Now we’ll start looking at some concepts Duke made throughout their history. Some of these are purely experimental, some were previews of production models and some never saw the light of day for a variety of reasons. I won’t, however, be covering the Septimus luxury car concept again, as I already talked about that when introducing the Triad V6.
I mentioned a planned Segundo coupe before, so this is it. Essentially a three-door hatchback with a more sweeping roofline, this was not a sports car- it was an eco-car. This one, the Segundo e, shown off in 1989, was built for fuel economy, with a very efficient turbocharged 1.6-litre I4 producing 105hp, but more importantly allowing the 930kg car to achieve a nice, round 50mpg, and up to 70 in cruise tests (UK). It would have been put into production like this except for the cost- at nearly £8000 just to make, it was deemed too expensive to be marketable- the production Segundo began at £9495, and the e was based on that cheapest model, the 1.6E.
The coupe might have reached production in a cheaper format, but Duke feared it would eventually take away sales from the Aprima, which was still in the works and would be completed in 1993. It did, though, inspire the cleaner styling of the original Aprima, done to signify its eco-friendly credentials.
Though not yet fully confident with the idea of making another all-out sports saloon after the poorly-received Triad SS, Duke showed that they had learned from that experience. In 2016 they shared a design and specs for a potential Penta Sport (as it was then known)- this 2-tonne RWD saloon now had a dual-overhead-cam 3973cc V6, producing 315hp and 277lb/ft at up to 7000rpm.
This car looked promising, but it never reached the production line due to a predicted lack of interest from the public- if they were going to actually make a muscle car, first the V8s would need resurrecting. However, its bodykit was made available on a new specification called the Penta SS-Design, so the project was not a total waste.
This is what the Aprima was originally meant to look like, with a front end more similar to the Segundo. The concept also claimed to have features that the production Aprima did not until later in its lifetime, such as a passenger airbag (which was not even an option until 2000) and variable power steering (introduced on the Aprima C in 2006). It was also subject to another condition by the management- that the car must weigh less than 900kg, or it would be too inefficient to be competitive. The concept totals 899kg, with basic production models using cheaper, often heavier materials to equate to about the same.
When the Penta was launched in 1996, there was meant to be a wagon as well as the sedan. However, this did not happen at first because SUVs were becoming noticeably more popular around this time, and the existing wagons in the range (the Segundo SW and Triad SW) had not met sales targets. By 1999, though the Segundo Smuggler van was really beginning to take off, Duke realised that the Penta was too large for Europe and a utility version for America would simply be lost in a land of pickup trucks and huge 4x4s. That was when the Penta SW project was scrapped for good.
Duke’s most mysterious project is one from the mid-1970s. With a fuel crisis putting emphasis on economical cars, they wanted to see just how light and efficient they could make a car with one of their existing engines. Employing a 1600 from the Nova Mk2, they built around it an aluminium monocoque chassis, and used just the bare minimum of parts required to make a drivable car out of it. Supposedly the resulting vehicle, known internally as the UE74, achieved 37mpg in tests around the company’s Vancouver heaquarters. Little else is known, but the car was destroyed and only one photograph, taken during a test-drive in summer 1974, survives.
The original plan for the Sextant’s launch in 2000 was for there to be four trim levels- the SL, a base model intended for use as a utility vehicle; the LX, a slightly nicer trim with more tech inside and the option of a third row of seats; the SLX, which would be enough for most fairly wealthy soccer moms; and the LXX, a more exclusive model at a far greater price, intended for VIPs.
As it happened, the only VIPs interested in such a discreet, luxurious eight-seater SUV were cartel leaders in South America. Orders were placed directly to the company’s headquarters, as they did not yet have any infrastructure in that part of the world. One cartel also offered to fund Duke’s expansion into South America; the conditions of this offer included production of the Sextant LXX being made exclusive to the cartel in question, in return for the building of a factory in Colombia and provision of labour to get it up and running.
Duke refused the offer on the grounds that they would be using dirty money for their own benefit, but the seed had been planted for a South American arm of the company- this is what kicked off the formation of DMX. However, the angry cartel leaders blocked sales of DMX cars in Colombia and forced Duke’s President, Terence Ryan, to retire lest they hunt him down. In the end, to rid themselves of the whole thing, Duke scrapped the LXX in 2002- it never made the production line, and only a few pre-production models are thought to exist.
