THE NAME-CHANGERS

Born under one brand, sold by another: 10 classics suffering an identity crisis

It’s an all-too-common occurrence. You dream up an idea, work hard convincing your superiors of its potential, graft away long and hard on the project, agonising over the finer details until the finished product is finally ready for presentation – only for an outsider to swoop in at the last moment and take the credit for all that hard work. It’s an annoying yet frustratingly familiar practice, and one to which the motor industry is no stranger.

Automotive history is littered with examples of cars that were developed by one manufacturer, but launched under the badge of another. This cuckoo-in-the-nest behaviour can occur for various reasons: ill-timed company takeovers and acquisitions; business disagreements; rejected design proposals; or manufacturers

simply going bust. The Glas 1700 is a good example of the latter: the Frua-designed saloon was originally created for ailing Borgward as the completed but never launched Hansa 1300, was quickly repurposed as the Glas, then again as the South African BMW 2000 SA/04 Series.

Outsourced car designs rejected by the firms they were originally intended for are commonplace, such as the Daimler Sp250-based 1962 Ogle SX250 prototype that Reliant purchased the rights to for its mildly reworked ’64 Scimitar GT, or Giugiaro’s stillborn 1993 Cinquecento Lucciola prototype: Italdesign sold the intellectual property to Daewoo for its 1998 Matiz city car after Fiat declined the proposal.

Here are 10 more cars that changed identity between conception and reality: developed by one make, but launched by another.