Retro-styled cars

In My Humble Opinion
1

I asked which sports car was the largest selling (actually, 2nd-largest-selling) in this thread. That got me to thinking about retro-styled cars.

Ford has the retro T-bird. There is the PT Cruiser. And, of course, the New Beetle. The latest is the (BMW) Mini Cooper. There are even Morgans for the very rich. (Have they ever not been “retro”?) What cars would you like to see revivied?

As you all probably know, I’m a fan of sports cars. I’ve had three MGB roadsters and two Porsches. They’re still making Porsches, but the last MGBs hit the American market in 1980. As American safety and pollution standards tightened, British Leyland (formerly BMC – British car companies confuse me because of all of the mergers and whatnot) changed the MGB. The emmissions controls sapped the power from the engine they had been using since 1962. Handling suffered because the cars had to sit higher in case of a collision, and many people mourned the loss of the chrome bumpers that were lost in favour of energy-absorbing urethane bumpers. Triumph tried to come up with a new design for the late-1970s: The TR-7 (“The Shape of Things to Come” or “The Wedge”). It was underpowered and the TR-8 came too late and burned too much fuel to be very popular.

But now we have cars that make decent power and are fuel-efficient and fairly “clean”. Mazda created the Miata, which is completely in the spirit of the MGB. So here are some out-of-production cars that I’d like to see introduced for the new Century:
[ul][li]MGB (of course). It had great styling and was a lot of fun. (I’d accept the MGF, but it’s not available in the States.)[/li][li]Triumph. The TR4s and TR6s were great. How about bringing them back?[/li][li]Shelby Cobra. Yeah, I’ve seen Mustang Cobras, but you know the one I’m talking about.[/li][li]Chevy Nomad[/ul][/li]
What would you like to see resurrected?

2

VW’s Karmann Ghia convertible

3

Despite all of its manufacturing defects, I did enjoy my Triumph GT-6.

4

Oh, those were so cool! :slight_smile:

Ringo: Indeed. The manufacturing defects would surely be worked out in a modern version. I’m not sure – Is that a Triumph Herald in the background? My dad had a red Herald convertible when I was three, but the only memory I have of it is looking out over the boot as we were driving on a Naval base in Japan.

5

Johnny, that is in fact a Triumph Herald in the background. One of my college roommates had one (that I got to fix regularly).

I realize my wording above might be misleading; the GT-6 pictured is not mine, but mine was Ferrari red and I had Minilites on it.

Friends had other British Leyland products (MGBs, Spits, TR-6, MGC, etc.) and we generally enjoyed’em, but you just had to get used to door handles that didn’t work, trim that fell off, Limey rubber, etc. The GT-6’s particular trick was devouring valve springs. I carried a box of’em and the requisite tools and changing out a valve spring at a rest area became roughly equivalent to changing a flat tire.

I used to fantasize about building one right.

The first time I saw one of the new T-birds (at a distance, head-on) I thought it was an early 'vette.

6

There’s a retro-styled Chevy wagon based on the old Nomad. It’s a concept car right now, but I think there’s a chance it might make production, especially now that wagons are coming back.

http://www.motortrendautoshows.com/concepts/nomad.html]Concept Nomad

I think Chevrolet would kill the market if they made a retro-styled Camaro based on the '67-'69 models. Why haven’t they learned from Ford? The new generation Mustang KILLED the Camaro in the 90’s, because the Camaro tried to go ‘Corvette-lite’ with a low-slung sports car with unusable back seat, lousy cargo capacity, low seats, raked windshield with glare issues, etc. It just wasn’t a very usable car.

Ford, on the other hand, built a Mustang with upright seating, retro styling, a large, usable trunk, back seats people could actually sit in for short hops, etc. They sold just as many to women as men. The Mustang is an actual practical commuter car, and the new Camaros never were. So even though the performance of the Camaro was better than the Mustang in almost all categories, the Mustang destroyed it in sales.

Give me a retro Camaro, the base model of which looks like a '67, and the high-end model that looks like a '69 Z-28. Put the 5.7 liter V-8 in it, which is essentially the same engine the Camaros had back then. Put upright sport seats in the mix, give the Z-28 about 400 HP, and you’ll have baby boomers and young’uns flocking to GM dealerships.

