► ‘Beyond the bullshit barrier’, November 1973
► This is the ‘Great New Model Sham of 1973/74’
► Dearth of truly new cars incurred CAR’s wrath
The biggest barrier you face at Earl’s Court each October isn’t the ticket collector’s turnstile. It’s that invisible but nevertheless formidable scourge called the Bullshit Barrier. Or, if you care to put it a little more politely, The Great New Model Sham of 1973/74.
What it means is simply this: Despite the enormous attempts to make us all believe otherwise, less than 20 of the cars at Earl’s Court 1973 can really be called new. That’s right, less than 20! And of those only five are British. Even then, two of the cars hardly qualify for the ‘Authentically New’ title and the ones that really are new come from little-known (unknown?) builders like the Innes Le Motor Company of Shropshire whose Imp-based Scorpion coupe is hardly a frantically desirable additions to the country’s motor cars.
The mid-engined, Ford V6-powered coupe from AC is infinitely more interesting. The other ‘Authentically New’ beast, the £9500 XJ Jaguar-based Owen Sedanca, is mildly tantalising but of significance only to those who fancy some one-upmanship in Jaguar transport.
The two partially new cars are the ones that matter in terms of the overall market: Ford’s Cortina 2000E and Vauxhall’s plough-nosed, five speed Firenza. Uninspiring though they may be, they at least compare favourably with British Leyland’s offering of the Jaguar XJC and the now rear-wheel-drive Triumph 1500. But apart from that lot, Britain’s contribution to motoring for 1974 can simply be summed up by saying that, one way or another, we’ve seen ’em all before. Which is something of a pity now that our motor industry is really starting to get cracking. Anyway let’s bulldoze the bullshit barrier down make by make, car by car.
Lowly old AC Cars (or should we call them dreary old AC) have pulled of the British scoop of the year with their new mid-engined, Ford V6-powered, sports car. Not outstandingly styled, it is nonetheless fairly attractive in profile and could turn out to be a pleasant enough motor car – providing there are no problems within the confines of itself and its maker, who seem to be running into more and more trouble over their invalid cars. To make way for the new car the AC 428 Coupe and Drophead have been dropped. Or did they just die from lack of interest?
As it happens, the Americans are pretty much the scene stealers in this year’s new model skates. First up is American Motors’ new two-door Matador coupe. Qualifying for the New Category, it is a hatchback on the lines of Ford’s new Mustang II, powered by a 5.9litre V8 with a four-barrel carbie that manages to produce only 195bhp. Top of the line version has an interior trim package by well-known clothes designer Oleg Cassini; if you want to buy one you can have bonnet stripes in copper or black to go with it all. The Rambler baby car, the 4.2litre Gremlin isn’t new, but it is available in Britain now.
From Audi there is the Guigaro-styled Ace of Spades one-off unveiled at Frankfurt, and one of only a few prototypes to appear this autumn.
Bristol are making great noises about their Series Four 411, calling it ‘Britain’s most exclusive luxury car offering high-speed touring for four six-foot people in comfort and safety’. Taking a close look at the Series Four, you find that its newness consists of the V8 engine – enlarged from 6277cc to 6556cc – that sports an electronic ignition system and will run on three star petrol. And ‘the series four 411 is distinguishable by slight styling changes around the new rear clamp clusters and boot lid.’ Wow!
Of the European manufacturers, BMW are riding most rampant. They have the 525 and the 3.2CSL. Sure we’ve seen the 525’s body before, but no the package, which has the 2.5litre six under the bonnet instead of the 2.0litre four. In effect, it is a new car opening up its own market. As for the 3.2CSL: well, bearing a name of lesser repute than BMW it wouldn’t qualify for anything more than a good guffaw. Since it does, and since it works so damned well, all those wings and fences working like the blazes as it wends its way past 140mph, then it rates considerable interest. But can you see yourself buying one?
Citroen gleefully have their GZ Comotor car. Once more, the body is not new (although there are minor changes) but the engine certainly is and the car is so important from a technical viewpoint that it cannot be regarded with anything less than maximum interest. There are small changes to other Citroens, although apart from a bigger-engined, automatic transmission SM there’s nothing worth talking about.
Datsun hold the Japanese (and import?) trump card with their new 120Y saloons, coupes and estates and the 140Y saloons. Datsun has been doing well enough, but now they have the long-awaited replacement for the 1200 range they should get cracking even more potently.
The 120Y has a new body (typically Japanese) but it’s the same as the old 1200 underneath. The 140 series is boring enough as well, but we haven’t seen it here before. Certainly does give Datsun a blanket market coverage though.
Datsun prefer to put it this way: ‘The 120Y is the best of both worlds, a stylish and safe modern body on a tried and trusted chassis. It breaks no new engineering ground; there are no new revolutionary features’. How delightfully accurate.
The 140 Series is boring enough as well, its just that we haven’t seen it before.
Ferrari have the production version of the super-fast 365GT BB (Boxer to its friends). Six or seven of the cars have now been made, thereby beating Lamborghini’s Countach onto the roads. The car isn’t new (in the sense that we’ve seen it before) but still pretty sensational, being reportedly even quicker than the Countach, and the fastest production car of all time – and perhaps for ever if it comes to that.
