2022 – things that didn’t quite make the cut

We covered quite a bit of retro tech this year, but there are a few things we didn’t talk about that are still worth a mention.

Let’s start with the automotive world. One of the more unusual vehicles to ever be produced in quantity is the DUKW (colloquially called the “Duck”), a six-wheel drive amphibious vehicle designed during World War II and manufactured by General Motors from 1942 to 1945. Excelling in amphibious attacks and traversing beaches, the DUKW could carry supplies or troops in a wide variety of environments. 21,000 of these machines were built, and some are still in use as tourist attractions today.

Where the DUKW was a bit of a barge, the Volkswagen Phaeton – introduced in 2002 – was a different type of barge. A large luxury car, sharing some of its DNA with Bentleys, the Phaeton was a rare entry into the luxury car market for the Volkswagen marque. Elegant and very understated, the Phaeton was a very discrete vehicle which gained some fans, but most luxury buyers were not interested and it wasn’t a sales success even though production continued until 2016. Today, the Phaeton is an extremely inexpensive buy for what it is, but it can be prone to enormous garage bills if it goes wrong.

From real-world cars to a fictional one – the Knight Industries Two Thousand (or “KITT” for short) was one of the stars of the 1982 TV Show “Knight Rider”. Based on a Pontiac Trans Am, KITT featured its own AI system which was capable of self-driving, speech recognition and synthesis, in-car communications (all of which are available today) and… errr… well a load of stuff that frankly isn’t. 23 KITT cars were made for filming, but most of these were destroyed. A handful of originals survive, but you are most likely to come across a replica.

DUKW, Volkswagen Phaeton, KITT Replica

Computers and cars came together in a different way with the 1982 Namco game, Pole Position. One of the first 16-bit arcade games, Pole Position offered unrivalled gameplay for a racing game, usually coming in a sit-down version with a proper steering wheel, pedals and gear shifter. The highest-grossing game of 1983, the game was officially ported to post microcomputer platforms of the time with many unofficial clones. 

Gaming was big in 1982, one mostly forgotten console that was launched that year was the ColecoVision. Selling strongly at launch due the bundled Donkey Kong game, this Z80-based system faded quickly and was out of production by 1985. Quite collectable today, a ColecoVision in good condition with games and accessories can cost you several hundred pounds.

Games consoles became popular in the 1980s, but the very first console was the Magnavox Odyssey launched in 1972. The basic but playable games were enhanced with accessories such as cards, dice and screen overlays. 350,000 Odyssey systems were sold over three years, today these are also very collectable with prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of pounds.

Pole Position, ColecoVision, Magnavox Odyssey

Taking another step backwards, 1962 saw the world’s first computer-controlled factory running on the Ferranti Argus industrial computer platform. Argus was originally designed for military applications, but it found its true strength in running as an industrial controller. Development continued into the 1980s, seeing use in everything from oil production to telecommunications, and importantly also in controlling nuclear power stations where they are still in use today.

Another technology designed originally for military use was the frequency-hopping spread spectrum. The concept was originally patented in 1942 as a way of preventing radio-guided torpedoes from being jammed by the enemy. A paper tape in the torpedo and guidance system allowed the radio frequency to change in a predetermined way, avoiding enemy jamming. This technology eventually found itself into Bluetooth and WiFi communications. Although this all sounds very dry, the inventor was Austrian-born actress Hedy Lamarr, who in addition to being one of the greatest actresses of her era was also a talented inventor.

While we are on the subject of war and weapons, the Gatling Gun was the world’s first widely-used machine gun, in service from 1862 with the US Army and finding its way into use worldwide until the early 20th century. The Gatling Gun marked the beginning of industrialised warfare and a technological arms race that continues to this day.

1970s Ferranti Argus system, Hedy Lamarr, Gatling Gun

120 years later, 1982 saw another technological race as the computer systems evolved rapidly in every market from home users to research institutions. One of the leading companies of the time was Digital Equipment Corporation (usually known as “DEC” or just “Digital”). The DEC Rainbow was an attempt to compete for the same market as the IBM PC, running on both a Zilog Z80 and Intel 8088 processor, the Rainbow could run either CP/M or MS-DOS. Despite the “Rainbow” name, the machine was monochrome only by default, outputting to a monitor very similar to a VT220. Despite the support of one of the biggest names in the industry, it was not a success except for the iconic LK201 keyboard which was widely emulated.

Where the Rainbow was an attempt to create a new microcomputer from scratch, the DEC Professional was an attempt to shrink the PDP-11 into a desktop package. Although a promising idea, poor execution and market indifference let to its failure.

One of the more advanced machines of the time was the DISER Lilith, launched commercially in 1982 after being used as a research platform for a couple of years. Unusually, the Lilith ran Modula-2 and has a large portrait graphical display. Based in part on work done on the Xerox Alto, the Lilith was probably too advanced to be a sales success but remained influential, especially the mouse design which later influenced the first mice designed by Logitech.

If PDP-11s and the Lilith just weren’t powerful enough and you had very, very deep pockets you migth consider the Cray X-MP, launched in 1982 at an approximate starting price of $15 million. For that you got not only the fastest computer in the world, but also one of the most remarkable looks with a central processor core that looked like nothing else – complete with padded seats. The X-MP was a success, and there were a number of successors. Today, Cray is part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

DEC Rainbow, DEC Professional running as a VAX Conole, Lilith Prototype, Cray X-MP

The X-MP was a niche but successful product, as was the Bloomberg Terminal which was originally launched in December 1982. A specialist system aimed at stock market traders, the original terminal was a simple device that could connect to any type of financial data that Bloomberg could make available. Several generations followed, built on custom hardware and software. Today the Bloomberg terminal is still available, but the latest generation will cost you around $2000 per month.

Aimed at a rather broader market – which it failed to reach – the Jupiter Ace also ended up being popular with a very specific niche. Somewhat similar to the ZX81 in terms of hardware, the Ace had the unusual feature of running Forth as a programming language instead of BASIC. Forth was very well suited to simple computers, however it turned out that most customers wanted to learn BASIC instead. Despite making a splash at launch, sales were low and production ended in 1984. Today the Ace is very collectable with good examples selling for £1500 or even more.

