Comeback calamities

10 cars and badges that possibly should have stayed dead

We’ve all heard the stories about new car designs reaching the end of their life in the western world and being pensioned off to live under a new name in other areas of the globe.

But what about the cars that make a comeback years after their glory days?

Jaguar’s reborn D- and E-types, and Aston’s continuation DB4 Zagatos prove it can work. But here’s an entirely personal list of 10 that I think should never have been resurrected.

1. AC Ace

Long overshadowed by the Cobra Carroll Shelby would turn it into, the AC Ace was a handy machine in its own right.

Or at least it was from 1956 when the triple-carb 120bhp Bristol engine became available. Three years later Ted Whiteaway and John Turner took a Bristol-engined car to a class win in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

1. AC Ace (cont.)

Loosely based on 1986’s Ace of Spades concept car, the new Ace Brooklands appeared in 1993 having lost the concept’s back seats but gained a 5-litre Mustang V8 in place of the Cologne V6.

It was dull to look at, thrilling to drive and cost so much to put into production you can bet AC’s owner Brian Angliss wished he hadn’t bothered.

AC went to the wall as a result and although production restarted under new owners in ’97 only a handful of additional cars were finished.

2. Volkswagen Beetle

Commissioned by a despot, lethal in crosswinds and yet still loved the world over, the Beetle was conceived in the 1930s and was still in production in 2003, six years after Volkswagen had introduced the retro New Beetle.

And if anything its appeal has only grown – since air-cooled Porsche prices went loopy, this is as close as must of us can get to a classic 911.

2. Volkswagen Beetle (cont.)

Introduced in 1998 on the back of a couple of warmly received concepts, the New Beetle was based on the solid, but stodgy Mk4 Golf. Which meant it looked fun, but was anything but that to drive.

That contrasted starkly with the rival Mini, the revamped version of which landed in 2001 and was both. VW tried a reboot with a lower, sportier second-gen car in 2011 but sales never touched the Mini’s not-mini heights and it died in 2019.

3. Ford Cortina 1600E

Even if the ‘E’ hadn’t stood for ‘executive’, the posh Cortina’s lowered suspension, woodgrain dash and Rostyle wheels would have made it the perfect motor to park outside your new-build executive home in 1967 and let the neighbours know you were going places.

And with a tuned 1600cc Kent engine pushing out a respectable 88bhp, you could get to those places reasonably briskly, too.

3. Ford Cortina 1600E (cont.)

The MK3 Cortina 2000E moved the balance away from performance to luxury but road testers weren’t hoodwinked by the claimed connection to the fabled Cortina when the badge appeared on a gussied-up Sierra two decades later.

One British car magazine even conducted a twin-test with what it considered its closest rival, the Allegro-based Vanden Plas.

4. Lotus Elan

Light, agile and – in big-valve Sprint spec – blisteringly quick, the Elan remains, for many, Lotus distilled.

It was the first Lotus to combine a steel backbone chassis and glassfibre body, and was a massive influence on Mazda’s seminal MX-5 two decades later.

4. Lotus Elan (cont.)

But while the original Elan inspired the MX-5, Lotus looked to the hot hatches when it came to its own successor.

The glassfibre shell and steel backbone chassis concept was intact, and although the 1989 M100 Elan was front-wheel drive it handled wonderfully and had plenty of pace.

Unfortunately, high production costs and low volumes resulted in the new Elan being considerably more expensive than the Mazda, and sales were slow.

The Elan didn’t die slowly, though, being first briefly revived as an S2 in 1994, two years after going off sale, then being sold to Kia, which built Kia-badged versions for the Korean market until 1999. A clear case of what might have been.

5. Lancia Delta

Let’s conveniently overlook the fact that most Deltas were actually not that special, that the standard car had just 75bhp and that the tin dissolved like a tooth in a glass of Coke.

Let’s overlook that, because the ones that were special – the HF, HF 4wd, and of course, the Integrale – lifted the Delta to iconic status and meant that any new car wearing that badge had better be good…

5. Lancia Delta (cont.)

The second-generation Delta introduced in 1993 didn’t offer an Integrale successor, although the turbocharged HF did at least keep the performance flag flying.

But when the new Delta arrived in 2006, it was as if Lancia’s entire catalogue of race and rally wins had never happened. There was no sign of an HF and the quickest car in the range was a diesel.

