Richard Heseltine · Articles

Scroll back to 1978 and Pininfarina caused a furore with its Jaguar XJ Spider. No gush was too purple as the world’s motoring media begged British Leyland to adopt it as a production model. It didn’t, of course, but this one-off roadster remains a classic of its kind

The title of Autocar magazine’s article in October 1967 said it all: ‘Bertone-Jaguar: no dream car – but not for you and me’. This one-off gran turismo wasn’t the first Bertone-bodied Jaguar, witness the Franco Scaglione-styled XK150 and Marcello Gandini-designed ‘FT’ that was based variously on S-type and 420 saloon foundations for Italy’s marque concessionaire, Ferruchio Tarchini. However, in this particular instance, there was no intention of making the Pirana in even the most limited of numbers. It was a concept queen, and a compelling one.

Richard Heseltine examines the distinctively American concept of the ‘neoclassic’ and specifically the Matco marque…

This ‘Made in Turin’ mustang with radical new bodywork was the pony that got away

Richard Heseltine looks at Chrysler’s sub-compact concept which turns into a people carrier, the Voyager III – a concept which most definitely took a voyage to obscurity…

Ford’s quest for Total Performance resulted in some very tasty automotive morsels being served up. None more so than the Mach 2, which looked like it could have been another star in Ford’s concept car constellation – had it ever seen production…

In the BB’s earliest form there is a simplicity and purity to the shape that later derivatives were never quite able to match’

Lancia and rallying were once synonymous, the Delta Integrale being among the greatest homologation specials ever to scorch a special stage. It hasn’t lost the power to thrill, either, as we discover after braving one with more than 300bhp.

And so we arrive at a notable benchmark on this journey: the Ferrari F40 was the first production car to exceed the magic ‘double-ton’. You could argue that the F40 owes its existence to healthy opportunism rather than a well-planned marketing strategy. Ferrari’s sales had faltered in the early 1980s, with fears that its products were turning ‘soft’ under Fiat’s corporate blanket.

This compact concept was touted as a production car for the American market, but despite doing the car show rounds, it never saw production…

The prolific Italian stylist Giovanni Michelotti was a mainstay of Triumph design for well over a decade. These special TR3As signal his starting point.

From work on Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters to designing the tail-lights on the ’64 Falcon Futura, designer Syd Mead’s star turn was the Ranger II concept pick-up truck, as Richard Heseltine discovers…

It was a car that was literally and figuratively created by accident. Guyson International MD, Jim Thompson, was a keen hillclimb racer. However, for all his apparent skill behind the wheel, even he couldn’t stop his V12 Jaguar E-type from connecting with something immovable one dark and stormy night in 1973.

‘Unrelenting, mesmerising, frightening amounts of power are deployed with an almost serene mechanical indifference’

This Buick concept hinted at a future SUV/station wagon offering from GM’s Flint-based division; sadly what was rolled out a few years later had none of the bold vision of the concept…