In 2006, Japanese tuning company Mansu Speedworks got hold of a Triad 3.4 and decided to turn it into an all-out racing car. They gave it a widebody kit, huge semi-slick tyres, a massively uprated (though still naturally-aspirated) engine producing 400hp, sequential transmission, much stiffer suspension and better brakes. Duke asked to buy the car off them in the hope of using it for promotional purposes, as around this time the Aprima C and Segundo D were about to hit the market. Mansu agreed, and Duke scrubbed off the Mansu livery leaving the car in plain white.
The car was present at the launch event of the Aprima SS in January 2007, appeared in advertising for the company, and made its last appearance at the launch of the Triad C in 2008. In the meantime it toured racing venues around the world, followed everywhere it went by eager journalists and photographers.
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The TriadX will be a very significant moment for Duke, being their first electric-only model range (no internal combustion engines here), so some specifications have now been released:
Base models will have front-only motors producing the equivalent of 180hp, with a single-speed transmission allowing a top speed of 80mph. This version (as is shown above) is intended for city use, which is the reason for the speed limiter as well as the relatively small 19-inch wheels. Higher-spec examples will have AWD and 21-inch wheels as standard, plus 370hp and two forward speeds allowing the car to hit an electronically-limited top speed of 120mph. All will come with lane assist, driverless parking and low-speed manoeuvring, radar-guided cruise control, GPS with traffic updates and a wireless charging point, with top-spec examples having fully autonomous capabilities and all having the option of either 5 full seats or a 5+3 setup.
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Now we arrive back at the very beginning of Duke’s time as an independent carmaker. In 1935, their parent company, the Portland Motor Company, collapsed, leaving Duke most of the assets they had left. These included blueprints for a more modern design (not complete but intended for release around 1940) and for their long-running 5997cc I6. Duke used both of these to create their first ever concept car, the 36 Sedan (above right). Its engine was taken straight from Portland’s final model, the TC4-35 (above left), and through a 2-speed manual transmission and RWD it produced a mighty 115hp and 234lb/ft. If the lighter 36 Coupe had been released, it would have been one of the fastest cars in the world, but Duke did not persevere with this engine design as the competition moved onto more efficient and compact V8s.
These headlights are staring at my soooul
Also, nice brass era car, still rare to see one of those. I think people aren’t used to design this things.
I need to post mine soon.
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It’s not the first pre-war car I’ve made, but it’s definitely the most detailed. When it came to the first two (when I first got the mod packs) I didn’t know where to begin and basically made a pair of four-fixture wonders. Glad you like it.
While not exactly a concept, the 1998 Triad STS was definitely exclusive. It was not the first Triad homologation special (that being 1996’s 2.0 SS) but it was the closest to the real touring car. It had the same derivative of the touring car’s 2000cc engine as in the 2.0 SS, producing 142hp and revving to 8000rpm, but also shared the racer’s track width, tyre width (though the wheels were 17’’ rather than the racer’s 18s), wider arches, the same wing could be optioned (though the front splitter could not as it was too impractical), and sporty suspension (though not exactly the same setup, being slightly softer and riding higher).
With the market for small hatchbacks becoming so big in the late 1970s, Duke decided they wanted a piece of the action. Plans were drawn up for a model smaller than the Flash- though not yet given a name, it was known as Project Cagliari, since the idea was that a smaller car would sell well in Italy where the inner cities had really tiny roads. To save money, Duke borrowed the Cagliari’s platform design from Masina Valto, the Latvian arm of PMZ (a Soviet conglomerate which attempted to give every deserving eastern bloc citizen a car), but re-engineered it into a monocoque with better materials. The result was profound; while able to achieve 37mpg (UK) thanks to its low weight of 781kg, the car only cost just over £3000 to make.
The downfall of Project Cagliari was that it was not much smaller than the new Flash hatchback, had much more antiquated styling and did not really fit with Duke’s vision of itself in the coming decade. The project was canned in 1981, and Duke did not enter the supermini market until the Aprima arrived in 1994.