Backing it up is a real newie: the Dino 308 GT4. The long-awaited 2+2 version of the marvellous Dino V6, it is powered by a new 2926cc 90degree V8 that has 255 (DIN) bhp. The body is quite different from the rather flowing alloy of the Dino 246: it looks more like a Lamborghini Urraco, which isn’t surprising since Bertone does bodies for both. Maranello Concessionaires expect to get their first car in late January. Top speed: 150mph.
Ford’s centre of attraction is the so-called new Cortina range with the 2000E as the shining light. The E almost qualifies for the Properly New Stakes but that’s all. Underneath, the suspension has been softened for a better ride and fitted with anti-roll bars to take care of the otherwise resultant body roll. All very nice, but simply the things what should have been done when the Cortina was first built. In the 2000E you get a plush interior and the new (an very good) dashboard. The other cars in the range also have the uprated suspension and the new dashboard, and the 1600 now has an overhead cam head as standard. Before only the GT had it. Body wise, you have to be happy with rectangular headlights in place of round ones. Ford’s really new effort comes not from Britain, but America. It’s the Mustang II, the mini ’stang that’s less powerful than the Capri 3.0litre ‘full size’ Mustang. There is also an all-new Cougar XR7, if you can afford the fuel to run it, and from Australia the all-new LTD- a tank in the Yank tradition but at least with four-wheel disc brakes; its not quite as bad as similar businessmen’s specials from America.
And that’s from Ford, apart from such minor changes to the Escort and Consul/Granada that we won’t embarrass Ford by mentioning them.
General Motors is where it’s all happening in the autumn of 1973. They pulled off a pretty solid impact at Frankfurt with the two-rotor Wankel Corvette. For experimental – and downright interesting – cars, no one else has anything to touch these two from GM right now.
The Innes Lee Motor Company of Shropshire at last unveil their Imp-based Scorpion. Thank heavens it wasn’t at the Frankfurt show; they’d still be rolling the aisles. Really, when you look at its badly fitting gullwing door, its crude styling you wonder why they bothered. Innes Lee say they’re Britain’s newest motor company, but the product is a familiar theme.
Jaguar give us the XJC. Very nice and all, you can’t grumble about its smooth, pleasant looks and excellent mechanical parts. But hardly much of an offering when everyone is looking forward to the F-type. The rest of the Jaguar range is updated in Series Two form, but all the mods there fit the we’ve-seen-it-all-before department.
Another properly new car from Italy is the Lancia Beta Coupe. It uses parts from the Beta saloon wrapped in a neat little two-door body. The most exciting thing about it is its perfectly sumptuous interior which is designed to take four people in very great comfort over long distances. And since Lancia understand suspensions very well, that journey may as well be over the most tortuous route possible.
The Monica, that idealistic effort from France, makes it as a production car after no end of teething troubles. The engine is now an American Chrysler 5.8litre V8 in place of the original English-designed 3.0litre quad-cam V8.
Opal offers not so much an exciting range as an important one in the new Kadett. It shows only too clearly what the Vauxhall Viva, its English cousin, should be like. It’s a variation on a well-known tune, but it’s a damned good variation and that’s what pulls it well clear of the Bullshit Barrier.
H R Owen’s Sedanca, based on Jaguar XJ parts, is a commendable effort but not an outstanding one. With a degree of competence they have come up with a body that is fairly attractive, comfortable and apparently very efficient in terms of aerodynamics (even at the expense of better looks). The accent is on luxury. The point is taken almost to the ridiculous, with personal, silver-backed clothes brushes set into the console compartment and a silver note-pad in the driver’s door armrest. It’s honestly new, and if you do have £9500 to spend, you’ll find it in an interesting enough exhibit.
British Leyland gives us the Rover 2200, a development of the 2000. Not new at all and so it doesn’t really belong on this side of the Bullshit Barrier. But let’s be kind, because it is a very nice motor car.
There is slightly more room inside with the new interior (something that’s way overdue). It is comfortable as long as rear passengers’ legs are not particularly long, and it is better balanced overall than the Rover 3500, making it more pleasant to drive.
Triumph have taken the monumental step of switching the 1500 to rear-wheel-drive and improving it in other ways.
The performance is better by two seconds right through the range over the old fwd 1500, as well as curing the dreariness problems that were the hangups with it before. But hardly a devastating contribution to the world of motoring in 1974!
And then there is Vauxhall. As their boss, Alex Rhea, says in our interview with him on page 46, the Magnums are hardly new cars. Just improved. Same for everything else in the Vauxhall camp except the Firenza coupe. Using a well developed, big-valve, 2300 engine, a ZF five-speed box and a wild nose that cuts the drag co-efficient back from 0.5 to 0.38 (which is excellent) it’s a very good car indeed, one to get justifiably excited about. And worried if your name’s Ford!
And that’s it folks. Just about everything else at Earl’s Court and in your friendly neighbourhood showroom is nowt but the Bullshit Barrier in all its glory.