The Delta was sold in the UK as a Chrysler because Lancia had dropped out of the UK market in 1993. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like we’ve missed much.

6. Pontiac GTO

The GTO wasn’t the fastest muscle car – or even the first, if we’re being picky – but it was the car that best summed up the big-cubes, small-car spirit of the class and the one that really captured the public’s attention.

Launched in ’64 as a 389cu in (6.5-litre) option on the mid-size Tempest, the GTO soon became a standalone model. It bowed out in ’74, a pale shadow of its former self and enthusiasts always dreamed of a comeback…

6. Pontiac GTO (cont.)

Pontiac’s appropriation of the GTO name had upset Ferrari fans first time round, but it was Pontiac fans that were up in arms when the model finally returned in 2004 based on GM Australia’s Holden Monaro.

The spec – rear-drive four-seat coupe, powerful LS V8 – was on the money, but the bland styling wasn’t, and unfavourable exchange rates meant the car ended up being too expensive. The GTO was killed off in 2006, and the Pontiac brand followed it only three years later.

7. Lea-Francis

Formed as a builder of pedal cycles when Queen Victoria was still on the throne, Lea-Francis went on to produce motorbikes and even tractors, as well as the sporting cars it’s most famous for.

But financial worries were ever-present and after the company finally closed its doors in 1962 it might have been completely forgotten, had another marque not stepped in.

Barrie Price acquired the name and went on to provide spare parts and knowledge to keep existing cars on the road.

7. Lea-Francis (cont.)

Not content with helping keep existing LFs on the road, Barrie Price set about creating an entirely new one, resulting in a British Motor Show appearance for the 30/230 in 1998.

The aluminium-bodied 30/230 was designed by Jim Randle, the father of the Jaguar XJ220 and featured a 235bhp GM V6. But the awful styling had as little appeal as the badge to modern car buyers and the project stalled.

8. MGB GT V8

The compact dimensions and lightweight alloy block of BL’s ex-Buick V8 made it an almost perfect match for the MGB – and infinitely better than the hulking cast-iron straight-six in the ponderous MGC.

Sadly, the fuel crisis killed off the MGB GT V8 in 1976 after only 2591 units had left Abingdon, all of them fastback GTs.

8. MGB GT V8 (cont.)

Bringing the MGB back wasn’t that crazy an idea in 1991. British Motor Heritage had just started producing replacement B shells and the classic car boom was in full swing. Plus, the idea of a V8 roadster was appealing.

But with its colour-coded bumpers and cloyingly faux-classic wood’n’cow interior the MG RV8 ended up looking rather archaic next to a contemporary TVR Griffith.

At least its strong performance (0-60mph in 5.9sec from a 190bhp injected V8) meant you could swiftly escape the sniggers of pedestrians.

9. Ford Thunderbird

Rushed into production for 1955 to compete with Chevrolet’s new Corvette, the T-bird blew Chevy out of the water with its standard V8 and luxury features, proving that buyers liked the idea of a domestic sports car, but not the inconvenience.

Later T-birds grew back seats, and even back doors, before the badge was eventually retired in 1997.

9. Ford Thunderbird (cont.)

Retro-obsessed Ford designer J Mays (who’d previously been responsible for the New Beetle while at VW) oversaw the return of the Thunderbird in 2002, this one based on the platform of the equally retro Jaguar S-type.

And at first it was a success: greeted with positive reviews, it was built to the tune of some 68,000 examples. Classic & Sports Car’s own Martin Buckley even sang its praises in our June 2019 issue. 

But the novelty was short-lived, sales slowed to a trickle and Ford clipped its feathers in 2005 – just as the reimagined Mustang was taking flight.

10. Jensen C-V8 / S-V8

Think Jensen and you likely think Interceptor, but it was the older, uglier, slant-eyed C-V8 that was first to get a Chrysler V8-shaped testosterone infusion.

Starting out with a 361cu in (5.9-litre) B-series V8, the C-V8 soon adopted the bigger 383 (6.3) to great effect: road tests showed it could reach 60mph in under 8 secs.

10. Jensen C-V8 / S-V8 (cont.)

Keen to jump on the coat-tails of TVR’s late-1990s success, Jensen was resuscitated for the 2001 S-V8, partly thanks to investment from Liverpool City Council and the Department for Trade and Industry.

But the S-V8 wasn’t just difficult to look at, it also turned out to be difficult to build and the whole venture reached the end of the road after only 20 cars had been registered for it.