Big Car Big Car

I’m not sure why, but the Triumph TR7 is not a popular car, so many Triumph TR fans tend to wax lyrically about the TR6 and ignore its successor. I thought it was brilliant when I saw a new one on the road in the 1970s, it was something futuristic. But every Triumph TR car is loved in its own way, and to this day there’s a strong community keeping each one of them on the road.

So, we’ve covered the Rover SD1 and its replacement, the Rover 800. Now we come to the last large Rover, the 75. It’s a shame that this was probably the best quality car Rover ever made, but maybe the least popular. But Rover was like a cat on its 9th life, and there’s only so many opportunities you get before it’s game over.

I talked about the Rover SD1 a few weeks ago. That was an unmitigated disaster when it came to production, but between that car and the Rover 800, British Leyland, now Austin Rover had forged a partnership with Honda that would lead to big changes in quality at the British company, and the Rover 800 was the first big partnership between the two companies. So, did it work out better than the SD1?

The Volkswagen Polo has quite a strange birth. I suppose it was a hedge against the Golf being unpopular, but it’s still odd that it was first launched as an Audi just at the moment when that brand was trying to go upmarket. No matter what its genesis, the Polo has gone on to become a big seller for Volkswagen.

The MG Midget is all about fun! It’s a simple, cheap little car that promises open-top thrills which it delivers in spades. It’s a story that spans seven decades from humble roots in Oxfordshire to a world-beating car that conquered America. It was loved by weekend tinkerers, American G.I.’s coming home from the war and F1 racers.

The Spitfire is a beautiful automobile, a thing of wonder penned by an Italian genius, but it almost never happened. If not for a chance find in the dusty corner of a factory it would have remained merely a “could have been”. But Triumph produced a car that still inspires new creations today and has a strong and loyal fan base around the world, nearly 60 years since it burst on the scene.