1982 was a good year for computer systems that might have hit the big time had circumstances been different. The Sord M5 is one of those, an elegant Japanese system running on a Z80 with 16Kb of RAM, colour graphics and sound plus a cartridge slot. The M5 sold well in Japan, and saw some popularity in the UK (as the CGL M5) and Czechoslovakia. Locally-produced derivatives of the M5 also sold well in South Korea. Although it showed promise, by the time it hit the shops the market was becoming crowded and it didn’t last long. Working M5s in good condition can sell for £500 or more, and cartridges are worth around £50 to £100 or so.

2010s Bloomberg Terminal, Jupiter Ace, Sord M5

Not all computing innovations are welcome. The world’s first computer virus – Elk Cloner – was also invented in 1982 by Rick Skrenta. This boot sector virus infected Apple II floppy disks, although it usually did no real harm.

One other technology product to come to market in 1982 was the CD player. The world’s first model was the Sony CDP-101 launched in Japan in October. In the rest of the world, the Philips CD100 was the first available model. Sales were slow at first due to the cost, but by the late 1990s and early part of the 2000s the CD player became the most popular medium for music.

Elk Cloner, Sony CDP-101

A decade later, 1992 was a pretty good year for technology too. This was the year that Windows 3.1 launched, a significant upgrade to the first usable version of Windows – Windows 3.0 launched in 1990 – version 3.1 added more polish and stability. For many people, Windows 3.1 was their very first experience of Microsoft Windows.

Perhaps not many Windows machines of that era are memorable, but the IBM ThinkPad launched in 1992 had a reputation for good design, robustness and reliability. A strong seller for IBM, especially to corporate customers, the ThinkPad line was eventually acquired by Lenovo in 2005 and is still made today.

An ideal peripheral to complement your Windows-based laptop might be the HP LaserJet 4. An exceptionally reliable laser printer, it was also more compact than previous models, easier to maintain, faster and gave better quality printouts. The LaserJet 4 was capable of producing over a million pages during its individual lifetime, and although parts did wear out they could be easily replaced. It was easy to connect to a LAN via an optional network card, or you could use a parallel cable. Although seemingly obsolete today, aftermarket spares kits are still available indicating that there are still LaserJet 4 series printers still in use.

Windows 3.1 box, IBM ThinkPad, HP LaserJet 4

Not every computer of the time was a Windows or Intel-based computer. The Atari Falcon030 was the final evolution of the once-popular Atari ST line. Based on a Motorola 68030 CPU with a Motorola 56001 DSP supporting sound and graphics, the Falcon030 made a good games machine, was excellent for music and MIDI interfacing and came with a wide variety of expansion options. However, Atari was struggling and the Falcon030 was dropped just a year later. Around the same time Atari was working on the Falcon040, a 68040 power version. The Falcon is another collectable system, with prices for a good example being well in excess of £1000.

DEC was also coming up with innovative products in 1992. The DEC Alpha 21064 CPU was a powerful RISC processor designed for workstations and more powerful systems. Capable of much faster performance than Intel’s rival CPUs, the Alpha architecture saw some success in the 1990s but it faded away after DEC was bought out, first by Compaq and then by HP.

Atari Falcon030, DEC Alpha 21064

Another decade later to 2002, and mobile phones were becoming popular, and some of these were beginning to blur the line between a phone and a computer with the introduction of smartphones. The Sony Ericsson P800 was a Symbian-based device with a stylus-driven touchscreen and a camera, which is effectively one of the ancestors of modern smartphones today. Due to the high price and complexity, it didn’t sell in huge numbers but it did appeal to those who could see the advantage of having a computer in your pocket.

If you wanted something simpler and more robust, you could try the rubbery Nokia 5100. A weird-looking thing by modern standards, the 5100 comes from a golden age of phone design where every new model had its own distinctive looks. The 5100's key selling point was its robustness, although most Nokia phones of that era seemed pretty indestructible. 

Technology was coming to other more mundane devices as well. The Roomba is an autonomous robot vacuum cleaner, first introduced in 2002. Capable of cleaning a floor by itself and then returning to its dock to recharge, the Roomba is more of a pet than a domestic appliance – sometimes needing rescuing when it has gotten itself stuck on something. Twenty years of development have made Roombas even smarter.

Sony Ericsson P800, Nokia 5100, 2002-era Roomba

Finally… well, a different sort of invention altogether. 120 years ago in 1902, the Teddy Bear was invented. Named after President Theodore Roosevelt, the teddy became the most popular type of soft toy of all time. Go and cuddle one right now.

1903 Teddy Bear

Image credits:
DUKW: 270865 via Flickr - CC BY-ND 2.0
VW Phaeton: Greg Gjerdingen via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 2.0
KITT Replica: Interceptor73 via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 2.0
Namco Pole Position: Steve McFarland via Flickr - CC BY-NC 2.0
ColecoVision: Georges Seguinia via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0
Magnavox Odyssey: Jesmar via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0
Ferranti Argus 700: Rain Rabbit via Flickr - CC BY-NC 2.0
Hedy Lamarr: MGM via Wikimedia Commons – CC0
Gatling Gun: Max Smith via Wikimedia Commons – CC0
DEC Rainbow 100: David Alcubierre via Flickr - CC BY-SA 2.0
DEC Professional running as VAX Console: Michael L. Umbricht via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Prototype Lilith: Tomislav Medak via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
Cray XMP: Rama via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 2.0 FR
2010s Bloomberg Terminal: E.W. Scripps School of Journalism - CC BY-NC 2.0
Jupiter Ace: Soupmeister via Flickr - CC BY-SA 2.0
Sord M5: Staffan Vilcans via Flickr - CC BY-SA 2.0
Elk Cloner: Richard Skrenta via Wikimedia Commons – CC0
Sony CDP-101: Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Microsoft Windows 3.1: Darklanlan via Wikimedia Commons – CC0
IBM ThinkPad: Jarek Piórkowski via Flickr - CC BY-NC 2.0
HP LaserJet 4: DuffDudeX1 via Wikimedia Commons – CC0
Atari Falcon030: Wolfgang Stief via Flickr – CC0
DEC Alpha 21064: Dirk Oppelt via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0
Sony Ericsson P800: Sony Ericsson Press Release
Nokia 5100: Nokia Press Release
Roomba: Larry D Moore via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 4.0
1903 Teddy Bear: Tim Evanson via Flickr - CC BY-SA 2.0

