Exploring the World’s Cult Classic Cars
It was the best of cars it was the worst of cars It was the age of British Leyland when industrial strife and poor build quality could bring down the best laid plans of our finest designers and engineers The Rover SD1 was a triumph of supercar esque styling safety and speed but flaking paint poor reliability and assorted BL
The Austin Metro arrived amid a patriotic fervour in 1980 and played a huge part in reviving British Leyland But was it a good car
Long before the Mini was a twinkle in Sir Alec Issigonis s eye Austin had already produced a small family car that captured the hearts of the nation The A30 and its almost identical successor the A35 was dubbed the Steel Teddy Bear thanks to its rounded cuddly appearance
The Beetle was a tough act to follow but when Volkswagen launched the Golf in 1974 boy did they get it right It couldn t have been more different to its antiquated predecessor front engined front wheel drive and a hatchback folded paper design penned by Giorgetto Guigiaro
Bold beautiful brilliant and a breakthrough in fast GT motoring the Jaguar E Type had it all including a relatively affordable price Its ease of use stunning design and race bred handling combined with a potential 150mph redefined the public s expectations of sports car motoring
The car given that unenviable task was the XJ S and Browns Lane chose a radical departure from the curvy bulbous styling of the E Type It upset the traditionalists but the XJ S ultimately proved a success remaining in production for 21 years and selling more than its illustrious predecessor
It was the little family car that morphed into arguably the best hot hatch of the golden era of pocket rockets The Peugeot 205GTI was declared car of the decade by CAR magazine in 1990 and the greatest car ever tested by What Car in 2020
Does the Austin Allegro deserve its reputation as one of the worst cars ever made We looked over contemporary road tests to find out
The Ford Model T was the little car that changed the world the first global car and the first mass produced on an assembly line
The Karmann Ghia was the German Italian beauty that transformed the underpinnings of the humble Beetle into a sleek sporty looking coupe