It could have bloody worked - cars which could have been...

[NorfolkNWeigh]

 

V8 FE,killed by OPEC Oil Embargo weeks before launch at the motor show .

 

If Vauxhall had made this Ford would have had to make V8 Granadas and Triumph put the Stag V8 in the 2000, maybe even a 318 Chrysler 180.

 

The Saudis have got a lot to answer for .

[warren t claim]

V8 Granada and Capri.

 

Mk3 Granada coupe.

[spike60]

The Corvette estate looks ok in a Scimitar kinda way, the one in the pic is a UK car I think

 

 

On the other hand the rear engined Corvette from 1964 was the leery pig it was going to be!

 

 

 

A large amount of the styling survived to become the front engined Corvette C3 in 1967

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Junkman]

A large amount of the styling survived to become the front engined Corvette C3 in 1968

 

EFA.

 

The '67 'vette was gleefully C2.

 

They did another mid-engined concept in the mid-Seventies called "1980 Corvette":

 

 

It was supposed to have a four-rotor Wankel.

[Junkman]

Ford Granada Altair by Ghia:

 

I bet it would have sold better than the MK3.

[Asimo]

Jaguar Mk10 and then XJ with Daimler's 4.5 V8 engine instead of the XK engine.

 

Issigonis' Metro with the straight six engine / torque converter only transmission.

[Junkman]

 

[Mr A Lawrence]

[MrDuke]

1967 Pininfarina 'Landcrab' prototype, pre-dating the CX and SD1 by several years. All stock 1800 running gear.

 

 

 

[Junkman]

Almost perfect, except for that kink at the back. If they'd kept the window base line straight and slightly sloped the roof down, it would've been awesome. Although needing different rear doors would've made it even more improbable.

 

Let's not forget that these are prototypes. There is a long way of development ahead until they'd be ready for production.

I was still at BMW when they started to develop the e30 Touring, so it must have been 1985. The idea was born because BMW employee Max Reisböck had modified his saloon (this is NOT an urban legend!) and his car served as the first prototype.

 

 

It still took them until 1991 to develop it for production.

[doobietoo]

 

Bammmmm.....

[mercrocker]

Imagine how much these would be worth had they built them..........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There has been a re-creation, I believe.....

[Junkman]

 

Bammmmm.....

 

Isn't that a standard Autobianchi Primula, or am I missing something?

[Junkman]

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Let's not forget that these are prototypes. There is a long way of development ahead until they'd be ready for production.

I was still at BMW when they started to develop the e30 Touring, so it must have been 1985. The idea was born because BMW employee Max Reisböck had modified his saloon (this is NOT an urban legend!) and his car served as the first prototype.

 

 

It still took them until 1991 to develop it for production.

Imagine that happening today. Or not. It's a shame the whole design and make process has become so clinical. Never knew that's how the E30 touring started.

[Junkman]

[mercrocker]

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of these lived near me......

[doobietoo]

Isn't that a standard Autobianchi Primula, or am I missing something?

Yep .....

[dugong]

This is what I wanted when I had Minis

 

Oooh, Radford DeVille. There was a very serious Rover Group proposal to give the original Mini a hatch, called the MinKi (K for K-Series) - in fact, a hatch was but one of several improvements the team wanted to implement, along with a new dash, different seats and a K series Because of crash test issues, concerns about torsional rigidity (and because type approval would have meant spending money), the project never went anywhere.

 

 

There was also this mad one off thing a Redditch coachbuilder converted for a customer. It was on eBay last year.

 

 

Of course, there was a hatchback Mini built by British Leyland - but not in the UK:

 

 

This was the 1974 'Bertone' Mini, a reshelled hatch using Mini floor pans and running gear, built by Innocenti (a BL satellite) in the old Lambretta works in Milan.

If you look carefully, some of the ADO88 Metro clay proposals used Bertone Mini wheels. You could buy them in the UK via an importer but they were never available through Austin dealerships. Why BL didn't use it as a stopgap before the Metro in 1980 I've no idea.

 

Later Daihatsu engined cars (built under Alessandro DeTomaso's control when he purchased Innocenti from BL) were actually craftilty re shelled Daihatsu Charade G11s. That's how hot Japanese Domestic Market Charade G11s ended up badged as DeTomasos - a reverse licensing agreement.

[scruff]

There's a few RR Classic convertibles around, I think Freddie Mercury had one that was sold at auction a few years ago and I once met a rather strange man who had spent an awful lot of money trying to find the brown one Roger Moore drove in Octopussy.

 

Can't find the picture now but dugong (I think) posted a two door 405 coop that looked stunning

[MrDuke]

 

Isn't this prototype the one that had a vent on the O/S pillar, and a porthole on the N/S, as they couldn't decide which looked better?

[dugong]

Imagine how much these would be worth had they built them..........

 

 001_Saxon.jpg

 

 There has been a re-creation, I believe.....

 

Yeah, a Mk1 Cortina specialist showed it at the London Classic Car Show last year. He did most of the fabrication work with a cutting torch in one hand and that picture in the other. He used a 1500GT as a donor - and it was quite a nice one, as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He ended up parading it because the organisers were supposed to have club stands in the other hall in the ExCeL - but it didn't happen. He ended up doing the moving motorshow as a conciliatory gesture. Having laid out a lot of money to get several cars ready for the show, he suddenly had nowhere to display them. He ran it with and without hardtop, which he also fabricated.

 

 

This is Dave, a Ford factory apprentice. He walked up to the owner and said: "This is how I remembered seeing the Saxon back in the 'Sixties." I'd take that as a compliment.

 

Quite a few times, groups of anal concours types pored over it, and began snorting because there was a bit of loose paint on the B pillar - completely missing the fact that the owner had bloody fabricated the thing using nothing but an old jig and a press photograph.

[dugong]

Can't find the picture now but dugong (I think) posted a two door 405 coop that looked stunning

The Heuliez one? It had two different side window treatments. And Mi16 running gear. And it sold for 12,000 euros. It didn't have any identity papers mind - it would have been a sod to get through an SVA. Probably would have ended up on a Q plate.

 

 

 

 

 

Truth be told, I found the Artcurial Heuliez sale more interesting than the rest of LMC 2012.

 

Artcurial seemed to own this rather mental X300 XJR estate, too:

 

[Junkman]

[Junkman]

[chaseracer]

^^ Has that Jaaaaaaaaaag got the top back end of a Camry XV20...?

 

[Junkman]

[Junkman]

[Junkman]

 

[Junkman]