Ford Mondeo (1992)

Launched November 1992

A decade after the launch of the icon 1982 Ford Sierra, the Ford Motor Company was losing its way. Instead of being the engineering and design-led company that had been successful in previous decades, the beancounters had taken over and Ford’s cars in the late 1980s had a reputation for being built to maximise profit rather than for driver pleasure. This lack of attention to customer needs had a stark impact on the bottom line, Ford went from posting a record profit of $4.6 billion in 1987 to a record loss of $2.3 billion in 1991.

Changes were afoot though. Ford had started working on a replacement for the Sierra in 1986 – just four years after it launched – and six years and an astonishing $6 billion later they had the replacement, the Ford Mondeo.

The Mondeo was meant to be a world car (the Latin word for “world” is “mundus”) which could be sold in every market on earth with minimum modifications. At the time, Ford’s worldwide markets were fragmented with very different models which shared very little, apart from perhaps engines.

Early Mondeos were conservatively styled, but Ford became bolder with later models

Finally making the shift from rear-wheel drive to front-wheel drive, the Mondeo was somewhat conservatively styled for the early 1990s but did have the flexibility of coming in a hatchback, saloon or estate configuration at launch which was something the Sierra lacked.

Interior design was good for the time, and the Mondeo had excellent driving dynamics. It could also be loaded with the latest automotive technology – at a price – including traction control, a heated front windscreen, ABS and an airbag. The car was designed to take just about any engine from the Ford range, which meant that the engine bay was larger than some rivals which impacted on cabin space. Engine sizes varied from a basic 1.6 litre 90HP engine at launch to an impressive 202HP 2.5 litre V6 engine in the final year’s ST200 model.

The first generation of Mondeo lasted until 2000, with a substantial facelift in 1996 which replaced almost all the body panels, lights and grille and improved the interior. But it never quite got to be the world car it wanted to be – North American versions were heavily reworked into the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique, but it went a long way to rationalising Ford’s fractured product range.

Perhaps unfairly sales reps sometimes called it the "Mon-dreary-o". But the higher the spec of Mondeo, the higher your rank as a rep.

The car was a significant success, particularly outside North America. In 2000 the second-generation Mondeo was launched, built on the same platform as the original but completely reworked with a more European flavour. The third generation was launched in 2006 and lasted another six years until 2012, when the fourth and final generation was launched. In 2022 Ford discontinued the Mondeo in worldwide markets, with the last one produced in March of that year.

After thirty years the Mondeo died, a consistently good car that lost sales to SUVs and crossovers. Although a fifth-generation Mondeo is built in China, it is not for worldwide markets. Indeed, the Mondeo isn’t the only Ford casualty to crossovers, the Ford Fiesta was also discontinued late in 2022.

Most early Mondeos are as cheap as chips, except for high-end models such as the ST200 which easily command prices north of £10,000. When you consider that the price for the current model of Ford Focus – one size down from the Mondeo – starts at an eye-watering £27,000 then perhaps that doesn’t seem so expensive…

Image credits:
Vauxford via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0 [1] [2]

 

Ford Sierra vs Mercedes-Benz 190 (W201) vs Citroën BX vs BMW 3 Series (E30) (1982)

Introduced September / October / November 1982

If you were looking for a classy family or small executive car in 1982, you were spoiled for choice. During the autumn of that year there were four models that came to market that helped to redefine motoring.

Ford Sierra

Cars of the 1970s and earlier tended to suffer from poor aerodynamics, being about as smooth as a brick. Best-selling models such as the Ford Cortina certainly looked the part in design terms, they had poor ergonomics and the high wind resistance contributed to poor fuel economy.

The Ford Sierra dropped the Cortina name and was utterly different to look at. A slippery design made it much more aerodynamic than its predecessor, and the liftback design gave much greater versatility than the Cortina’s saloon. Inside, the dashboard was centred around the driver, making  it very much a driver’s car. Higher-end models featured advanced electronics.

Three early models of Ford Sierra

Underneath the unconventional shell was a more conventional drivetrain using a traditional rear-wheel drive layout with some often quite elderly engines up at the front. At a time when cars in this sector were becoming front-wheel drive, it seemed a bit of a throwback.

It was a troubled car though. The “jelly mould” shape may seem more familiar today, but buyers in the early 1980s thought it went a bit too far – many still wanted a saloon rather than a liftback, and it took five years for Ford to come up with an answer to that. Conversely, the futuristic design may not have gone far enough, especially when it came to the traditional windows and rather ugly base model grille.

Sales were slow at first, but during 11 years of continuous development and product improvement, the Sierra turned into a remarkably successful car. It had a sound pedigree, with designers Uwe Bahnsen (designer of various generations of Capri, Escort, Fiesta and Cortina), Bob Lutz (BMW 3 Series, Ford Escort III) and Patrick Le Quément (Ford Cargo and later the Renault Espace, Avantime, Twingo and Megane).

The “jelly mould” certainly broke the mould of car design, although many elements look dated today. Despite being something of a design icon, the Sierra suffers from being relatively unloved. In the UK there were still a million on the road in 1995, but today it’s just a paltry 2000 or so. When was the last time you saw one in the wild?


Mercedes-Benz 190 (W201)

Like the Sierra, the Mercedes-Benz 190 was part of the so-called D Segment of cars. Unlike the Sierra, the 190 had a very different design philosophy.

