With the introduction of the Michelotti styled Triumph 2000 of 1963, a new kind of executive car was born. A luxurious 2 liter, six cylinder, four door saloon with compact dimensions and youthful diver appeal, it clashed head on with Rover 2000, a technically more sophisticated car than the Triumph. However, the Rover was bereft of the refinement of the Triumph’S six cylinder engine. Making 90 bhp, the old Standard Vanguard derived twin carburetor straight six could haul the 2000 up to just on 100 mph (160 km/h) in manual overdrive form. With all independent suspension (struts up front, semi trailing arms at the back) and servo front discs, the 2000 was a comfortable, nicely finished, well mannered car, just for the new breed of young executives who didn’t want big, lumbering cars of the old school. Leather seats, with a wooden dashboard and door cappings, increased its up-market image and sales were strong. The car’s appeal was broadened in 1965 by variants such as the 2000 Estate, one of the most handsome load carriers of its generations, which wasn’t bettered at the time.

Best of the bunch however was the 2.5 Pl of 1968, with the Lucas injected 2.5 liter engine form the Triumph TR5, detuned to 132 bhp by virtue of a single outlet manifold, tamer valve timing, and the milder camshaft from the GT6 MK II. Top speed leaped to 160 mph (170km/h), with 0-60 (96 km/h) in 10.6 seconds. Production of the classic original 2000/2500 saloons and estates the classic in 1969. It was landmark car for Triumph and opened up a new niche market that it very capably filled during it six year lifetime.

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By the beginning of the saloons, Triumph’s enduring TR 3 needed a facelift if the needed sales and interest were to be maintained. Triumph decided on a European look and went shopping for Italian styling. They ended up hiring Michelotti to re-skin the car in a more shapely body that also had to be both roomier and a little more comfortable than the TR3. Launched as the TR 4 in 1962 it retained all the rugged qualities of its predecessors. Chief among these were a torquey 2.2 liters four cylinder engine and a separate chassis. However, an all synocromesh box was an innovation. Complaints about the poor road holding and the bumpy ride were answered by the TR 4a of the 1965, which came with a new form of semi trailing arm rear suspension shared with the highly praised Triumph 2000 saloon. More power was the next obvious step, so Triumph fitted their new 2.5 liter straight six in the TR 5 of 1967. Injected and producing 150 bhp, this gave the TR a much smoother delivery and the potential for up to 120 mph.

This was a short lived variant however, and it was supplanted in 1969 by the TR 6, with new crisper, if less characterful-styling from the German firm of Karmann. Mechanically little changed, and the TR 6 continued to sell in large numbers, mostly to the North American market, until 1976 when it was no longer able to meet the increasingly strict challenge of the Federal safety requirements.

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The Stag looked like a potential world beater when it first appeared in 1970. Triumph had high hopes that it was going to mark a real change in the company’s fortune, but expectations of its success were set to be cruelly dashed. Here was a stylish four seater V8 convertible that could drastically undercut the foreign opposition. With a hard top to convert it into a cosy Coupe the only Grand Tourer that got anywhere near the stag’s versatility was the Mercedes SL, at twice the price. Available with manual or automatic transmission it sounded wonderful and went very well, with a top speed of 120 mph. Launched to excellent reviews it quickly acquired a reputation for poor reliability in the field. Under, developed, the over head cam 3 liter engine had a tendency to overheat and blow its head gaskets, damage its crank eventually its timing chains if neglected. These problems led to its withdrawal from the all important American market and from that point on its fate was sealed.

It struggled on, in mildly improved MK II from, until 1977, never receiving the Rover V8 conversion it had been out for right from the very beginning. The transplant was left to outside specialists, although the original V8 has long since been made reliable. It is not surprising that today good Stages are much sought after as their sheer driving pleasure remains a solid attraction.

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Under new ownership of Arthur and Martin Lilley, TVR, sportscar builders of Blackpool, Lancashirem became a more professtional company. The 1967 Vixen, son of the earlier Grantura, was one of the first products of this new approach. Outwardly the entry level TVR looked much like its predecessor with the usual ‘sausage bonnet’ front end. A closer inspection revealed new ‘Manxtail’ styling with a bigger rear window and Mkl Cortina lights behind, at the rear. Although the first few cars had an MGB engine, TVR policy was now to just offer one unit, the 88bhp 1599cc Ford Cortina GT limp, matched to the excellent Ford four speed gearbox. The optional brake servo became standard on the S2 of 1968, which also had a longer wheelbase chassis developed for the Tuscan SE, bolt on (not bonded on) body panels, twin bonnet vents and Cortina Mkll rear lights. The S3 of 1970 had a 92bhp engine, and vents in the front wings.

