Part Five 1955 to 1960
The second half of the nineteen fifties
was a great time if you were interested in light sports roadsters and
even better if you could afford to own one. The austerity of the years
immediately after the Second World War was a thing of the past and motoring
for pleasure had returned. The sports cars always had an enthusiastic following
in Europe and particularly in Britain. The MG T series of cars and the
Porsche 356 and a few other makes had given the enthusiasts in the United
States a taste for motor sport and sports motoring and created a demand
for light sports cars. To cater for that demand with a modern car and to
replace the obsolete TF, MG introduced the MGA in 1955. MG's chief
designer Syd Enever had produced a prototype of the car that was to become
the MGA in the early nineteen fifties, but the TF was produced instead.
The prototype utilised the same suspension, steering gear, engine and transmission
as the TF but it had a new chassis and a stunning full width body. The
car that went in production was different to the early prototype as it
had a 1500cc BMC B series engine and associated gearbox and transmission
in place of the MG running gear.
Over a hundred thousand MGA's were produced
in the next seven years, the majority before 1959 when the engine size
was increased to 1600cc. Between 1958 and 1960 just over two thousand examples
of a twin overhead camshaft engine model was produced, but due to engine
defects this model was not a success. These figures include the coupe versions
of the various models.
MGA
In Italy an equally exiting new model was
to make an entrance in 1955. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider with a body
by Pinin Farina it was a stunning new addition to the ranks of the sports
roadsters. Using the same version of the 1290cc double overhead camshaft
engine as the Giulietta Sprint coupe it was lively performer. In 1962 the
car was given a 1570cc engine becoming the Giulia Spider. Both the Giulietta
and Giulia Spiders had been available in the higher performance Veloce
version.
Alfa
Romeo Giulia Spider
The demand for small relatively
inexpensive
roadsters in Britain in the nineteen fifties encouraged a few new
companies
to produced cars, with various degrees of success. Jack Turner had
built
an assortment of specials or one off cars for himself and friends. In
1955
he began producing a small sports car using Austin A30 components in
conjunction
with a tubular chassis frame with a GRP (Glass reinforced plastic)
body.
Ninety of these original cars named the A30 Sports were produced by
1957.
From 1957 the car had a 950cc engine instead of the original 803cc unit
and a Coventry Climax engine option was available. Based on the
original
chassis frame the car was developed with small body changes and Triumph
suspension parts used from 1960. A grand total of 667 Turner roadsters
were produced by 1966 when production ceased due to financial problems
when Jack Turner became ill. Turner cars were excellent cars that
showed
the way to others.
A
Turner Sports car
Morgan again made a small roadster in 1955,
the 4/4 series 2. This model was fitted with Ford 1172cc engine and three-speed
gearbox; not an exiting set up. The rest was traditional Morgan. They managed
to sell Three hundred and eighty five by 1960 when the series 3 was introduced.
The series 3 cars were made for one year and fitted with Ford's new small
engine the 105E. Originally of 997cc, that engine was still manufactured
in the twenty-first Century for use in the Ford kA. The 4/4 was produced
until 1968 with Ford engine of increasing size up to 1600cc and a total
twelve hundred and eighty eight of series 3 to the 1600 were produced.
Berkeley manufactured caravans in GRP at
their factory in Biggleswade England. The company decided to enter car
production with an unorthodox roadster designed Laurie Bond. Bond had designed
a number of unusual micro cars that were produced in Britain. The Berkeley
car had a GRP monocoque chassis/body, front wheel drive using motorcycle
components and at first a 322cc two-stroke engine. Between 1956 and 1961
other engine options were available up to a 692cc four-stroke twin. Production
ceased due to financial problems in 1961 after almost four thousand examples
of all models including a three-wheeled version of the first model were
produced.
A
Berkeley Sports car
Another British Company Fairthorpe, which
had started out making micro-cars in 1954, began producing a sports roaster
in 1956. The Electron had a GRP body mounted on a backbone chassis and
1098cc and 1216cc Coventry Climax engines were fitted. The Coventry Climax
engine was a proprietary engine available to small constructors and was
used by amongst others, Cooper and Lotus in their sports and racing cars
with great affect. Only thirty Electron's were produced in ten years.