It was – at the time – the smallest car ever made by Mercedes whose previous “smallest” model was the W123 luxo-barge. The 190 took all of the stylistic cues of the whole Mercedes range and subtly smoothed them out into something that could be quite understated and modern.

A trio of Mercedes-Benz 190s

The elegant looks of the 190 were mostly down to Bruno Sacco who was responsible in part for almost every Mercedes from the 1970s to 1999. The 190 helped to create a Mercedes house style that still persists today, especially espousing the concepts of “horizontal homogeneity” (where all cars in the range share identifiable styling features) and vertical affinity (where the design is not rendered obsolete or out-of-date by its successors). This meant that the 190 and the cars that followed were all immediately identifiable as Mercedes, but none ever looked old-fashioned.

A huge range of models followed, from reliable executive cruisers that could eat up the motorway miles to complete turbonutterbastard models powered by a Cosworth engine. Despite the more traditional design than the Sierra, the 190 was about as efficient when it came to aerodynamics.

The 190 is a car that aged very well. In not trying too hard to be fashionable, it still looks quite contemporary. Like the Sierra, it had an 11-year production run – but although it was quite an uncommon car at the time, there are now more 190s – around 2900 – on the road than Sierras..

Citroën BX

The Sierra broke new ground in design, the 190 modernised the traditional… but those weren’t the only options. French manufacturer Citroën always had an eye for quirky, non-traditional designs and the BX was certainly one of those. All straight lines and radical angles, the BX appealed to those who wanted something different.

As with the other cars, the BX had a legendary designer – in this case Marcello Gandini who designed high-end cars for Lamborghini, Maserati, De Tomaso, Alfa Romeo, Iso, Lancia and more affordable vehicles for Fiat and the timeless Renault 5 Supercinq. In this case, the BX was directly influenced by two prototype designs, the Reliant FW11 and the Volvo Tundra.

Late model 16V Citroën BX

A very lightweight design with a large number of plastic body panels, the BX had a drag coefficient even lower that the Sierra and standard 190 models. A high variety of engines filled out the range, including a Group B rally car. More mundanely, the BX was a popular estate car. And unlike the other cars mentioned here, the BX was a modern front-wheel drive layout.

The BX logically fitted in a range below the shark-like CX and above the AX supermini. This classic range of Citroën cars only coexisted for 3 years in the later 1980s, after which Citroën slow slipped into more boring designs. However, today the BX still looks fresh and doesn’t seem to have dated as much as competitors from the same era. However, it hasn’t survived well and there are just a few hundred examples on British roads today.

BMW 3 Series (E30)

The BMW 3-Series had been around for a generation by 1982, but the second-generation E30 is quite possibly the quintessential 3-Series design. A smoothed-off version of the previous E21, the E30 was sleeker and more elegant while retaining a timeless BMW design. Of all the cars mentioned here, the E30’s understated looks probably make it the most modern of the four.

During twelve years of production, the E30 had engines ranging from the sedate and economic to the insanely fast fitted. Apparently, the E30 did also include indicators although these were seldom used.

BMW 3-Series (E30)

Again, the pedigree of the designers was excellent, with Claus Luthe and Boyke Boyer having a hand in almost everything BMW designed during this era. Elegant both inside and outside, the E30 is one of the high points of BMW styling. Modern BMWs look rather like they have been drawn by a lunatic with a box of crayons, so it’s difficult to understand how they have fallen so far.

Out of all of them though, the E30 is the most common sight on British roads with around 3800 still registered. If in good condition, the E30 is a timelessly stylish as a good suit or a nice pair of shoes. There are around 4000 E30s still left on UK roads.

All four cars were distinctive in their own ways and influenced vehicles that came afterward. Many are highly desirable – high-end Ford Sierra Cosworths can easily cost the best part of £100,000 or more – but more mundane models also have their charms.

Do any of them really look forty years old? The Sierra perhaps has dated more than most, despite being the most futuristic looking. The BX still looks fresh and not a million miles away from some of the things on the market today. The Mercedes and BMW have aged very gracefully. Which one would you choose?

Image credits:
Wouter82 via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Alexander Migl via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Keith Adams via Wikimedia Commons – CC0
Johannes Maximilian via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

Jaguar XJ220 vs McLaren F1 (1992)

Launched 1992

If you wanted a really fast British supercar in 1992 and you have about half a million pounds in your pocket, you had an intriguing choice between the Jaguar XJ220 and the McLaren F1. Thirty years later, one of these cars is considered to be a success and one a relative failure. But which is which?

Let’s start with the Jag. By 1992, Jaguar was owned by Ford but had spent the previous few years struggling with a range of increasingly elderly cars. However, a successful foray into racing (largely thanks to TWR) had resulted in a supercar project… not just any car, but a street-legal machine capable of hitting 200 miles per hour.

The concept version of the car caused a shockwave. An all-wheel-drive sports car powered by a mighty 6.2L V12 engine mounted in the back, this version of the XJ220 also had scissor doors and the slippery design made it look like no other Jag. The “220” part of the name was the top speed that Jaguar was hoping for and despite the then eye-watering price tag of £470,000 there were 1500 people who put down a deposit.

Jaguar XJ220 - not your grandfather's Jag

Between concept and product though there were several changes. Perhaps the most significant was the engine. The V12 that Jaguar had proposed was big and heavy and also had problems meeting emissions standards, but Jaguar had ended up with the rights to the engine in the short-lived but legendary MG Metro 6R4 rally car. The 6R4 had a relatively lightweight V6 unit somewhat inspired by the (also) legendary Rover V8. It was a promising engine for Rover, but Group B rallying was banned in 1986 after a series of accidents, and the 6R4 and its engine became essentially redundant. Jaguar took the 6R4 V6 and thoroughly reworked it, adding twin turbos in the process, giving about 542 horsepower. It was arguably a better engine than the V12, but people were expecting a V12 and not a V6. In addition, one other major change were the door – the scissor doors were dropped in favour of more conventional ones, and the car moved to a simpler rear-wheel-drive configuration. Many customers were very unhappy, and these changes plus a recession in the early 1990s led to many cancellations.

