Cars developed by one brand but built by another

Chameleon classics that changed identity between conception and reality

Remember when you dreamt up that project and grafted long and hard to bring it to fruition, only for new-guy Barry to swoop in and claim all the credit? You’re not alone.

See, automotive history is littered with examples of cars that were designed and developed by one manufacturer, but launched under the badge of another brand.

Why? Whether due to ill-timed takeovers, big corporate spats, rejected proposals or the dreaded empty coffers, all manner of realities have resulted in cuckoo-in-the-nest motoring moments. 

Here are 10 classic cars that changed identity between drawing board and showroom.

1. Bizzarrini 5300GT

Following a brief stint with Alfa Romeo in the ’50s, gifted Italian engineer Giotto Bizzarrini became boss of sports-car development at Ferrari, working on everything from the legendary 250GTO to the TR and SWB, before splitting from Il Commendatore in Maranello’s great walkout of 1961. 

A few years later, he established his own business – Società Autostar – helping Lamborghini to develop its V12, before getting involved with Renzo Rivolta’s newly founded Iso marque, for which he’d design two guises of the distinctive Grifo: the beautiful roadgoing A3/L GT and the purposeful A3/C endurance racer. 

Bizzarrini 5300GT (cont.)

Naturally, the stylish Grifo pair wowed showgoers on its debut at Turin in ’63, but things soon went south: a disagreement between Rivolta and Bizzarrini ended their cooperation after just 22 Iso-badged A3/Cs were built. 

It wasn’t the end for the design, though, as Bizzarrini took over production of the aluminium-bodied coupé himself, assembling them in low volume at his small Livorno workshop and selling them as the Bizzarrini 5300GT Strada and Corsa. At least, until his firm was declared bankrupt in 1969.

2. Ford Corcel I

Willys might be most famous for its Jeeps, but in the late ’50s the American firm’s Brazilian subsidiary signed an agreement with Renault to produce the Dauphine. And it did well, for a while, but by the mid ’60s the French model was showing its age.

In need of something new, Willys do Brasil went in with Renault on ‘Project M’ – the upcoming R12 (pictured) – taking its platform and mechanicals, but wrapping the family car in its own bodywork. In 1967, two years ahead of the R12, Willys’ machine was ready.

Ford Corcel I (cont.)

Only, it would never see the light of day. Ford do Brasil bought out Willys before Project M launched, inheriting the ready-to-roll model and, naturally, renaming it.

Given the label Corcel – ‘stallion’ in Portuguese – it debuted in 1968 as the first front-drive Ford built on the American continent.

Launched as a four-door with a Renault engine, a coupé followed in ’69 and a wagon in ’70, before a facelift in ’73 brought the model closer to its Blue Oval siblings. The 1978 Corcel II reskin? Mechanically all Ford.

3. Talbot Simca Lotus Sunbeam

By the mid-’70s, Chrysler’s European operation – formerly Rootes/Simca – was teetering on the brink of financial collapse. In the UK, it turned to the government for funding to develop a new entry-level model to replace the venerable Hillman Imp and keep the troubled Linwood plant operational. 

Remarkably, a stop-gap hatchback was developed in a record 18 months, cunningly based around a shortened platform taken from the larger Avenger. Called the Chrysler Sunbeam, it launched in 1977 to some success. Not enough, though, to stave off collapse.

Talbot Simca Lotus Sunbeam (cont.)

So, in 1978, PSA (Peugeot/Citroën) took over, grouping the British and French divisions under the Talbot name a year later.

Of course, the rebrand needed a hero car and, helpfully, there was one ready and waiting to go: a punchy Lotus-powered Sunbeam had been revealed at the Geneva show in March, namely the Chrysler Sunbeam Lotus. 

All it took was a few fresh badges to make the motor a Talbot (though the grille still featured the Chrysler emblem) and – voilà! – PSA had the ideal model to market Talbot as an ‘exciting’ brand.

