Cars that never made the light of day

[fourwheelsteer]

quiraing said:

Puddenchucker said:

The BMC 1800 of 1967

Any more info on this one? Haven't seen this before.

Looks like a cross between a Citroen CX and a Triumph 2000. But based on the Landcrab???!!! Michelotti??

It was a design study by Pininfarina for BMC. When BMC didn't use it the design was either sold to or pinched by (I can't remember which) Citroen. You can see the influence in the Citroen GS and CX. The Pininfarina concept must also have exerted some influence over Harris Mann's design for the 1800's successor, the Austin Princess.

Steffan said:

Unsurprisingly Issigonis was a big fan of Citroen. You can certainly see the evidence here. Shades of DS abound. Pity it was not followed up. But that applies to all the Issigonis concepts.

I thought Issigonis hated un-necessary styling, he didn't approve of the job Pininfarina did on the BMC 1100/1300 (which, IMHO, was the best looking of his FWD cars) series and wouldn't let the Italians tidy up the BMC 1800/2200 series. The big, FWD saloon had many sensible virtues (great bodily strength, lots of passenger room, good roadholding) but it wasn't what you'd call pretty.

Issigonis was a very clever and capable engineer but he seemed to be a complete control freak who believed the only right way was his way.

[Pothole]

I love Pontiac's XP-883 Banshee of 1963-64. It was a DeLorean pet project but thought of as too direct competition for the Corvette so scrapped. Plenty of styling cues from the 'vette, but the reaer end is very different:

[CanAm]

Vauxhall XVR concept car of 1966!

[Ten Four]

Edited by Ten Four on Saturday 22 December 11:03

[RemyMartin]

[Kitchski]

TomN94 said:

The only car I ever wanted to see in production.

All is not lost: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.326215047...

[gforceg]

RosscoPCole said:

How about a Mini based roadster from the early 1960s

That looks almost identical to the Peugeot 304 convertible.

[Cledus Snow]

CraigyMc said:

Even today I cannot for the life of me see why Lotus didn't go ahead with the M250:

They did. It's called the Evora.

[anonymous-user]

CanAm said:

Vauxhall XVR concept car of 1966!

And he's going the "wrong" way around the HSB too!!

[VeeDub Geezer]

Kitchski said:

TomN94 said:

The only car I ever wanted to see in production.

All is not lost: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.326215047...

I was going to link to that...

[ajprice]

Smart ForMore small 4x4 model. Based on the Mercedes GLK that didnt happen either at the time (Mercedes were short of money at the time and cutting back). Designed, developed, tested, killed just before the concept unveil at Frankfurt 2005, the test cars were crushed. Now we've got Qashqai, Juke, Mini Countryman etc. a small 4x4 Smart would have done just fine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Formore

Edited by ajprice on Saturday 22 December 15:31

[CraigyMc]

Cledus Snow said:

CraigyMc said:

Even today I cannot for the life of me see why Lotus didn't go ahead with the M250:

They did. It's called the Evora.

I meant in 2000-odd when the M250 was current, rather than now.

C

[EDLT]

AWD Focus RS.

[Six Fiend]

The BMW E34 converitble and this Daimler Corsica are my two hot favourites:

[va1o]

Didn't realise there were quite so many BMWs that fell into this category! The E30 pick up looks amusing

ajprice said:

Smart ForMore small 4x4 model. Based on the Mercedes GLK that didnt happen either at the time (Mercedes were short of money at the time and cutting back). Designed, developed, tested, killed just before the concept unveil at Frankfurt 2005, the test cars were crushed. Now we've got Qashqai, Juke, Mini Countryman etc. a small 4x4 Smart http://www.wrexham.com/news/cow-rampage-town-centr... have done just fine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Formore

That's quite an interesting find, remember reading about the ForMore a few years ago but nothing ever came of it. Mercedes did eventually release a GLK a couple of years ago based on the W204 C-Class chassis to take on the BMW X3 and Audi Q5 but its LHD only unfortunately so not for sale over here.

[TheHeretic]

The divine looking Infiniti Essence.

[DrTre]

The new F-Type is darned nice but the original is stunning.

[FD3Si]

The thoroughly wonderful Holden Efijy.





Ridiculous levels of want.

[mat777]

Ford brought back the GT40 and re-worked the Mustang, so why did they never follow through with the Cobra as well?




The GKN FFF100 - A very fast coupe sporting sharp styling, 4wd and ABS. Shame that whilst Jensen dithered about then canned it, Audi was busy nicking all their ideas and turning them into the Quattro




Renault Zoom - Great idea for parking in modern, busy cities whilst still having a normal length car for parcticality and handling reasons (looking at you, Smart). Apparently it really worked very well. So why did they never make it?

[Chicane-UK]

Corrado Cabrio! I don't care much for soft-tops but as a fan of the Corrado, it would have been fun to see more models.