The prototype that Project Cagliari produced- though styling was not finalised, this vision was basically complete.
The Valto 1500 (1975-1990), the car which kicked off the project.
Valto, you won’t believe what I saw, I saw this pack of cars and they’re acting real hard!
Dammit man, don’t take me back to my rap days like that! I’m over that songs!
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I didn’t even think about that…
The Valto is actually named after the city where it was made (Valmiera) and the founder (Viktor Torin).
The perceived failure of the Penta SW prompted Duke to make a new utility model. Wildlander’s last new car had been the Nova U140, which had been gradually updated since its inception in 1977 but was looking very dated and was losing popularity by the new millennium. Work began on a Sextant pickup in 1999, and it was confirmed at the Sextant’s launch the following year.
In late 2001, the pickup finally hit the market. Known in Australasia as the Wildlander U340, and in the US as the Duke Seismic Haulier, it had the Sextant’s platform and 3.4l V6, but with a new rear body and a more utilitarian suspension tune pushing the load capacity up to 2 tonnes. The U340 lasted until 2008, when the second-gen Sextant (2007-2014) got a pickup variant, which brought back the U300 moniker.
The relative success of the midsize Sextant/Haulier led Duke to think about a full-size pickup truck- one such vehicle, the Gavril D-Series, had been the best-selling vehicle in the USA for years, so if Duke could take on that market it could step up their game several notches.
It did not. Known as the Okta, the resulting full-size truck had a bespoke 5.2l pushrod V8 producing 195hp and 320lb/ft. This engine was expensive to make, and not as good as the competition. It did have a load capacity of 2.6 tonnes, which was its primary selling point along with the equipment level (even base models had a CD player and 4WD). The result was that the Okta, made in Vancouver and sold only in the US and Canada, was expensive but favoured by one particular market- wealthy tradespeople who had the money to spare and wanted something nice, but valued the load capacity for carrying all their equipment.
The original Okta (below) was available from 2007 to 2017, with a major update carrying the model into the 2020s. Sales were slow at first, but picked up around 2013 as the range became cheaper- now, though still not a best-seller, it is at least competitive, with sales in 2019 estimated at one every hour.
From 1952 to 1956, a modified version of the 38/55, known as the 38/78P, was made specially for British police forces to use as traffic patrol cars. A two-barrel carburettor, higher cam profile and more advanced ignition timing allowed this model to produce nearly 80hp through a 3-speed manual transmission- and despite being fitted for radio, it was hardly any heavier than the standard 38/55.
38/78Ps were bought by the constabularies of Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Cumbria, and many served until around 1960. The 38/78P is most recognised, though, for its role in the 1955 gangster film Armed- in that film, the main character, a weapons smuggler in a 1954 Nomina Model 1, gets pursued by cops in a Duke. The chase, from which a few stills can be seen below, saw both cars get wrecked- it ended in basically a demolition derby as the police officers tried to avoid being run over while still blocking the getaway in so they could arrest him.
As the car-based-van market declined in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Duke decided not to bring back the Segundo Smuggler for a second generation. Instead, in 2002, they came up with an all-new van- the Segundo CV. There were four versions of this: the CV, a van with further configurations possible; the CVP, a five-seat passenger version; the CVA, a disabled-access version with a ramp folded into the rear bumper and an electric tailgate; and the CVP7, a 7-seat model. All could be had with a range of I4s, from 1204cc to 1600cc.
The CVA was a best-seller in its class, with the CV also being quite popular (though many Segundo Smuggler owners stuck with their old hacks for longer). The CVP was a different story, seeming to find moderate success with one particular market; the elderly. Lots of pensioners went to Duke dealerships with the intention of buying a Segundo, but saw the CV and realised it was far more practical and base models were barely any more expensive. To them it did not matter that a CVP7 1.2 SLX automatic was the slowest vehicle in Duke’s range at the time (with a grim 0-62mph time of 22.8 seconds and a top speed estimated at 87mph)- they were never going to drive it fast. The CVP thus gained a reputation as a car for the slow-of-mind, those who would sometimes be found going the wrong way down the hard shoulder of the M6 at 5mph.
The CV received an update in 2009 which brought in some newer engines, a styling refresh, and an updated equipment list.
