I looked Canley Classics had a couple of the gearboxes in stock. The Triumph 1300 has similar rear suspension to the 2000, minus driveshafts, so I think a 2000 rear subframe could be made to fit. But it is even lower geared than a normal 1300 which is already quite low. No chance of putting a Sprint engine on it but the 1300 can be tuned quite nicely. 

[martc]

7 hours ago, bunglebus said:

 

2 hours ago, lesapandre said:

It looks like an 80's kit car 4x4.

Judging by the almost straight spare wheel cover are we absolutely sure it's not a 1980's kit car?

[High Jetter]

As there are 4 of them on the trailer, I doubt it!

[RoadworkUK]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

As there are 4 of them on the trailer, I doubt it!

I think you'll find it's somebody moving their 1980s kit car collection.

[bunglebus]

20200202_164120 by RS, on Flickr

[Austat]

9 hours ago, Yoss said:

That Pony isn't really a Triumph, it was built in Israel using the Triumph engine and box by a company who's name I forget. 

The last time I looked Canley Classics had a couple of the gearboxes in stock. The Triumph 1300 has similar rear suspension to the 2000, minus driveshafts, so I think a 2000 rear subframe could be made to fit. But it is even lower geared than a normal 1300 which is already quite low. No chance of putting a Sprint engine on it but the 1300 can be tuned quite nicely. 

Triumph 1300's were built in Israel under license by Sussita (I believe):

They were offered as a higher end version of the fibreglass body Don Carmels, it was convenient as the Carmels shared the same 1300 running gear.

They also introduced a 1500 version, using the 1300 body:

[Amishtat]

On 1/27/2020 at 7:54 PM, MKT said:

Sherpley Speed, a Sherpa based kit car.

My uncle sent off for the brochure for one of these about 20-25 years ago, having had the vague notion of putting a Vanden Plas 4 litre R lump in it with 2 Montego turbochargers bolted to it (long time ago, they were cheap & throwaway at the time.) Nothing about the cheaply Xeroxed two page flyer which came through the post inspired any further consideration of the idea.. 

[Ghosty]

8 hours ago, bunglebus said:

20200202_164120 by RS, on Flickr

It's a rebadged Dodge Journey.

[TataBobu]

On 2/2/2020 at 7:37 AM, New POD said:

It looks a bit like they borrowed the Vectra c and changed it. 

Looks like it, but it's a Daewoo made in-house.

[martc]

Austria is riddled with FIAT Freemonts.

It also works the other way around - the FIAT Tipo Sedan is being flogged as the Dodge Neon (yes that old chestnut) in certain markets (eg Mexico and Uruguay). The FIAT Tipo Sedan may be another unknown car to some viewers as we only get the hatchback and estate here. I think the sedan has a touch of the original Neon to it. Our readers maybe interested to know that what we know as the Chrysler Neon were also sold as Dodge and Plymouth  Neons.

Dodge Neon

FIAT Tipo sedan

[TataBobu]

Austria had two GM factories, Opel Wien plant (part of PSA now) and  Magna Steyr in Gratz., which used to build Jeep and Chrysler for European market, but Fiat Freemont is Mexico-built if I remember correctly. So that's a bit of a surprise TBH.

[Macscrooge]

On 2/2/2020 at 12:50 PM, myglaren said:

Saw one of these yesterday.  A new one for me.

The mighty Daihatsu Copen!  Powered, if I recall correctly, by a 1-litre 3-pot turbo!  I had one as a loaner for a day. Luckily it was dry as I’m 6foot2 and could only get in the little  fu**er by lowering the roof. Fun though, in rather a ‘honey I shrank the MX-5’ way. 

[Yoss]

16 hours ago, Austat said:

Triumph 1300's were built in Israel under license by Sussita (I believe):

They were offered as a higher end version of the fibreglass body Don Carmels, it was convenient as the Carmels shared the same 1300 running gear.

They also introduced a 1500 version, using the 1300 body:

They were also built in South Africa as 1500s in a 1300 shell and Malta just as 1300 or 1300TC's. Didn't know about Israel but not entirely surprised. 

[bunglebus]

[Austat]

The CAM Sprite, I have no info on this apart from that it's Spridget based of course.

[MKT]

Never realised they did a 4x4 version of the MK1 Mondeo (that's a little 4x4 badge on the front wing).

[barrett]

Cars that almost certainly don't exist, #1:

Wincanton (Woking, an arm of the transport firm) was a glassfibre specialist that built milkfloat bodies, and the Phase II Peerless GT shells, but I have never before heard of them producing their own proprietary shell for special building. Launching a new shell for the Ford Pop chassis in 1962 seems like poor market research to me. Did they ever make any? Had it even been designed? I'm dying to know!