I’m going to the UK today, for the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and I’m pretty excited about it. I’m also a bit of an idiot, because I’m not asleep yet and haven’t really packed or anything like that. I wish I could say this was unusual for me, but it’s not. Just the normal level of idiocy I’ve come to accept as standard operating procedure for the sphere of space that surrounds my head. And I still need to write a Cold Start, so here I go.
Since I’m heading off to the UK (Untitled Kingpin) I figured I should do Cold Start about British cars, but then I thought that maybe I should mix it up a bit, and do cars that are not British but somehow seem British, because that I think will help me hone in on whatever the essence of automotive Britishness is.
I also have a little rule for this, too: the seemingly British cars can not be intentionally designed after British cars, because that would be too easy. So that means cars that were directly derived from British sources, like the Hindustan Ambassador, based on the Morris Oxford Series III,
…would not count. Sure, it’s an Indian car and one of the most iconic ones at that, but the design was originally a British machine.
I think this rule also applies to cars that were very intentionally designed to resemble a British car, like the Daihatsu Mira Gino:
…which is clearly designed to resemble a classic Mini. Or even something like an Ineos Grendaier. These would be too easy.
No, I want to just mention three cars that just sorted ended up feeling British, even though that likely wasn’t the intent and they’re not even from a Commonwealth country or anything like that.
First up, we have a car that is extremely un-British engineering-wise, but I always thought felt strangely British overall, the Volkswagen Type 3 Notchback:
The internals couldn’t be any more Volkswagen, rear-engine, air cooling, etc, but some combination of styling and a certain more ineffable tweedy quality just conspire to make Type 3 Notchbacks – and only the Notchback, not the other -backs, be they Fast or Square – strangely seeming like a British car.
It’s sort of dowdy, in an attractive sort of way that reminds me of some midcentury British car design. Understated and a little fussy, but, again, in an appealing way.
In a similar vein is this next non-British Briton-like car, the Volvo 120-series Amazon:
The Amazon has some similar styling traits and shapes and proportions and details that lend a certain United Kingdomitude to the car, but on top of that is the fact that Volvos of this era shared a good amount of technical traits with British cars.
Mostly, I’m thinking about the use of SU carbs and Lucas electrics, both of which I associate very strongly with the British motor industry. I used to have a Volvo 1800S that had both of these features:
… and it always felt very British, especially when it had electrical problems or one of the SUs would drip gasoline onto the hot exhaust manifold right below it, where it would poof into a little cloud of very worrisome smoke.
Point is, Amazons somehow feel British I think is the takeaway here.
One more, how about? I promised three, and you deserve three, so how about this one: the Peugeot 404 roadster?
Of all the French carmakers, I’ve always thought that Peugeot seemed the least French, or, to put it another way, the most British. Peugeot tended to stick with more conventional engineering, a good bit less Gallic weirdness, and with styling that was a little more restrained, handsome but not as daring as, say, Citroën.
The Peugeot 404 cabriolet or convertible or roadster or whatever they call it has so much of that MGB/Triumph/Austin-Healey sort of feel to it that it can’t help but feel quite British, even with those yellow headlights making the road look all saffron-y.
I bet there’s more, and I’d like to hear your picks for British-seeming cars that just aren’t British at all! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to sleep so I can scramble to pack and make my flight. I’ll be seeing our cranky goth designer Adrian when I’m there, and I’ll be trading him some hazelnut coffee creamer for a genuine Sinclair Spectrum. I’m very excited.
But who/what are the Grimsley Whirlies?!
Who’s getting the Sinclair?
The idea that either of you could be excited about hazelnut coffee creamer is deeply disturbing.
Toyota Century would like a word.
Styling by Vauxhall – Pricing by Rolls Royce.
MR2 feels British to me. though I suppose a bit more reliable. it seemed an awful lot like a TR7 style with underwhelming power to match. They also seemed somewhat MG F inspired at some point as well.
lol, you could also argue the Mini feels a little British even though it is made in what…Turkey…by a German Company?
“…whatever the essence of automotive Britishness is.”
It’s intriguing and inventive engineering applied inappropriately then mis-managed into production.
Like the M100 Elan’s excellent FWD that no one wanted, or Landrovers rugged yet unreliable off-roaders, or Bristols.
We could be world class, but we had to stop for tea just before getting the details right.
Ineos Grenadier is pretty awesome, but does it still seem british?
It looks like the new Defender JLR should have made, but didn’t. However unless they are leaving the factory with corroded door hinges and horrific driveline shunt it’s not British.
That young Clark Gable model on the 1800S may work for the ladies. I’m hopping in the 404.
Third generation Ford Cortina’s . Hugely popular in UK, had Uk motors, used UK name from very successful first and second generations, but designed in Germany.
I’d add a lot of other Ford of Europe cars to that, and Vauxhalls too. Growing up I assumed they were all 100% UK designed/built, and then also sold in Europe.
*ETA Is there any more quintessentially British vehicle than the Ford Transit?
Giovanni Michelotti was responsible for the design of all Triumphs from the Herald up to the Stag. I think he only had one design for small three-box sedans though, so a few of his cars ended up looking a bit like the Triumph 1300:
BMW 2002
DAF 44
Hino Contessa
Error 404, Peugeot not found.
Not sure if they still do so but Peugeot’s website used to put images of vintage 404s on their 404 pages, like this one:
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/uRVikXj77JJu99LuX48mwk-970-80.jpg.webp
Distant honorable mention, but how about the NA Miata being a Lotus Elan, 20 years later, that actually works? 😉
That was my first thought too. We owned an NA Miata and an MGB at the same time and the similarities were very obvious. As you pointed out the only difference between the two is that the Miata would take you where you wanted to go and the MGB wouldn’t even make it to its first oil change.