It was still available as a kit but the new Lilley management no longer encouraged do it yourselfers and, in any case, by the of the decade new British purchase tax rules wiped out the kit market. The 1600M carried on the tradition of a small engined TVR after 1973, but by then the majority of buyers were opting for the much faster 3 liter models.

TVR began building fiberglass sports cars with tubular chassis frames in the 1950s, and they sold most of them as kits to be built at home. The first cars had four cylinder engines but, in the 1960s, TVR offered the Griffith with Ford V8 power and the Tuscan V6, the first of a long line of cars using the 3 liter Ford ‘Essex’ engine. In concept the Tuscan V6, launched in 1969 at 1500 pounds for the do-it-yourself kit, was a niche filler between the four cylinder Vixen and the slow selling Tuscan V8. The chassis and demountable body was a Series Two Manx tail Vixen with Tuscan V8 alloy wheels and brakes, and Fords 3 liter V6 engine (giving 128 bhp) and four speed gearbox optionally over driven on third and top, also had the strengthened Salisbury lock differential of the V8. The only way you could spot one from the outside was the badging and twin exhaust pipes. The delicate corner bumpers, big tapering rear window and Mk II Cortina rear lights were pure Vixen.

In fact, only 101 Tuscans built between 1969 and 1971. Its engine, the unit from the Ford Zodiac 3 liter, didn’t meet North American emission regulations, and TVR couldn’t sell the Tuscan there with dirty power. It was this scenario that gave rise to the TVR 2500 with a clean Triumph straight six engine, but the V6 would live in the improved M Series models.

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Launched in 1964, the Vanden Plas 4- liter R was the only fruit of a liaison between Rolls Royce and the British Motor Corporation (BMC). It was a high specification, wood and leather luxury saloon based on the 3- liter A110 Westminster shell, but using a 4- liter Rolls Royce straight six engine. Externally, it sported clipped tail fins and horizontal tail lights, and more upright front and rear windscreens to increase the headroom inside. The shell was stiffened to improve the handling, and featured smaller 13in. (33cm) wheels. Inside, the 4-liter R had the full Vanden Plas treatment, with Connolly leather on the seats and lavish use of walnut veneer on the dashboard, door cappings and picnic tables. With a claimed 175bhp, the smooth, all-alloy, seven bearing, Rolls Royce straight six gave the 4-liter R an impressive turn of speed. It accelerated cleanly up to 100mph (160km/h), and road testers attained up to 112mph (179kmlh) flat out. With the standard Bong Warner Model 8 automatic gearbox, there was no manual option, the car would whisk up to 60mph (96km/h) in an effortless 12.7 seconds.

The pay off was a dismal 14mpg (20liters/100km) thirst, and the critics were underwhelmed by the 4-liter’s overlight power steering, which lacked feel and precision. A projected output of 100 cars a week from the Vanden Plas Kinsbury works never actually rose above 60. Even at that rate there was a big stockpile of 4-liter Rs. BMC ended the unequal struggle in 1968, with sales totaling just 6555 cars.

• Vanden Plas 4-liter R

Exciting seventies Vauxhalls are few and far between. However, in anyone’s book, the HS Chevette definitely has to be one of them. Dealer Team Vauxhall built the first HS Chevettes in 1976 for use in the RAC rally, but It would be another two years before productions cars were available. There were built in order to homologate the rally car for high level competition. This meant they were available to be offered to an interested section of the public. Although quite crude in many ways these HS Chevettes based on the innocuous three door Chevette hatch, made exciting road machines. They were powered by a 135 bhp, twin cam versions of Vauxhall’s 2300 cc slant four engine. The 240 bhp rally cars had used a Lotus cylinder head and a ZF gearbox but for the road car a Vauxhall designed 16 valve head and a Getrag box were fitted.All of the HSs were painted silver and had front and rear spoilers.