It helped, of course, that the car claimed the World Rally Championship title for the marque in 1981.

4. Peugeot 309

Sticking with PSA, when the time came to replace the ageing Chrysler/Simca-developed Talbot Horizon, the French group kept things in-house: using the recent Peugeot 205 as a base – along with a handful of ancient Simca 1100 components – it created Project C28.

To fit with Talbot’s naming policy (Samba, Solara Tagora – they all ended in ‘a’), the new model would be called the Arizona and would ship with a bespoke ‘T’ grille and badges to match.

Peugeot 309 (cont.)

But it wasn't to be. Even with production underway at the old Simca plant in Poissy ahead of the planned autumn 1985 reveal, PSA decided to discontinue its troubled and unloved Talbot brand entirely.

Shot of the marque but keen not to waste the new car, the Arizona was transformed at the 11th hour to become the Peugeot 309 – identical to the Talbot in all but badging – which slotted neatly into the range between the 205 and larger 305. The 309 would go on to become the first Peugeot to built in the UK.

5. Lancia Beta Monte-Carlo

Fiat wanted to replace its sporty 850 and 124 Coupés in the late ’60s, but the path it took was a tortuous one: both Bertone and Pininfarina were tasked with creating suitable mid-engined successors and, while the former successfully tackled the ‘new 850’ with its X1/9 concept, replacing the 124 proved trickier. 

Influenced by Fiat’s 1968 G31 prototype and equipped with a mid-mounted 3-litre V6 from the 130, Pininfarina’s first effort was unveiled in July 1970 as the X1/8 – only to be promptly shelved.

Lancia Beta Monte-Carlo (cont.)

Two years later it was revived under the codename X1/20, now with a frugal 2-litre twin-cam motor under the hood. Approved for launch in ’74, two pre-production cars were revealed at the Turin auto show – one with Fiat X1/20 badges, one with Fiat-Abarth SE030 badges – and all looked good for the new car.

Alas, unforeseen delays resulted in quite the identity change: by the time the production two-seater was presented at Geneva in 1975, it had become a Lancia.

Why? All in the name of commercial image. And, despite sharing little with other Beta derivatives, it was given the moniker Beta Monte-Carlo.

6. Volkswagen K70

Back in March 1969, German firm NSU’s new model was all dressed up with somewhere important to go. Full-page magazine adverts had been placed, press packs prepared and sales brochures printed: the K70 – a modern, piston-powered mid-market saloon – was ready for its big reveal at the Geneva motor show.

Only, its new overlords had other ideas: at the very last minute, Volkswagen/Audi – who’d recently acquired the marque – decided NSU couldn’t go to the ball.

Why? Bosses were apparently ‘concerned’ that the NSU factory in Neckarsulm wouldn’t be able to cope with the forecast demand for the model. 

Volkswagen K70 (cont.)

Instead, Volkswagen shifted the entire production line to its new Salzgitter plant and delayed the launch until August 1970, when the new machine was finally introduced as the VW K70 – the marque’s first front-engined, water-cooled, front-wheel-drive model.

It was identical in every way to the NSU-developed original, apart from the VW emblem on the radiator grille (the only place where the badge could be found, with NSU logos still visible elsewhere).

VW also cancelled the production-ready K70 estate, fearing it would harm sales of its own (inferior) 412 Variant. Seems not everyone gets their Cinderella story.

7. Volvo 300-series

After a decade of building small Variomatic cars, Dutch manufacturer DAF decided to develop a larger model at the turn of the ’70s.

Various mock-ups were created before the firm settled on the P900 – a conventional rear-drive hatchback, sharing some components (including the Renault-sourced engine) with the yet-to-be-launched 1972 DAF 66. 

Being a small entity, though, DAF didn’t have enough funds to create an all-new model on it its own – so it reached out to a raft of companies to help co-develop the P900.

Volvo 300-series (cont.)