The XJ220 was extremely aerodynamic, including the underneath of the car. Body panels and the chassis were made from aluminium. Advanced technologies could be found everywhere from the braking system to the transmission… Jaguar were not short changing customers on kit. Being a Jag, the inside was a lovely place to be. Top speed was around 212 MPH, not quite as much as the 220 in the name, but nonetheless blisteringly fast.

The XJ220 concept had a massive V12 engine, the production car a more compact V6

The bad points? Well, it was more than two metres wide and lacked power steering and ABS, so it wasn’t much fun as a daily driver. There was also limited luggage space (despite the huge size) making it impractical as a grand tourer as well.

It wasn’t a sales success – Jaguar had never intended it to be a high-volume car, but with just 281 built they fell short of their targets. It did help to raise Jaguar’s profile as a sports car manufacturer, but ultimately the XJ220 was a little too flawed and compromised. The XJ220 was in production for just two years – and Jaguar never made another production car that was anything like it afterwards.

At around the same time, McLaren were developing their first road car around similar themes. A bit more expensive than the XJ220 at £540,000 (in 1992 money), the McLaren F1 wasn’t saddled with the compromises that the Jaguar possessed. The F1 was powered with a normally aspirated (i.e. not turbocharged or supercharged) V12 like the XJ220 concept. McLaren chose the normally aspirated route for reasons of control and predictability – early 1990s turbochargers gave uneven power and suffered from turbo lag, so a normally aspirated engine was much smoother. McLaren shopped around for a suitable V12 eventually settling on a power plant made by BMW.

The McLaren F1 would look fast parked up in Sainsbury's

The body of the F1 made extensive use of carbon fibre, except for the engine bay which has gold foil acting as a heat shield. A combination of other lightweight and strong materials are found throughout the car, including magnesium, Kevlar and titanium. The whole body shape produces downforce rather than having a fat spoiler, but one clever trick was the introduction of two fans in the base of the car with both produced extra downforce and cooling at the same time. The top speed? The McLaren F1 was (and still is) the world’s fasted normally aspirated car with a top speed of 240 MPH.

----

The McLaren F1's three seats practically make it an MPV

Inside the F1 is highly unusual, featuring three seats – the driver sits in the centre and slightly in front of the two passengers either side in the rear. Entrance to the cabin was through the dihedral (scissor-like) doors, something the XJ220 sorely lacked. Luggage compartments are hidden around the car, although best used with the proprietary matching bags. The F1 also included air conditioning and a number of other aids to make it usable on the roads, transforming the F1 into an almost practical grand tourer as well as a sports car. It wasn’t designed as a track car, but it was pretty good at that two with race variants such as the F1 GTR being made. 

----

The McLaren F1 looks purposeful from the back as it disappears over the horizon

However, despite the advanced engineering, only 106 cars were produced (including prototypes). McLaren did turn a modest profit on the F1 during the six years of production, ending in 1998. McLaren didn’t build another road car until 2011. Nonetheless, the F1 was an engineering success and it didn’t make the compromises that the XJ220 did.

Today a McLaren F1 is worth around £16 million, but an XJ220 is only worth about £450,000 – about the same as it was new in actual pounds, but adjusted for inflation the XJ220 cost around £1 million when new. According to collectors at least, the F1 is a far more desirable car.

Image credits:
Vauxford via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Morio via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0
Jaguar Cars MENA via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
Craig James via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Ank Kumar via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Neilhooting via Flickr - CC BY 2.0

Renault 5 (1972)

Introduced January 1972

The history of postwar European car design has several chapters. Immediately after the Second World War, motor manufacturers simply started with the designs they had in the 1930s and went from there. Although this had some successes such as the 2CV, the average motorist in the early 1950s had a choice of expensive and not terribly up-to-date vehicles to choose from.

By the late 1950s, smaller cars such as the Fiat 500 came to the market. Much cheaper than anything else about, they were still practical and useful and a great deal of what followed was inspired by the idea of cheap motoring. Renault in particular had found success with the 1961 Renault 4 which despite being rather basic and slow was popular for its interior space and its versatile cargo bay.

By the end of the decade technology and design had moved on. The bulk of demand was still for small cars, and it was becoming obvious that the idea of a hatchback offered maximum versatility, especially in a small car. Simca had strong sales for the compact 1100 during this period, but it was rather stuck in the 60s in terms of design. The market was ripe for a change.

Into this story came a designer named Michel Boué who worked for Renault. As a side project he had been working on a design for a compact and modern hatchback. Although it was never an official project, it eventually came to the attention of Renault’s management who were impressed and commissioned a prototype, with the car being green-lit for production as the Renault 5, with a formal launch in January 1972.

Renault 5

A front-engined, front-wheel drive car with bang-up-to-date styling, the 5 looked far more modern than rivals which were stuck in the sixties. The Renault 5 firmly looked forward to the 1970s. Styling features included rectangular headlights, large (and effective) plastic bumpers and a large hatch at the back with narrow lights on either side to maximise loading capacity.

The Renault 5 certainly had bags of style..

Over its lifetime the selection of engines ranged from a tiny 0.8 litre unit of a 1950s vintage to a rather spicy 1.4 litre turbo. Weighing only around 800kg, the Renault 5 didn’t need a whole lot of power to propel it. It loaned itself to hot hatches (such as the Alpine and Gordini variants) and even a mid-engined sports car with the epic Renault 5 Turbo. There were a few odd things about it, such as the wheelbase being different on either side of the car, but overall this was a very capable package.

Crucially, the 5 was ahead of most of the competition in terms of launch date. Even the contemporary Fiat 127 wasn’t available as a hatch at launch (it was a saloon), and rivals Volkswagen, GM Europe and Ford were years behind. Even the original hot hatch versions pipped the classic Golf GTI to the post by two months.