But I think the ‘retro’ thing may be dying out a bit. The T-Bird was a huge flop (mainly because Ford was asking about $20,000 too much for the thing, and it handles like a boat, but the retro styling is taking the blame). The sales of the PT cruiser are starting to fade.

But I think the next generation Mustang is going to be a killer. It’s retro-styled based on the Shelby GT-350, which is one of the nicest looking cars Detroit made. If they pull off the new styling, I’ll want one!

Other retro cars I’d like to see:

'71 Datsun 240-Z
'63-'67 Corvette

7

The MGB was ressurected as the MG RV8. If I remember correctly, there were enough parts being made for collectors (including body shells), that it was possible to update some parts and crank out a few of them until the MGF was ready for production. There’s a good page, including this picture.

And if you’re gonna build a new B, don’t forget the B-GT. (I have a '69 I’m hoping to restore someday.)

I’d love to see a retro version of the Austin-Healey 100 and 3000 and the MGA. (The styling’s very similar, long hood and short deck, with the body tapering down behind the wheels.) I love the look of those cars, but I have a theory why nobody’s done a retro version; the shape is basically an airplane wing. I think it would be almost impossible to keep it on the road at modern sports-car speeds, and any rear wing or spoiler would totally ruin it.

8

You are aware of the new 350Z, aren’t you?

9

Didn’t Nissan offer some factory rebuilt 240-Zs a few years ago?

10

The ORIGINAL classic cars were good-looking, but the new ones still have too much of the wind-tunnel-designed “Tylenol caplet on wheels” look in their styling. It spoils the whole design, in my opinion.

The overall effect is something like an ugly woman copying the clothes and hairstyle of a pretty woman, hoping that it’ll make HER pretty.

11

I think a modernized 1939 Delahaye would make a nice Jaguar type automobile. On the other end of the spectrum, I say bring back a modern Isetta!

We had a lot of MG’s when I was growing up and to me, half of their charm was their eccentricity, their je ne sais quois, their adorable little oil leaks and engine fires. I thing a modern day MG would be nice, but there wouldn’t be the same bond between driver and car, you know?

12

Along the lines of the New Beetle, I’d like to see a New Kubelwagon (the civilian version is the “Thing”). It’d be like the Beetle, but… squarer.

13

A Tucker, of course, some of the old Packards, and Studebakers would look great as well.

Really, though, what I’d like to see is instead of retro-styling, is them simply building a car that looks identical to the original, but with all the various modern safety features cars come with today.

14

I’d wondered if that’s what your username referred to.

15

I get that a lot, even though I’ve posted to a couple of the “What’s your username mean?” threads. Maybe I should start a “Ask the Tucker fan” thread?

16

Didn’t someone build a Tucker replica kit at one time?

17

There was a guy in New Jersey who owned the last Tucker ever assembled (he put it together himself in the 80s, you can see it in Tucker: The Man and His Dream, it’s the car they drop the engine into in one scene) who was putting out a fiberglass body of the Tucker. It wasn’t really a kit, but you could end up with a realistic looking car fairly easily for about $13K. He quit building them as part of a deal he struck with some guys who were building resin bodied models of the Tucker that they were selling in a kind of kit form for $32K, last time I checked, they’d quit selling them in the kit form and were selling strictly turn key models for $115K+. The guy who’d been selling the fiberglass kits got a free resin version in exchange for cancelling his kits. Pretty stupid of them if you ask me, but I talked to the guy who built the fiberglass kits and he said that he couldn’t afford to drive his real Tucker very often (it’s insured through Lloyd’s of London and it costs him $1000 if he wants to take it out for a spin) and he didn’t have time to build his own kit, so I can kind of understand his reasoning. (Lucky bastard paid a mere $20K for his Tucker, after assembling it’s worth $350K.)

18

How about those little Volvo sports cars, two seaters, with the little fins on the back? I’d love to see what they could do with those.

19

Yeah, those were definately the best looking cars Volvo’s ever built. Unfortuanately with Ford running them, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see anything like those cars being produced.

20

If you’re willing to go this route, you can drive many a modernizedclassic with a kit car. I’d hazard a guess that counterfeit Cobras far outnumber the real thing.

I did once see a 1958 Ford kit car. Who knows what you might find? Somehow, though, I suspect it’s a minority of kits that get finished. I know a guy who’s been building his kit airplane for over 20 years now. Maybe I’m wrong.