Archive Images

More great images, which this time range from J for Jaguar to Z for Zagato.

JAGUAR

This lovely image was only issued by Jaguar recently, but shows a 4.2 XJS Automatic from 1968, the year the model was introduced. I am not generally a big fan of brown cars, but it really seems to suit this one – maybe it is the super lighting in the image or the clean an uncluttered white background, or perhaps it is just that a car as beautiful as the XJ6 looks great in any colour. My biggest memory of the model was travelling five- up from Norwich to the British Motor Show at Birmingham's NEC in 1980 or 1982. The exhaust fell off on the way so we had to stop and get a new one fitted, and even when it was split five ways the petrol cost us each more than a coach ticket would have done, but it was worth every penny just for the experience.

MERCEDES

Forget roll- on/roll- off ferries, back in the day cars were hoisted on board individually and strapped to the deck or lowered into the hold. They do look to have taken a high degree of care with this car to make sure the chains and ropes do not damage the bodywork, but well they might given that this was a rather large and expensive Mercedes. We can't pretend to be knowledgeable about pre-war Mercs, but expect that one of you will be able to identify the model and the year for us. We just wonder what is stored behind that cover in the front wing, as it clearly isn't big enough for a spare wheel and they surely didn't have space- saver spares in what we reckon has to be the 1930s. And look at that wooden decking on the ship – so much classier than the sheet steel on today's ferries.

LANCIA

It is odd how some cars look better from the back than they do from the front, but I reckon this is the killer angle for a Lancia Beta Monte Carlo. You have to wonder why there weren't more cars that made use of those rear buttresses; presumably the compromises on rear-threequarter vision outweighed the beauty of the stylistic effect. And I can claim some artistic back- up for my claim that this is the car's best angle. You know that Lancia put a broad black stripe across the nose of these cars? A designer once told me that this was because the proportions were all wrong and the stripe was intended to reduce the length of the nose in your mind's eye.

PEUGEOT

This rather understated but elegant car marked a return for Peugeot to the executive car class in 1975 after an absence of over 40 years. It is the 604, which was critically acclaimed, but not a great commercial success and bowed out in 1985 without an immediate successor. Possibly the recent energy crisis hurt sales given that it was powered by the 2.7-litre V6 that had been developed jointly with Renault and Volvo, but with a few notable exceptions, French manufacturers always struggled internationally with executive cars. One claim to fame of the 604 is that in 1979 it became the first series production turbodiesel to be sold in Europe.

ROVER

This is the car that could and should have set BL on the road to recovery in the 1970s. Perfectly styled from any angle, spacious, extremely practical and with the stonking 3500 V8 engine under the bonnet, the Rover SD1 really had it all. It was even voted European Car of the Year in 1977, the year after its launch. Sadly, poor build quality and sub- standard interiors dented sales, although having said that, BL still sold twice as many SD1s as Peugeot managed to shift 604s. A 2.0 four- pot and two six- cylinder units (2300 and 2600) were later added to the range, as well as a 2.4 turbodiesel. This one might well be a diesel, as that unit was sourced from VM Motori in Italy and this car is wearing Italian plates.

MITSUBISHI

Japanese cars often aped foreign creations in the early years before they found their own style and confidence, and this Mitsubishi Debonair has a distinctly American feel about it. Largely unchanged from launch in 1964 until 1986, it was never intended as a mass market model, but was pitched as a senior executive saloon on the Japanese market. The American feel is not surprising when you realise it was created by ex- GM designer Hans Bretzner and took styling cues from the 1961 Lincoln Continental.

RENAULT

We are staying in France for our next image, but this time it is the kind of small, cheap, stylish and extremely practical car at which the country has always excelled. You won't need me to tell you that it is a Renault 5, though you might be wondering why it is pictured in a living room. I must admit that I was wondering that too... Perhaps Renault was trying to suggest that the R5 was such a style icon that it deserved to be displayed alongside other fashion accessories of the era such as those round chairs. Or maybe the owner just didn't have a garage...?

TRIUMPH

There is something rather sad about seeing cars that have been destroyed in testing, a similar feeling to the one I used to get when walking around scrapyards and wishing I could save all the cars there. In the case of development cars, there is the added sadness that they were destroyed before even having a life on the road. Not all testing was to destruction, but this TR6 has been permanently rearranged at MIRA after crash testing to see how the shell stood up to a rear end shunt. We'd say it did pretty well.

ZAGATO

We've popped this beauty under Z for Zagato, since they designed and built it. However, the name on the nose is Diatto, and the model is the GT Ottovù. It dates from 2007, so newer than most of our images and a little outside our personal comfort zones! Diatto is not a name we are familiar with, but the Italian company had a long industrial history starting in 1835, and an automotive heritage that stretches as far back as 1905. This prototype was one of two commissioned from Zagato by a pair of collectors and the picture was taken at the Geneva Motor Show, but can any readers fill us in on what has happened to the design since?

SAAB

We are suckers for a good cutaway drawing, and this one from Saab is as good as they come. It shows the 99, which came from project Gudmund – so called because in Sweden the name of Gudmund is associated with 2nd April, and it was on that day in 1964 that the top brass at Saab decided to develop a new car. It was presented in 1967, but didn't go into series production until autumn 1968. The engine was bought in from Triumph, canted at 45° because it was essentially half of a new V8.

VOLVO

This glorious study in bronze is the Volvo 1800ES, a car that always reminds me of the Reliant Scimitar GTE, but with a little more finesse about the styling. Then again, those who prefer the Reliant offering will probably call the Volvo's styling fussy! The ES was the same as the 1800 saloon under the skin, but with a redesigned roof and rear end that Volvo expected would appeal to sporty outdoor types with plenty of leisure gear to haul about – hence this press photo. Sadly the 1800ES had only a very short production run, introduced in the final year of P1800 saloon production (1972) and discontinued itself in 1973 after just 8077 had been built.