Ahh, British motoring. Is there anything better? The exquisite exteriors. The refined interiors. The goddamned electrical gremlins.
OK, reputations aside, British cars are quite nice to drive when they are running. But for a peculiar breed, let’s look to a mid 60’s Vincent. Specifically the Vincent Meteor 3500p.
There was nothing normal about this car, at least from what we’re used to. It was upscale powered by a mid-sized H6 engine, but also front-wheel drive and with a manual transmission. Furthermore, it had an independent rear suspension, something very rare in the day.
Overall, the Comet is a very interesting drive. It’s pretty quick and nimble overall, but loves to understeer when pushed at even modest speeds.
Unfortunately, we have to go back to the stereotypes about British cars. Electrical faults? Yeah, the Comet has them in spades. And because they were a very niche car in the States, sold in low numbers, you’re going to have to deal with international parts brokers at some point. And likely just to get your hands on a decent chassis, for that matter.
If you like unusual, though, the Meteor will definitely be your cup of tea.
Scoring: Counter Culture - Import/Export: Medium (Currently in 6th)
It took Rado almost a decade to start producing passenger cars again for the North American markets after the NHTSA banned their imported Sofas for being, well, terrible. So is it any wonder that said passenger car shared a lot of the same bits as the trucks and vans they had continued to produce? No, not really.
When you do that, you end up with a passenger car that can, frankly, go frighteningly well off-road. From the retro files, today we give you the 1982 Rado Adventure 140 Turbo.
Now, aside from the Adventure riding like a truck (because, frankly, it is underneath the wagon skin), our only real complaint comes from its turbo-fed carburetor, which likes to blow seals all over the place when driven hard. Many folks have taken to refitting early throttle body injection from other manufacturers to rectify this problem.
The wild is the Adventure’s natural habitat. Off-road parks, mountain roads, overland rallies… you name it, Adventures are there. Often in pretty big numbers.
After all, the simplicity (once the carb is replaced) and reliability, combined with ruggedness and capability, are a match made in heaven.
Scoring: Counter Culture - Jalopy Culture: Medium (Currently in 4th) Counter Culture - Spiritual Classics: Medium (Currently in 4th)
A little power goes a long way in a tiny car. For Rutherford’s Sparra 1, it takes just 58 horses from its 1 liter boxer to give it the kick it needs.
In many ways, the Sparra is the spiritual successor to the Birmingham Renton that we loved so much just a generation earlier. And while it’s lighter and still as nimble, it’s just not quite as quick overall. That’s ok, we still love it anyway. Especially given that you can enjoy slightly more comfortable seating and a radio.
I recently got to drive one of these little babies on an autocross track. Its short top-end doesn’t matter there, but the fact that it sticks to the ground like glue does. Don’t let its age or power fool you; it can get thrown around with the best of them.
You can still find decent shells and engines, but you’re likely to need either some metalworking skills or know “a guy” to get good body panels at this point.
Still, totally worth it.
Scoring: Counter Culture - Motorsports: Very High (Currently in 2nd)
The Year is 1970. Ford has been dominating the coupe market with the Capri, while the family market is under the grip of the Escort, and has been since 1967. So to try to take on the giant, Bramble decided to try to kill the two birds with one stone.
The Procida was designed to be a six cylinder coupe with the size of an escort, mating a stylish look that was designed to imitated the popular Bramble Flint with the 18 year old Bramble 6 engine – known for producing a surprising amount of power from a comparatively small size. The problem was the engine bay wasn’t long enough for the engine, so a simple solution was found – chop a cylinder off, job done. This made it one of the first 5-cylinder production cars in the world, although the resulting engine wasn’t as smooth as the 6, naturally.