Renault 5 Turbo and US-Spec Le Car

Unusually for a small French car it was also sold in the United States by Renault’s partner AMC under the questionable name of the Renault Le Car. The 5 was sold widely around the world, and it was manufactured in diverse countries such as Venezuela, South Africa and Iran in addition to its home country of France.

A successful and iconic design, the 5 nonetheless has its share of tragedy. Michel Boué died of cancer before it came to market, robbing Renault of a potentially very talented designer – grimly echoing the death of Pio Manzù, who was the designer of the Fiat 127 and who also died before it came to market.

In 1984 a new version was launched. The completely new Supercinq updated the styling and technologies for the new decade. Whether you prefer the original or sequel is a matter of taste, but the Supercinq was also successful and stayed in production until 1996 when it was replaced with the first generation Renault Clio.

As for the original 5 – it had a strange afterlife in Iran as the Renault PK which was an odd mashup of Renault and Kia parts. Also a rather curious an electric version of the original 5 was sold in the US during the 1970s and 1980s called the “Lectric Leopard”. Renault themselves demonstrated an electric concept version of the 5 in 2021, although whether the Renault 5 badge will ever see production again is questionable.

Second-generation "Supercinq" and Iranian Renault PK

As for significance – before the Renault 5 only a small few cars had hatchbacks, and afterwards pretty much all small cars followed suit with the extra door on the back. This basic configuration stayed popular well into the 21st century when it started to be replaced with larger and more unwieldy crossovers.

Today, unmolested hot hatch versions of any Renault 5 model can cost you £30,000 or much more with racing spec versions coming in at up to £100,000. More sedate versions of the original 5 are pretty hard to find these days, and even basic second-gen cars can go for a few thousand pounds. It seems the 5 still has it fans, even decades after launch.

Image credits:
Mic via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 2.0
Mic via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 2.0
Spanish Coches via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
Spanish Coches via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
Alexander Migl via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Jonathan Kellenberg via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
Kamran Ba via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Steve Knight via Flickr - CC BY 2.0

Renault Avantime vs Renault Vel Satis (2001)

Introduced 2001

French cars are cool. That’s a fact. Big French cars are cooler. Quirky big French cars are cooler still. And in 2001, Renault launched not one... but two quirky big French cars for our delight – the Renault Avantime and Renault Vel Satis.

The name “Avantime” is a portmanteau* of the French word “Avant” (“Before”) and the English word “Time”. It wasn’t like anything else on the market at the time – a sort of cross between a grand tourer, MPV, coupé and convertible. These days we’d think of it as a crossover, but twenty years ago customers were baffled.

Is it an MPV? Coupé? Grand Tourer? Convertible? The Avantime is a bit of all of those things.

Like the Vel Satis, the Avantime was designed by Renault’s legendary chief designer Patrick Le Quément. But unlike the Vel Satis, the Avantime was built by Matra who a history in aerospace, defence and motor racing and who somewhere had along the way created the magnificent Matra Rancho.

The Rancho was really just a Simca van converted into the world’s first MPV with the addition of some fibreglass, seats and plastic panels. Although it was a modest success, Matra took the idea further and created arguably the world’s first purpose-built MPV in their P18 prototype which they intended to sell to their long-time partners Chrysler-Simca. Chrysler were interested, but their business was collapsing and they were bought out by PSA (Peugeot Citroën) who weren’t interested in the concept at all.

Matra then sought out a new partner for this radical new car, and in the end Renault agreed to work with them. After some back-and-forth, the Renault Espace was launched in 1984… although the original still had many components from the Simca parts bins. Consumers did not understand the Espace at first – huge, radically shaped and quite different from anything else on European roads. However, once customers “got it” the Espace became a significant success.

Matra was a relatively small company though, and in order to build enough Espaces for Renault they had to drop their sports car line and give 100% of production over the to the new MPV. The Espace II was launched in 1991 with the same basic formula but a more Renault style, followed by the Espace III in 1996 which introduced a radical new interior.

Hundreds of thousands of Espaces were built by Matra, but Matra’s automotive division had just one customer…. Renault. And in 2002 Renault switched the production of the new Espace IV to their own factory in Sandouville. This was potentially very bad news for Matra.

Renault’s solution was to co-design a new car based on the Espace which would utilise Matra’s own engineering skills. Based on the same floorpan as the Espace, the Avantime had just four luxurious seats (squeezing in a fifth person at a pinch), two double-hinged pillarless doors, an almost completely glass roof with the largest production sunroof of the time, a cavernous boot, futuristic yet minimalistic interior all housed in a radical and coherent body based on Matra’s space frame engineering.

Typically this was all powered by a big 3 litre V6 engine and an automatic gearbox, combined with a soft ride for eating up the miles on the autoroute. One interesting feature was the “full air” mode, where at the press of a button all the windows would drop and the sunroof would open to create a sort-of-convertible. The lack of B-pillars helped the illusion of open-ness.
There was nothing else like it, and the Avantime didn’t fit into anybody’s pre-defined notion of what a car should be. Sure, it was a radical design… but so was the Espace and with that it just took a little while for consumers to understand that this was the car they needed.

So, sales of the Avantime were slow to begin with. Alas they stayed that way, with the model selling just over 8000 units worldwide rather than the 100,000 needed for profitability. Despite being critically acclaimed, it was a sales disaster. Matra’s automotive division went bankrupt, ending 40 years of innovative car designs..

..and yet, Renault consider the Avantime to be a design success even if it wasn’t a commercial one. Twenty years late, the huge bulk of the Avantime is not unlike the majority of other new cars. Even the esoteric two-door layout has found its way into other large cars. Today, the Avantime is recognised as being innovative… but nearly two decade too late to save Matra. This is a car that was ahead of its time in more ways than one.

Part of the problem with the Avantime may well have been the Renault Vel Satis. If you wanted a big, weird Renault then this was another choice you could make. A bit bigger than the Laguna, it was also designed by Patrick Le Quément but with a rather different design philosophy.