They also came with very chunky alloys. Despite this, the HS Chevettes managed to look an awful lot less vulgar than many of their hot hatch contemporaries.  Quick and capable the 2300 HS was probably a it too exotic and expensive to appeal to your average body racer, it was $1000 more than an RS 2000 Escort, which was why it remained exclusive Only 400 of them were built.

The motoring press’s disappointment when it first saw the boxy lines of the Mk 2 Golf was turned into delight when General Motors launched the new Astra a year later, in 1984. Here was a car that looked like it was fit for 1980s, with a low, rounded nose, rising window line and high tail. The body details, such as the wing mirrors and bumpers, were carefully smoothed and integrated into the futuristic shape. Vauxhall had already built up a decent reputation for its Sri- and GTE badged sports models, and few were disappointed by the unveiling of the smartly dressed 1.8 liter GTE in the late summer. The interior was as well considered as the outside, getting heavily bolstered sports seats and an LED- display dashboard. The feeling was that the Golf GTI was just too civilized and refined to be a hot hatch; the Vauxhall was rather more brutal and torquey in its delivery. The Astra, though, trumped the hot hatch pack in 1988 with the launch of a new 2.0 liter 16 valve engine for the GTE. An advanced mass market design for the era, the engine produced 154bhp which, mounted in the relatively light shell of the GTE, allowed near supercar in gear performance.

Unlike the vast majority of the new 16 valve engines, the General Motors unit was very torquey, even at low revs. The Astra GTE 16V was about as hot as the hot hatch got in its heyday, but that didn’t guarantee sales success. It was quick, but had a rather ragged ride, a propensity to torque- steer and was difficult to drive flat out. Ultimately, the Golf’s suave image and more mature road behavior proved a more popular driving blend with buyers.

To open motoring magazine of the late 1980s was to be confronted by an extraordinary number of super high performance road cars. The most extreme road car based super car was the Lotus Carlton, which was launched in a blizzard of bad publicity. The company had to suffer police chiefs in the UK sounding off about the irresponsibility of producing a car capable of 176mph (282km/h). GM gave the respected midsized Carlton/Omega saloon to Lotus (its then subsidiary) to be transformed into a car that could carry four people, and frighten the average Ferrari at the same time. Most of the modification centered on the straight six 24 valve engine. The block was strengthened, and then Lotus increased the capacity and made some modifications to the head design. Manifolds that could resist 750 degree temperatures were fitted, along with twin Garrett turbochargers. A new electronic management unit was sourced, and a charge cooler was also fitted, to massively increase the effectiveness of the turbos. Other GM companies around the world were roped in, with Holden in Australia donating the rear differential and Chevrolet the Corvette ZR-1’s six speed manual gearbox.

One of the finest body styling kits ever seen, designed by Lotus’s Julian Thomson, completed the Lotus Carlton project. A four wheel drive conversion was mooted, but GM decided against the investment. The result was a staggeringly fast car, 0-100mph (160mph) in 11.8 seconds that was also very refined. The Lotus Carlton was well capable of crossing continents faster than anything else on four wheels, but needed the kind of road space to exploit its performance that’s rarely on offer in Europe.

During the second half of 1980s, the work of the German based General Motors styling studio was some of the best in the world. After the advanced Astra and slickly aerodynamics Carlton, the Cavalier range arrived in 1988 to widespread praise. This was as much for the excellent detailed industrial design as for its efficient and extremely tidy overall shape. Even so, few excited the next big surprise, a two door coupe based on the Cavalier chassis. The stunning Calibra was a serious wake up call for the mass market motor industry. In base model, 2.0 liter, 8 valve form, the Calibra recorded a Cd figure of just 0.26, making it the most aerodynamics car on sale, an extraordinary achievement, when it was based on the running gear of an ordinary family hatch back, and one of that was exemplary in its space utilization. Overseen by design boss Wayne Cherry, the Calibra project was completed quickly. According to GM designers who worked on the car, the speed at which it went into production was the real reason why those in the design department managed to preserve the radical styling, which was rarely the case with mainstream car design of the late 1980s.

The Calibra range included two four wheel drive models. One was powered by the well regarded 16 valve engine and another by a turbocharged engine, good for over 200 bhp. The Calibra was never a great car to drive, even if was very quick in Turbo from. Try as it did, it was never convincing in any of the department that make for a pleasurable drive. It was, though, probably one of the best styled mass produced cars ever seen.