When the first generation Icarus came out, it did an important job with filling a gap in the model programme. With both a growing middle class in the home market, and the IP brand entering more and more export markets, the little cramped, spartan Lily was too rudimentary for many buyers while the huge Royalist luxury sedan never was a car for the masses. It also was the first sedan from IP to feature unibody construction, strut suspension up front and coil springs in the rear, things that first appeared on the 1958 Flaire sports car. Hence, it was seen in its days as something of a 4 door Flaire, kind of a sports sedan with the 2,5 litre six cyinder giving quite good performance for an early 60s family car. The spoke wheels from the Flaire, even though not officialy available on the Icarus, was common as a dealer mounted option.
The interior was nicely appointed with a standard grey wool fabric interior (leather a rare option), walnut dash with thick safety padding, electric clock, reclining bucket seats in front, lap belts in front and mounting points in the rear, and a steering wheel with recessed hub designed to yield in a crash. It also was the first IP to feature metallic paint as an option (the “silver fish” color is synonymous with the Mk1 Icarus for many people) and the first model to be available in station wagon form.
The 1981 Starfire was Sakura’s first attempt at trying to compete in the Minivan/Van market. It was an RR Boxer 4 van, making barely enough Horsepower. It was sluggish and slow in Tz spec, and the lower Az spec was even worse. It was, however, found to be very good at traveling with families, and taking things were they needed to be, due to the rather flat floor found due to the Rear engine layout. It allowed for some conversions to campers for that real “Holiday fun.” The First Gen Starfire would cease production in 1993.
In a world full of large muscle cars and long, svelte sedans, we imagine that the Bramble Procida Five must have been a bit of an ugly duckling back in 1970. But as is the case with the fairy tale fowl, our little bird here ended up being a beautiful swan.
Sure, it had edgy styling for its day, but we can certainly appreciate how well it has aged. But what has stood the test of time in a little bit of engineering ingenuity that created a fantastic “hot hatchback” before that was even really a thing.
Bramble couldn’t do what they wanted to by stuffing the long Bramble 6 under the hood of the Procida’s platform. So instead, they lopped off a cylinder and came up with a new crank to host a bank of 5 instead. With high compression and a rather hot cam, this little baby pumped out an eyebrow-raising 129 horsepower. In a miniscule package.
Unfortunately, the lack of fuel economy was problematic a few years later when the oil crisis hit, deeply cutting into sales. Over time, the Procida Five was forgotten and then rediscovered. A rediscovery that was possible thanks to good quality control and a little luck with owners caring for them properly.
Nowadays you can find these getting souped up even more and hitting the track for drift competitions. That is, if you can get an original owner (or their descendent) to give up the keys to one. You’re almost as likely to find one driving down a curved canyon road, its driver soaking up the pure driving experience without a care about competition.
Scoring: Mainstream Culture - Drift: High (Currently in 2nd) Counter Culture - Spiritual Classics: Low (Currently in 6th)
First off, please forgive the “sport” graphics on the side of this Sakura. Market norms sometimes don’t translate quite that well, and we know that some of our readers are going to scoff at a van with 58 horsepower being a “sport” model. Remember, folks, this was also a model sold the same way in the Japanese home market. In 1981, 58 horsepower on a van was indeed sporty to a degree.
58 horsepower was also by no means a deterrent to North American buyers in the early 80’s. I mean, everything was strangled back then. A 305 V8 having barely more than double this was not unusual, and much, much heavier if it was a typical American full-sized van.
And buyers were not deterred by the Starfire Tz at all. In fact, they bought them in surprisingly large numbers in the early 80’s. The ability to carry 9 people, albeit in cramped fashion, for a relative bargain, was irresistable for many. Smaller families could take out the rear seat for cargo room, and larger ones could handle long trips by getting a luggage rack on the roof.
The Starfire was, and continues today, to be popular with churches. Its relatively low cost, comparatively good fuel economy, and overall good design makes it a popular option. Many Starfires have now found a second life as short-distance shuttles for such places as motorsport tracks, rural airports, and even as parts or personnel shuttles for industrial complexes.