A large hatchback designed for executives and dignitaries, the Vel Satis was designed to look imposing. This was a car with presence rather than elegance, while not exactly ugly there was a hint of brutalism in the exterior design. Inside, the was comfortable and more conventional. The odd name - a bit like the Avantime's - was a combination of Velocity and Satisfaction.

Not the prettiest thing perhaps, but the Vel Satis had presence and looked like nothing else in its class.

It lent itself well to those who needed a car that people would notice without it looking too flashy. The President of France had one, which he loaned to Queen Elizabeth II. The French police would use them as unmarked police cars. These were serious motors.

The design never really fitted in with the rest of the Renault range of the time, with the result that it didn’t date in the same way. Although the Vel Satis is a rare site, especially in the UK, it still looks fresh.

A revision in 2005 kept the car going until 2009, although it wasn’t sold in the UK. About 64,000 were built, although just 1200 made it to the UK… even so, that was 8 times the number of Avantimes worldwide.

Both cars are uncommon these days, but it you are in the market for a big weird car with 20-year-old French electrics, then prices do vary depending on condition. The Avantime is probably the most collectable, with some prices going as high as £10,000 but mostly much cheaper. The Vel Satis can typically be picked up for a few thousand pounds, but it’s not as well-loved as the Avantime and numbers are dwindling fast.

Lovers of big weird French cars in the UK don’t have much choice. Although the fifth-gen Espace is pleasingly individual, it isn’t available in the UK. Other most other big French cars don’t have the character, with most big Renaults originating from Korea and Citroen and Peugeot producing badge-engineered Stellantis models you would be hard pushed to find anything quirky.

* literally meaning “coathanger”, a word created by merging two other words.
 

Image credits:
Vauxford via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Rudolf Stricker via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0

Renault 4 (1961)

Introduced July 1961

One of world’s most successful single models of car, the Renault 4 sold over eight million units in 33 years of production. It was an enduring success, utilising several technologies which were novel in the 1960s but commonplace in later years.

Although the Renault 4 is shaped like a small station wagon or estate car, it was actually the world’s first mass-produced hatchback. It was also front-wheel drive, at a time when almost everything else on the road was rear wheel drive. Indeed, the engine was in the front as well when rear-engined cars were still a thing.

Renault 4

The design was modern by early 1960s standards, and the target market was people who up until then had been buying the Citroën 2CV. Despite the rival 2CV having been introduced in 1948, it was still a strong seller due to its practicality and simplicity. However, the Renault 4 offered more power, more comfort and lower maintenance costs.

Unlike modern cars, the Renault 4 is built on an independent chassis with the body being placed on top. The chassis provided all the structural strength, allowing more windows and thinner pillars in the car itself giving better visibility. A range of engines were available – the smallest was in the Renault 3 (fundamentally the same car as the Renault 4), giving 22 horsepower. The Renault 4 had up to 32 horsepower. The rival 2CV thrashed around on just 12 horsepower at the time.

It was a practical car, and comfortable too. Although it maybe lacked the charm of the 2CV, it went on to be a massive sales success worldwide. Licence-built versions of the Renault 4 were made in such diverse countries as Argentina, Ireland, Morocco, Australia, Mexico and Yugoslavia. There was a popular van ("fourgonnette") version, plus a pickup and dozens of quirky custom versions made by converters and enthusiasts.

Renault 4 fourgonnette

After the Renault 4’s launch came a host of other front-wheel drive hatchbacks, both from Renault and other manufacturers. The 4 lingered on though, with French production going on until 1992 (and until 1994 in Slovenia). Eventually it was replaced with the first-generation Twingo which successfully built upon the 4’s design philosophy – becoming a modern classic in its own right.

Today the Renault 4 is a rare sight on British roads – much rarer than the rival 2CV – with prices starting at just a few thousand pounds for a slice of Gallic charm. 

Image credits:
Spline Splinson via Wikimedia Commons – CC BY 2.0
Gzzz via Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 3.0

Fiat 127 vs Morris Marina (1971)

Introduced April 1971

Two cars, two different design philosophies – the Fiat 127 and Morris Marina were both introduced in April 1971. One ended up being celebrated, the other derided. But which is which?

Fiat 127

Ah yes – the Fiat 127, the cute and inexpensive Italian hatchback of the 1970s. But it wasn’t a hatchback… well, not at launch, in 1971 you had a two-door saloon that had a boot at the back. Remember than even in the 1970s, the idea of the hatchback was a radical one… even though today it is an obviously versatile way to build a small car. The little 900cc engine gave a respectable 46 horsepower for such a car weighing about 700kg. The design was innovative enough, with crumple zones and excellent road holding – helped by the car’s front-wheel drive - with decent interior space as well.

Fiat 127

A year later the hatchback version arrived – this is the version that really sold well – a major facelift in 1977 gave a more modern look and better engines. A further revision in 1982 sneaked in just before the launch of the Fiat Uno in 1983, and licenced versions built overseas lasted even longer.

This radical car was designed by Pio Manzù, who was tragically killed in a car accident before the 127 came into production. Manzù was an exceptionally talented young designer of lamps, clocks and furniture before turning his hand to automotive design. Just 30 years old when he died, it is likely that Manzù would have become one of the great car designers given the chance.

The Fiat 127 was massively influential – arguable the first modern hatchback design (well, eventually) – it set a pattern for small cars that it still in use today. Despite selling in huge numbers, only about 100 are still on British roads.

Morris Marina

Where the Fiat 127 predicted the future, the Morris Marina was instead a quick fix to British Leyland’s problems in the late 1960s with competing with the Ford Cortina. Available as a traditional four-door saloon or a rather rakish coupé, the Marina used tried-and-tested components to come up with something that wasn’t all that exciting, but for a while was certainly successful.

Morris Marina

A reputation for unreliability and variable build quality, the Marina fell out of favour by the late 1970s and quickly became something of a joke, but this was probably unfair. It had been designed in a hurry and with a minimal budget, and yet it did everything that an early 1970s fleet buyer would want. It was certainly competitive with the Cortina.

