The Vauxhall Slant Four engine has come up a few times in the current sequence, so today I thought I’d do the first car to use this power unit, the 1966 FD Victor. The Slant Four, with its belt-driven OHC was a notably ‘modern’ design, as was the FD itself, which featured a bonded windscreen, coil-sprung rear suspension and US-influenced ‘Coke bottle’ styling. Ford’s Cortina only achieved a similar spec with the 1970 Mk3. Pic #GreatBritishCarJourney.

#Vauxhall #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

In 1970, the Hillman Imp (featured yesterday) gained a Rootes/Chrysler stablemate in the form of the well regarded Hillman Avenger, a competitor for British Leyland’s Marina. The Avenger was a bigger car than the rear-engined Imp, with a conventional front-engine/RWD layout, but the Imp and Avenger branches of the Rootes family tree would later unite in a single model. More on that tomorrow. Pic: #GreatBritishCarJourney, Derbyshire.

#Hillman #Chrysler #Rootes #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

Today we’re back on my favourite subject, visual tricks designed to resolve a problematical side window to rear pillar transition. The Austin Maestro hatch (blue) and larger Montego (red, here the MG version) saloon had a shared centre section but the Montego’s doors were given extra-tall cappings designed to ease the awkward transition to the wraparound rear window, which had a higher bottom edge than the side windows. Pics: #GreatBritishCarJourney #Austin #MG #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

Yesterday I explained how the recently featured R3 models, the Rover 25 and Streetwise, and the MG ZR, were derived from Rover’s R8, launched in 1989. The R8, seen here in 200 hatch form at the #GreatBritishCarJourney, was developed jointly with Honda and debuted the modern K Series engine. It was probably the most successful BL/Rover product of the modern era. Under the skin, the R3 contained a lot of R8 but the rear suspension was from the Maestro. #MG #Rover #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

Yesterday, I featured MG Rover’s Streetwise in juxtaposition with the Rover 25 on which it was based. Another variation on the 25 was this slightly sportier MG version, the ZR. Like the Streetwise, the ZR was far less ‘pipe and slippers’ than the standard 25. This sort of rejuvenation measure was essential given that much of the 25’s design and tech, while sound, dated back to the Rover R8 of 1989. Pic: the #GreatBritishCarJourney #MG #Rover #BritishRacingGreen #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

Today, another twist on the subject of four and six cylinder versions of the same car having different bodywork. In the early sixties, #Triumph asked Michelotti to devise a closed fastback GT version of its Spitfire roadster (green car). Performance suffered thanks to the extra weight, so Triumph’s straight six was squeezed into the GT model in place of the Spitfire’s four and the GT6 (yellow car) was born. Note the bonnet bulge. Pics: #GreatBritishCarJourney #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

I’ve just featured some four-cylinder cars with modified bodies designed to accommodate six-cylinder engines. But this is an example of the opposite approach - designing a six to fit in a tight space without bodywork changes. Leyland’s ‘Landcrab’ had a B-Series four as standard but there was also a compact E-Series straight-six option with a long stroke and ‘siamesed’ bores that could fit transversely into the FWD ‘Crab. Pic #GreatBritishCarJourney #Leyland #BMC #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

This car is the predecessor to the 1967 Hillman Hunter (Arrow) based Sunbeam Rapier featured yesterday. It’s a derivative of the previous generation of Minx (Audax). The original 1955 version of this Rapier, the Series I, was styled by Raymond Loewy Associates but the design had received a number of detail tweaks by the time this Series III version appeared in 1959. Pic: #GreatBritishCarJourney #SunbeamRapier #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

Yesterday, I featured the Humber Sceptre Mk3 displayed by the Great British Car Journey under the motto ‘But it’s really a Hillman Hunter’. The same might be said of the museum’s last-generation Sunbeam Rapier although the connection was less obvious in this case thanks to the smart fastback coupé bodywork. This final Rapier model was sold from 1967 to 1976. There was also a lower-spec version of the same car, the Sunbeam Alpine. #Sunbeam #GreatBritishCarJourney #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

‘But it’s really a Hillman Hunter’ - that’s the blunt assessment of the #GreatBritishCarJourney in describing its Humber Sceptre Mk3 - although the Sceptre was much more lavishly trimmed than its Rootes stablemate. After the big Imperial, Super Snipe and Hawk models I recently featured were phased out in 1967, the Sceptre was left as the Humber marque’s sole standard bearer until it was itself discontinued in 1976. There were no more Humbers after that. #Humber #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