Many declined, VW expressed some interest and BMW was surprisingly keen, but DAF’s management favoured Volvo, allegedly tasking English designer Trevor Fiore with reworking an existing Dutch design to make the pending DAF 77 tougher and, well, more like a Volvo. 

In September 1972, Volvo took a 33% stake in DAF Cars, raising that to a majority shareholding in mid-’75, at which point the DAF 66 was rebranded as a Volvo and the DAF 77 name dropped altogether.

The new car duly became the Volvo 343 – the first in the long-running 300-series.

8. AC 3000ME

Former Lola employees Peter Bohanna and Robin Stables revealed the Diablo (pictured) at the 1972 London Racing Car Show.

A glassfibre two-seater with a mid-mounted 1.5-litre Austin Maxi engine, it was conceived as a kit-car and created after-hours in Lola’s drawing office – but AC Cars tested the running prototype and, impressed, swiftly purchased the rights.

All then went quiet until the 1973 Earls Court Show, when a revised, non-running Diablo was shown as the AC 3000ME – so named for its 3-litre, mid-mounted engine.

AC 3000ME (cont.)

The wedge was in tune with the times and a reported 250 deposits were taken, with the AC team in Thames Ditton quickly re-engineering the ME for its Ford V6 engine.

After extensive delays – not helped by the car failing a 30mph frontal impact test – the first 3000MEs were delivered in 1979, six years after the debut. 

Alas, AC called time on the model just 76 examples later, selling the production rights to AC Scotland, a new concern in Glasgow that built a further 30 cars (one with an Alfa V6) before folding completely in 1985.

9. Eagle Premier/Dodge Monaco

In 1982, American Motors Corporation and majority shareholder Renault began joint development of Project X58, a mid-sized saloon styled by Giugiaro and based around a Renault 25. 

Produced in a new factory in Canada, the X58 was all set for launch as the Renault Premier – but there were machinations behind the scenes: in 1986, Chrysler’s charismatic Lee Iacocca sanctioned talks with Renault to purchase AMC. Trouble, as they say, was brewing.

Eagle Premier/Dodge Monaco (cont.)

After several months and the assassination of Renault CEO George Besse by an extreme anti-capitalist group, Chrysler enacted a hostile AMC takeover, buying Renault’s majority shareholding for $1.1bn – a bargain given its established US dealer network, profitable Jeep brand, plus a fully operational new factory producing the Renault Premier.

AMC became Chrysler’s Jeep/Eagle division in 1987, with just 172 examples of the new Renault Premier sold that year – some rebadged with the Eagle logo, but many retaining the Renault lozenge inside.

Chrysler had a contractual obligation to buy at least 260,000 engines for the model, so in 1989 a badge-engineered Dodge Monaco version (pictured) of the former Renault was introduced, too.

10. BMW Glas 3000 V8

Hans Glas started out in farm equipment and scooters, but it was his mid-’50s Goggomobil that really hit the bullseye: the rear-engined microcar sold in vast numbers in post-war Germany. Such was the firm’s success, in fact, that politicians tried to convince Glas to take over the ailing BMW.

Alas, by the mid ’60s, their respective fortunes had dramatically reversed. Glas’ finances had turned precarious and a now-buoyant BMW acquired the marque – but not before the ever-ambitious Glas unveiled its swansong at Frankfurt in 1965: the Frua-designed 2600 V8 coupé (pictured) in pre-production form.

BMW Glas 3000 V8 (cont.)

Nicknamed the ‘Glaserati’ due to its similarity to Frua’s Maserati Quattroporte and equipped with a V8 made from a pair of Glas 1300 GT four-pots, some 300 examples of the luxurious machine were built between 1966 and ’67.

After the buy-out, BMW relaunched the model with a larger-capacity 3-litre engine developed by Glas, selling the updated model as the BMW Glas 3000 V8, complete with propeller badges on boot and bonnet.

Just 418 were made between September 1967 and May 1968, before it was replaced by BMW’s 2800 CS.