Not a bad stable! My wife has an unnatural obsession with MGBs, and I can’t fault her, but she grew up with enough money that problematic cars would be traded in for something new (or fixed at any expense). Our family, not so much. I know what it’s like to be stranded, it was probably once a year. Just part of having a car in the 80s, especially a European one 😉
Visually the MX-5/Miata looks more like the Lotus Elan, but it’s spirit is similar to the MGB.
Because Jason specifically mentions at the beginning that he’s not going to list cars that were designed after British cars, but cars that felt British ´by accident’.
Yeah, I came here to say similar — but I don’t know if it counts because the Miata somewhat intentionally followed the recipe of British roadsters. Still…
Miata
Is
Always
The
Answer
10000 body shells for the P1800 were built in the UK by Jensen, so it kind of is British… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_P1800
Yeah, they added the “S” to the name when production moved to Sweden
That lil VW Notchback is genuinely a great looking car (or perhaps I’m charmed by its cuteness). You can see the design elements of that weird alternate universe pontoon Beetle in it.
The Type 3 Fastback, especially, has a strong modernized Beetle look to it
Miata.
or anything on the side of the road in a miasma of electrical harness smoke.
A lot of that era of Peugeots were designed by Pininfarina, who did a lot of work with BLMC.
It’s the grille on that Peugot. It’s like the essence of an MG, a Triumph and a Sunbeam distilled into one chromey piece.
I don’t know, the ’70 T3 Squareback I used to own was repainted in a metallic British Racing Green with a tweed-adjacent pattern on the interior panels, and it felt very British in that regard, sort of like a puffed-up Mini Clubman Estate with a funny nose and deeply VW mechanicals.
What in the world is the young lady kneeling in front of the Type 3 doing? While her companions look on? Fixing flat? Adding a license plate? Surely Jason knows.
Whatever she’s doing the guy standing outside the passenger wants it done now!
“Just the normal level of idiocy I’ve come to accept as standard operating procedure for the sphere of space that surrounds my head.”
Ah yes, I recognize that trait. There is a word for people like this, which I definitely did not just make up: “chaoticist”. I’ve had several friends and co-workers who were chaoticists. A chaoticist needs a certain amount of disorder around them at all times. If life doesn’t provide this disorder naturally, as it often does, the chaoticist manufactures it through procrastination or some other form of self-sabotage. Nothing malicious or self-destructive, mind you, just enough to add that extra bit of pressure and panic that they need in order to feel comfortable. Embrace the chaos, Torch, and safe travels!
I believe the internet term is “Chaos Muppet.”
Although as Muppet Theory states there must always be Order Muppets to balance the chaos Muppets, who represents Order? Adrian perhaps? The Bishop?
Hmm, who could possibly bring order to muppets?
Presumably a commanding officer of some sort. Like a lieutenant, or a major. There’s another one in between but I can’t seem to place it…
I’m going to say Matt.
Matt the cat-herder.
As much grief as I like to give JLR over their traditional British midlands quality of “that’ll do”, shamefully appalling so on a luxury vehicle; I have to give credit to my Triumph (also midlands-built) over the decade+ I’ve owned it is on-par with Hondas I’ve owned for fit/finish & reliability.
Dodge Aspen
Take a humble car such as the Dart – make it less reliable and more rust-prone – then trowel on big chrome grilles, vinyl roofs and such…
…and pay Rex Harrison to hawk it in ads using themes from a Broadway show and movie dating from the mid-50’s to early 60’s – in 1976.
Was there anything more British?
Sounds lover-ly.
I heard Rex Harrison had his British citizenship called into question over those ads, because he called the 201-inch-long, 3300lb car with a 3.7 liter engine “small”. The charges were dropped when he invoked the “Money, Dear Boy” clause.
A few of the worst of the Malaise domestics such as the Vega and Volare give you the sense that they could have been British Leyland products.
AMC’s latter trajectory in the ’70s and ’80s always reminded me of BL/Austin-Rover/Rover’s perennial “English Patient” phase. Also, Chrysler from the 2000s onward
Agreed – Which is why I almost went with the AMC Concorde.
Hell, AMC and BL even had the same corporate door handle design
The Vauxhall Victor FE always makes me think it’s what a 4 door Vega would’ve looked like. The sedan that is, the wagon looks way more like an AMC Hornet Sportabout than it does any other GM wagon.
I would pay real money for that Amazon. (Prince of darkness and all) Which makes it totally not remotely British.
The Datsun Fairlady roadster is a Triumph TR6 brother from another mother.
But much more reliable – Which wasn’t very British at all.
Maybe more like an MGB
Formally owned both a TR6 and an MGB. They did not feel like each other. I’ve never driven a Fairlady, so I can’t really speak to how British it feels. I’d love the opportunity though!
Me too! One of each. The MGB was unibody and the TR-6 body-on-frame. You’re right – not much alike to drive. My comment refers to how the Fairlady looks – a friend had one at the same time I owned the MGB and it was an obvious knockoff. Check out the headlights and the taillights.
I see what you mean. I also felt the B looked similar to a 250GT California, but maybe that was my internal Walter Mitty. Did you ever get to drive the Fairlady?
Would the Nash Metropolitan count? Maybe built in the UK makes it not eligible?
Cars that seem British but aren’t?
The earliest model (1960 to maybe ’62) Ford Falcon. To maximize the resemblance it would have to be a 4-door with deluxe trim (the Brits didn’t do big-but-basic and wouldn’t consider it any sort of small car) and the 144 engine and 3 on the tree (still faster than a Ford “Pop”). That or the van (the sedan delivery that is, although the Econoline could count too).