Yesterday’s Humber Super Snipe V (left) had a simpler sister model, the Hawk, seen here in estate form (right). Apart from the differing frontal treatments, the Hawk had a four-cylinder engine, the Super Snipe a six. The estate body did not get the taller Series V windscreen fitted to late saloon models. The Vauxhall Cresta represented the only real rival to the Hawk/Super Snipe in the 1960s market for big estates. Pics: #GreatBritishCarJourney 2023. #Humber #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

Two decades on from Field Marshal Montgomery’s Second World War staff car featured yesterday, the Rootes Group model range was still headed by a Humber Super Snipe, albeit in this more modern Series V form. It was a rival for the Austin A110 (and its badge-engineered BMC sisters), the Rover P5 and the Vauxhall Cresta. The Humber’s unflashy comfort and luxury found favour with diplomatic, ministerial and royal users. Pic: the #GreatBritishCarJourney 2023. #Humber #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

While the rebranding of #Chrysler Europe as Talbot did not succeed, the choice of name itself was quite clever as it had previously been used by both the British (formerly #Rootes) and French (formerly #Simca) sides of the operation. Automotive genealogy can be complicated. One snag - did this old, if illustrious, brand really resonate with buyers? Here’s a British Sunbeam Talbot Alpine convertible from 1955. Pic: the #GreatBritishCarJourney #Sunbeam #Talbot #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

@snaptophobic Yes - I ‘m quite old so I can remember seeing the unpainted grille ones too! The other fascinating period detail I forgot to point out was the distinctive Sierra font/script used on the badging/advertising for early cars, visible on the tailgate on the beige car. Is this the Ghia-style front you’re thinking of (pic taken at the #GreatBritishCarJourney)?

By the 1980s, the #HindustanAmbassador was getting on a bit and the company adopted a newer British design, the Vauxhall VX. The VX, an updated FE Victor, was replaced by the Carlton in 1978, so the relevant production equipment was available. The Hindustan Contessa, as the Indian version was known, went on sale in 1984. It was sold for nearly two decades but the older Ambassador still outlived it #VauxhallVictor pics: #GreatBritishCarJourney #HindustanContessa #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

A few days ago, I was explaining how the (#Leyland) Princess started out as a #Morris (among other things) and ended life as an (#Austin) Ambassador. That’s a rather tortuous way of introducing another Morris that became an Ambassador - the 1956 Morris Oxford Series III, which was also licence built in India for almost half a century as the legendary Hindustan Ambassador. Pics taken at the #GreatBritishCarJourney in Derbyshire. #MorrisOxford #HindustanAmbassador #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

If you thought badge engineering was the preserve of Leyland’s mass market models, and only the 1300 and #Allegro received the Vanden Plas treatment, think again. For many years, posher versions of the XJ6/XJ12 were badged as Daimlers rather than Jags, and the top-of-the range #Daimler, the best of the best, was a Vanden Plas. I snapped this one at the #GreatBritishCarJourney. Apparently #VandenPlas badged Jags were sold in the US as recently as 2008. #Jaguar #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

PPS I somehow omitted to include this pic of the rear/side aspect of the (#Leyland) Princess in my post the other day. While the car is partially obscured in this shot (taken at the #GreatBritishCarJourney) this angle really shows off the wedge-like nature of its profile. #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

Yesterday @vwdasher pointed to the DeLorean’s wedge-like design. Today, that prime example of 1970s wedgery, Leyland’s Princess - you couldn’t mistake it for anything else. It’s a good thing this car had such a strong visual identity because its brand identity was hopelessly confused. Was it a #Leyland Princess or was ‘Princess’ a brand in its own right? I could never really work it out. But that was the least of it - more tomorrow. Pic: #GreatBritishCarJourney #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar

Today, the last in our sequence of UK-made cars for America, the 1981 DMC DeLorean, which was built in a new factory in Belfast. The full DeLorean story is too complicated to relate here but I’ve always thought that by far the worst aspect of the collapse of the project was that it dashed hopes of an industrial renaissance in a troubled corner of the world that was already experiencing more than its fair share of bad luck. Pic: #GreatBritishCarJourney #DeLorean #WeirdCarMastodon #davidsdailycar