Excalibur 35X

A neo-classic with roots in Italy, the us and Monaco

Story by Chris Rees

OBSCURATI

CURIOSITIES FROM THE AMAZING WORLD OF ITALIAN CARS

Love it or loathe it, theneo-classic movement– modern cars built tolook like antiques –really got into its stridein the 1960s. While the USA wasthe undoubted spiritual homeof the neo-classic, othercountries (including Italy) alsogot in the act. Even Alfa Romeohad a stab with a Zagato-builtpastiche of the 1750 Spiderbased on Giulia underpinnings,while Siata did a Fiat 850-based‘oldie’ called the Spring.

Another prominent Italian effort involved Michelotti of Turin. But our story starts not in Italy but just over the border in Monaco, where a chap called Guy Storr was importing US-built neo-classics from the Excalibur Automobile Corporation of Milwaukee to sell to the ‘beautiful people’. Storr had the look of an impassioned conductor with his long white hair; he also had the ambition to conduct his own car-making operation, too.

This was the Excalibur 35X. As its name suggested, it was supposed to be inspired by the Bugatti Type 35 of the 1920s, even if you perhaps had to squint to see it. Who precisely designed the 35X isn’t clear; it was probably American stylist Brooks Stevens but Giovanni Michelotti could well have had input, too. According to an official press release: “The designer has taken a crosssection of attractive features of many Bugatti models and homogenised them into one pleasing two-seater, cyclefendered sports car with the famous boat tail rear end.”

There were two clear Italian strands to the project. The first was that Michelotti of Turin was contracted to design the chassis and build the bodies. The shells were then sent from Turin to Daytona Garage, a small operation near Cannes in France, to be built up into cars. Power came from an Opel Commodore 2490cc six-cylinder single overhead cam engine developing 130hp. As an option, the famed engine tuner, Conrero of Turin, could modify it to make 180hp. The 35X was a much smaller car than the other main model in Excalibur’s range, the SS, measuring 410cm long and 160cm wide, and the kerb weight was a slender 950kg.

This was a very high-priced machine and production (1965 to 1969) apparently amounted to a mere 27 units in all. The 35X was displayed at the New York Motor Show by SS Automobiles for possible marketing in the United States with the name ‘Type 57’ but whether it ever reached the US market is not known. Guy Storr had a bad car accident in 1973 and although the 35X was in theory still available during the 1970s, it definitively died with Storr in 1980. The remains of the project were then taken up and modified by a French company called De Le Chapelle.