ROBERT COUCHER
The Driver
Go to any race meeting, from Goodwood in West Sussex, England, to Mount Panorama in Bathurst, Australia, and you’ll notice the spectators and drivers all really enjoying the saloon-car action. ‘Tin tops’, as we call them in the UK, provide some of the most popular racing because they are essentially race-ready road cars that everyone can relate to. They are the sort of cars your grandparents might have driven, ranging from square old Austins to Volvo estates and blaring Rover SD1s.
At last month’s 75th Goodwood Members’ Meeting the Gerry Marshall Trophy paddock saw crowds thronging around the SD1s, the Dolomite Sprints and a single BMW 530i. And the car parks were full of classic family conveyances, from Morris Minors to stately Austin Westminsters, Ford Cortinas and Mercedes ‘fintails’, all bringing smiles to the faces of the enthusiastic race-goers. Everyone loves a classic saloon.
So you’d think we’d all be chasing classic saloon cars, but we don’t. Since the rise in popularity of vintage motor cars after WW2, impecunious enthusiasts snapped up ‘old cars’ that were sporting two-doors and the even more desirable convertibles. Or if they could only afford a boring saloon, the first job was to cut the sensible bodywork off and turn the unsuspecting old thing into a ‘special’.
John Haynes, the manuals man, started his publishing empire in 1954 with a booklet on how to hot-rod a puddle-jumping Austin Seven while he was still at school. As the classic car scene burgeoned in the ’70s, enthusiasts were interested only in restoring exciting sports cars. So humble saloons ended up in scrapyards.
The irony is that mass-produced saloon cars are often better vehicles than their sporting counterparts. Having owned a cute 1959 101-series Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint and a 1963 105-series Alfa Giulia saloon, I have to admit the boxy Giulia was the better car. The twin-cam engine, three-leading-shoe drum brakes (discs came later in ’63) and suspension were near-identical but the surprisingly aerodynamic Giulia (Cd 0.34), with its bench front seat, could transport six people in some comfort along with a bootful of luggage. Performance was the same, but the saloon didn’t leak.
Manufacturers of sports cars of the ’50s and ’60s could get away with all sorts of shortcomings as long as the cars looked fast. British soft-tops of the period, with their side screens, scuttle shake and flimsy cut-down doors, were a joke when the rain started to pelt down. Warm sheepskin jackets and gloves sold well; chrome luggage racks became a must-have accessory because there was nowhere else to stow the weekend suitcase.
As mentioned in Octane Cars, I have sold my Range Rover Classic and Porsche 911 to concentrate on the Jaguar XK140. But my interest in saloon cars has jumped, because we have a new addition to the family and four doors suddenly make sense. So how about a British Racing Green Jaguar Mk1 to match the XK? Plenty of room for a baby seat and paraphernalia in the boot, but probably too much overlap. So, a BMW M5 perhaps?
It turns out than many classic-car types are closet saloon enthusiasts. One of fellow columnist Jay Leno’s favourite cars is his 1955 Buick Roadmaster, the first car he bought when moving to California. It’s actually a two-door but the rear seating area is vast so it counts. Jay dated his now-wife in the Buick and it sat in his mother-in-law’s driveway for about 16 years before he restored it with a new 650bhp crate engine.
Derek Bell enjoys his Ferrari 550 Maranello and Porsche 924 GTS, but I have been around a circuit with him in a Bentley Mulsanne and he absolutely loved throwing the gargantuan saloon about with abandon. Our resident aesthete, Stephen Bayley, tells me he promised himself he’d never own a four-door but with the arrival of his son he purchased an Audi 100 in 1985. He currently runs a Mercedes CLS 350d shooting brake.
Today, sales of saloons are sliding as buyers prefer SUVs and soft-roaders. That’s a pity, because there are some really exciting saloons available, led by the superb new Alfa Romeo Giulia. The hot Quadrifoglio is fantastic with its 500bhp, 2.9-litre, twin-turbo V6, but the lesser 2.0-litre models are great fun as well.
Far from being boring, sports saloons can have a subtle elegance absent in a fat SUV. I’m rather excited by my new quest to find a four-door classic that looks good and goes well. I keep coming back to the idea of a darkcoloured Mercedes-Benz 6.3 with ‘Mexican hat’ alloys and Sundym glass all round. That said, there is just enough room in the back of the 2+2 XK for a baby seat…
‘HAVING OWNED A GIULIETTA SPRINT AND A GIULIA SALOON, I ADMIT THE BOXY GIULIA WAS THE BETTER CAR’