It was the Electron Minor that used Standard and Triumph components that
was the car that the company going, with seven hundred examples produced
between 1957 and 1973.
One of the most enduring concepts in the
world of sports cars is that of the Lotus Seven. From the beginning in
1957 it was the ultimate lightweight sports car that attained a good performance
with a relatively modest power unit. With the Seven, Colin Chapman built
a car combining features from the Lotus Six and his Formula Two cars and
his competition experience to produce a car that would do well in competitions
of for fun motoring. The Ford 100E side-valve engine that only produced
40 BHP was initially the only engine option. The Seven was available in
kit form and could be built for just over £500 or purchased complete
for £1,036. It wasn't long before a BMC A series engine option was
available and a Coventry Climax FWA engine option. With the latter the
car became a Super Seven. Over the next thirteen years the car evolved
from the original Seven S1 to the Seven S2, Super Seven S2, Seven and S3
with wide range of engine options and almost two thousand examples had
been produced. In 1970 Lotus produced the Seven S4, a car that was not
quite in the spirit of the original Seven. It was larger with a GRP body
instead of the GRP and aluminium panels of the previous cars and was a
civilised car with a 1599cc Ford or 1558cc Lotus DOHC engine and a 100mph
top speed, this with aerodynamics of a brick. But maximum speed has never
been what the Seven's attraction. By 1973 when Lotus ceased production
of the Seven, a thousand S4's had been made.
The
Lotus Seven
Elva was another small British manufacturer
that had grown out of the Special, kitcar, racing car movement and in 1958
produced the Courier. The Courier had a GRP body on a tubular chassis frame
and BMC B series engines as used in the MGA were fitted. For the first
two years of production all Couriers were exported, mainly to the USA.
Estimates of between four hundred and seven hundred of the Mk1 and Mk2
Couriers were produced by 1961 when the project was sold and larger engined
versions were produced.
By 1965 the Courier was no more.
When the British Motor Corporation management
invited Donald Healey Motors to design a small sports car for them using
as many components from BMC's small cars as possible, they couldn't have
imagined that over a third of a million cars would be produced in twenty
one years, based on that initial design. Healey designed the car and MG
part of BMC, developed and produced the car at the MG factory at Abingdon.
This was in 1958 and the car was the Austin Healey Sprite. The Sprite was
a simple no frills cars with a steel unitary chassis/body. The performance
of the car was modest, as it's BMC A series engine only produced 43bhp.
With atop speed of 86mph and a 0 to 60 time of 20.5 second. The Sprite
was the essence of the light sports roadster; fun to drive even thought
performance was modest. By 1961 when this original model was replaced forty
nine thousand had been produced.
An
Austin Healey Sprite
A Sunbeam car had once held the absolute
land speed record, driven by Sir Henry Segrave in the 1920's. By 1959 Sunbeam
was just a name, a part of the British Rootes group of companies. Rootes
produced a sports roadster the Sunbeam Alpine based on the floorpan of
one of their more mundane vehicles and at first fitted a 1494cc OHV four-cylinder
engine that produced 83bhp. The Alpine was heavy car and therefore not
a lively performer but over sixty nine thousand had been made by 1968 when
production stopped.
Fiat had made a small number of a roadster
versions of their 1100TV between 1955 and 1959 named the Transformabile
and obviously the car was not a success. When in 1959 they commissioned
Pinin Farina to design and build the bodies of a roadster and coupe version
of their 1200 model, they had a winner. By 1966 approximately forty three
thousand of the various versions of the basic car were produced. At first
there was the 1200 Cabriolet and the 1500S that had an Osca designed DOHC
engine. In 1963 the 1200 gave way to the 1500 and the 1500S to the 1600S.
Fiat
1500S
The five years from 1955 to 1960 where to
see a higher concentration of significant new lights sports roadster models
than any other period in history. Some of these models would form the basis
for other successful models and one, the Lotus Seven would become the most
copied design of any car.
Mainly
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