The Marina’s Cortina-like capabilities were perhaps no coincidence. Designer Roy Haynes who created the Marina was also largely responsible for the Mark II Cortina. Haynes went on to other things before the Marina was launched however, and again here was another designer who had a chance to be one of the all-time greats but things didn’t quite pan out.

The Marina continued on until 1980 when it was replaced by the Ital – essentially a heavy facelift of the Marina – which continued until 1984. The Ital was the end of the line for Morris though, in the end the Marina was a dead end. Fewer than 400 Marinas are still on British roads.

Well, almost – the Ital briefly emerged again as the Huandu CAC6430 in China in the late 1990s. But it was the utterly magnificent door handles that had a life of their own, turning up in all sorts of exotic designs such as Lotuses and Ginettas.

Image credits:
Robert Capper via Flickr – CC BY-NC 2.0
Qropatwa via Flickr - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Ford Crown Victoria (1991) and DMC DeLorean (1981)

Two unlikely stars of the silver (and small) screen, the Ford Crown Victoria and DMC DeLorean were launched a decade apart… and although they are very different cars, they are familiar to audiences the world over.

Let’s start with the most unlikely one – the Ford Crown Victoria. The first model of this car rolled off the production line in Canada in January 1991. A big and fairly bland-looking thing (the Americans call it a “full-sized sedan”) it had rear wheel drive and a 4.6 litre V8 engine – although this only ever produced a maximum of 250 horsepower on production cars.

Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor

But it was as a police car that the Crown Victoria found its fame. Massively popular with law enforcement throughout North America and also sold in the Middle East and Russia, the “Crown Vic” was durable, had lots of space, a decent amount of power and the street presence that a police car needs to be taken seriously.

Success in law enforcement was reflected in films and TV. The cops would drive a Crown Vic. Undercover FBI agents would hang around in an unmarked government plate Crown Vic. Whether it had police markings or not, the car ended up as something of an icon. And on the rare occasions it isn’t the law, the Crown Vic is also a popular choice for taxi drivers.

With some minor changes the Crown Vic stayed in production for 20 years, and despite being badly obsolete by 2011 it seems that police forces were reluctant to move on. Today, most of the Crown Vics on sale in the US are ex-police interceptors, many of which retain police colour schemes and are typically priced at $12,000 or less. Occasionally they are available in the UK and other countries having been personally imported. If ever you feel like remaking the Blues Brothers, then this car is probably for you.

The Crown Vic was a car aimed at the US market, but built in Canada. A decade earlier a very different car was aimed at the US market, but this time built in Northern Ireland. The DMC DeLorean (also called the DMC-12) was a two-seater sports car made famous by the DeLorean Time Machine in the Back to the Future Trilogy. But their relative paths to fame were very different.

Where the Crown Vic was a highly successful car in its niche, the DeLorean was frankly a disaster. Launched in 1981, it was only in production for just less than two years. A troubled development history compared with woeful quality control issues killed the company after only 9000 were built.

The history of the DeLorean is complicated and fascinating. The brainchild of ex-GM boss John Z DeLorean, the car was originally envisaged as a showcase for safety features using several highly advanced production techniques that had not been used before. These blue sky ideas were continually pared back as development proceeded.

Ultimately, what was delivered to customers had potential.  The overall design of the car was penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign who – frankly – has designed some of the best-looking cars ever produced. The DeLorean had a clean, sleek design in bare stainless steel with gull-wing doors that gave the car plenty of “wow” factor. The tidy design continued inside, in an era when car interiors could be a thrown-together mess.

Early and late model DMC DeLoreans

Added to the genius of Giugiaro was the work of legendary Lotus founder, Colin Chapman. Chapman was brought in quite late to the project to re-engineer the car in a way that it could actually be built. Chapman’s design borrowed heavily from Lotus. Things were looking promising with these two names on board.

A sticking point was the engine – originally designed to be a Ford V6, DeLorean then looked to use a complete drivetrain from Citroën before settling on the V6 offering from Peugeot-Renault-Volvo, placed in the back rather than the mid-engined arrangement planned. Although this 2.85L V6 was a solid enough engine it only gave a moderate 130 horsepower, and the shift to the back of the car impacted the handling and overall stance.

Despite having big names on board, the production of the DeLorean was plagued with problems. The British government forked out a staggering £77 million to help build a car factory in Northern Ireland. Now, although Northern Ireland has a rich engineering history, especially in shipbuilding and aircraft, it basically had none at all when it came to cars. So, everything needed to be built from scratch, and employees needed comprehensive training. Predictably, this led to severe problems with build quality – and cars leaving the factory often required extensive remediation work to make them saleable.

Faults were numerous, resulting in many recalls, and the goodwill that customers had soon evaporated. And even if everything worked properly, the unpainted stainless steel panels were incredibly difficult to repair if they suffered damage – you couldn’t simply fill and paint – and the car was underpowered compared with rivals such as the Lotus Esprit.

Sales were weak and unsold cars began piling up. Just a year into production, DMC were in serious financial trouble. Financial restructuring, incentives and improvements in quality didn’t help. In October 1982 things took a weird turn when John DeLorean was arrested trying to traffic cocaine in order to generate money to prop up the company. DeLorean was later acquitted though, as details of the FBI’s sting operation undermined the prosecutor’s case.

By the end of 1982 it was all over, except for a large number of unsold and heavily discounted vehicles. Several of these ended up with Universal Studios where they were converted for filming the Back to the Future trilogy. By the time the film came out in 1985, the DeLorean was something of a joke. The movie trilogy transformed it into a cult car – and over the years many replica DeLorean time machines have been built on top of the original cars.

Today, prices for a DMC DeLorean range between £30,000 to £50,000. But it’s not an easy car to live with, but I suppose if you find it too troublesome you could always take it back to the time before you bought it..

..and for the record, the Internet Movie Cars Database has nearly 10,000 references for the Crown Vic and 165 for the DMC Delorean. Make up your own mind about which is the biggest star.

Image credits:
Krokodyl via Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 3.0
IChurakv via Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 4.0