It’s no one’s idea of a dream car, but certainly beloved as a loyal companion, no matter the application.
Scoring: Counter Culture - Spiritual Classics: Very High (Currently in 1st)
It’s Mamaya day here at the blog, and time to talk about another slightly weird but interesting model. Mark 1 Icarus 2500 this time, to be precise.
Funkadelic design is on full display on the Icarus. Between the odd recessed door handles, unique rear wheel setup, and the interior design, we get ourselves one of those Cult Chic cars. Not exactly a great seller back in the day for being rather bizarre and missing the mark in the North American market, the Icarus is nevertheless sought out by those who prefer to march to a different beat when it comes to showing off their ride.
A more in-depth look paints a better picture as to how the Icarus got here. Inside, IP put in some nice premium details like double-stitched seating with extra padding, door-side storage pockets on all 4 portals, and a rather advanced-for-the-time tilt steering column. The last bit is important, as IP also designed the column to crush easily in a collision, and integrated other advanced features for the time. Yet they only included a basic AM radio with a single speaker and no mechanical presets.
That odd packaging for a premium car, combined with a small-for-market engine and odd styling cues, all contributed to the lacking sales. From what we can tell, though, this model was quite popular in its home market.
Something else it all adds up to? A truly unique vehicle for those who want to stick out at a cruise in or classic car show.
Scoring: Counter Culture - Classics: Medium (Currently in 5th)
My reference to the odd real wheel setup is probably a visual glitch caused by the size of the brakes, the particular wheels chosen, and the selected offset. It does look weird, but it also at the same time gives something to talk about. So take that for what you will.
It’s those wire wheels. A lot of the convex dish wheels will easily fit over the brakes with little or no offset. But no, you’re not the only one having that issue.
I prefer to be somewhat realistic too, old cars often had the rear wheels very far inboards, just look at a 1959 Pontiac that advertised its “wide track” suspension, then you look at a 1959 Chevy which used the same basic bodyshell but a more traditional track width, and it looks like the wheels are a mile inside of the rear wheel openings, the Volvo 240 almost made 4 tracks when driven in snow, using a more modern and wider strut suspension up front with the rear end still being from the 140 series designed in the 60s and so on, so I don’t want to go extreme on the offset just for aesthetics either. But I may be more careful with wheel choices for old cars then. But enough of threadjacking now…
Dude, you are not threadjacking. I love hearing your perspective on things, as I too like to try to design things realistically. I know there are some time periods I absolutely suck at and am trying to work on.
It didn’t look like the offset was that far off. Maybe 10mm would have fixed the visual issue. But as it stands for the purposes of this thread, the visual makes it a cool, quirky car. Not sure if I expressed that well enough. And in case you didn’t know before, I like weird.
If you are wondering, do they share the same body shell, yes they do.
If you are wondering, do the different designations denote a different model with different features, yes they do.
The cars share the same body shell, with the front end visually marking a difference. Ride height of the Hawk 190 and the Hawk 122’s station wagon body marking further differences. All the models share the same transmission but have differing engines. From a production point of view, the Hawk 190 and 251 would share the same production line, being different only from the firewall forward and the under carriage …plus a few badging changes.
If they are all built on the same platform (and not as separate platforms off of the same body style), then I’ll accept them. When I import them, they have to all show up under the same header.
I reserve the right, with multiple trims, to review as many or as few as I wish. I’m unlikely to review more than 2 trims in a week.
“New body, New heart, same soul” was the motto for the redesigned JDM-only coupe. Instead of featuring a V6 the CX-1 (Former “Purē”) runs on a 3L I6. Also the car was now more focused on a more upscale market while still keeping it sporty roots. A “Sport” version with a Turbo and “X-Series” version with AWD and DOHC were also sold.
I love hearing your perspective on things, as I too like to try to design things realistically. I know there are some time periods I absolutely suck at and am trying to work on.
