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The Family Man’s Sports Car, The light Sports Saloon and Hot
Hatchback.
Part One 1920 to 1980
Alvis 12/75 sports saloon
The hot hatch back has been with us since the mid seventies,
sporting version’s of the small family hatch back saloons that had
come to replace in much of the world the smaller booted/trunk
saloon car. Of late many of the hot hatch models of this century
have been fitted with ever increasingly larger engines in the
relentless quest for even more speed, but there are still some
models in production with modest sized engines in the spirit of the
original hot hatches and the light sports saloons that came before
them, with capacities up to 1600cc’s. What do I mean by light
sports saloon, I am referring to the kind of light car, that is one
with a moderate size engine, that was purchased not just for
transport but one that will provide an increased degree of
performance that will enhance the pleasure of motoring and that in
some cases could take part in motorsport of one form or another.
The sports saloon was a very British thing in the nineteen
twenties, thirties and forties, with quite a few models on offer
with that description, but for many of them it was unwarranted and
I have only mentioned those with a sporting connection here.
In most of the world in that period light cars were usually just
for transport and if a sporting car was required it had a larger
engine ,some times very large. Taxation had a large influence on
the British market and would influence Italy in the nineteen
fifties with some outstanding sporting saloons. This is only a
summary and an introduction. A great deal of information on each
car mentioned can be found else ware on the internet.
For most of the first half of the twentieth century cars were
produced in the form of a chassis complete with engine,
transmission, suspension, steering and brake that a body could be
mounted on. The form of that body was dictated by requirements of
the purchaser, subject to the limitations of the chassis. For much
of the early years of the automobile industry body building was a
craft, with each body of whatever type produced by hand by one or
more craft men, a continuation of the old coach building technics.
Bodies where constructed with wooden floor and body frame that was
covered in aluminium panels, or in a limited period during the
nineteen twenties of fabric, with the addition of padding a more
shapely and lighter body could be produced than with sheets of
metal. The fabric body was first devised by the French
industrialist Charles Torres Weymann but later had many imitators.
Many car producing companies only made the running chassis, and had
their bodies made by an outside coach building company who either
fitted the body to the completed chassis or supplied the body to be
fitted at the factory. Lightly built enclosed bodies as fitted to
sporting car proved not to durable and were often replace by
roadster bodies, especially if the chassis it was on was desirable.
By the mid nineteen thirties the more durable presses steel body
replaced the coach built type, but much later than those for cars
that were mass produced .
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The Nineteen Twenties
Aston Martin Sports Saloon
To find the earliest light sports saloon, we have to go back to
the nineteen twenties when some sports car makers produced chassis
long enough to mount a saloon body on it. As the sports car makers
only produced a limited number of cars, in some cases only in
double figures in a year, therefore the number of sports saloons
produced was even smaller, maybe just one or two. At least one
owners of the First Series Aston Martin’s, chose to have a sports
saloon body built on this sporting chassis in 1928. Layout. Front
engine/rear wheel drive. Chassis. Pressed steel channel. Engine. 4
IL WC SOHC 1494cc. Transmission. 4 Speed & reverse. Suspension
front. Beam axle 1/2 elliptic. Suspension rear. Live axle 1/2
elliptic. Brakes front. Drum. Brakes rear. Drum. Weight. Le Mans,
19cwt. Wheelbase. Various. Engine output. Series One, 56 bhp.
Inter, 60 bhp. Series Two, 60bhp. Le Mans, 70 bhp. Mark Two, 73
bhp. Ulster, 85 bhp.@ R.P.M. 4250 to 5250. Max speed. Series One
& Series Two, 80 mph. Another was the Alvis 12/75 sports saloon
of 1928-30, a pioneering front wheel drive car the 12/75, it had
all independent suspension using four transverse leaf springs at
the front in a “Wishbone” configuration, behind the front mounted
radiator was the final drive with the brakes mounted inboard, then
the four speed gearbox and finally the engine, mounted back to
front by contemporary standards, this necessitated a long bonnet.
When a Roots supercharger was fitted, speeds of 85 mph. were
attained. Being a pioneering venture, the transmission was noisy
and the handling difficult. Layout. Front engine/front wheel
drive.Chassis. Pressed steel channel. Engine. 4 IL WC SOHC 1481cc.
Transmission. 4 speed & reverse. Suspension front. Independent
4x 1/2 elliptic. Suspension rear.Independent 1/2 elliptic. Brakes
front. Drum . Brakes rear. Drum. Max speed. 85 mph. The Lea Francis
produced the 12/40 model from 1927 to 1935, one of the body options
was the W type saloon and another of their models available with a
saloon type body was the Hyper, a supercharged model. Layout. Front
engine/rear wheel drive. Engine. 4 IL OHV WC 1496cc. Transmission.
4 speed & reverse. Suspension front. Beam axle / 1/2 elliptic.
Suspension rear. Live axle / 1/2 elliptic. Wheelbase. 9ft 3inches.
Max speed. 85 mph.
In 1926 Riley introduced the Nine, an outstanding new model that
formed the basis of a series of sports, touring, coupes and Sports
saloons for the next thirty years. The first of the saloons was the
Monaco. The outstanding feature of the Nine, was the 1087cc four
cylinder engine with two high mounted camshafts actuating inclined
valves in a hemispherical combustion chamber, this was at a time
when the side valve engine would normally found in this class of
car and was the reason, with the help of an advance chassis for the
Nine’s, performance with so small an engine. One of the most
extreme version of the Nine, in this period was the Brooklands
sports roadster. Where as the Aston Martin, Alvis and Lea Francis
saloon may have been produced in single figures the Riley Monaco
production was in the thousands and continue into the next
decade.
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The Nineteen Thirties
MG K1 Sports saloon
Throughout this decade, as well as producing a range of
roadsters and tourers MG also produced
a similar range of coupe’s and saloons. The coupe’s mostly
shared a chassis with the roadsters and saloon’s with the tourers.
The models that had saloon bodies fitted were the D type Midget of
1931-32, the J1 Midget of 1932-33, the K1/K2 Magnette of 1932-34
and the KN Magnette of 1933-34. The Magnette specification was as
follows. Layout. Front engine / rear wheel drive. Chassis. Steel
channel. Engine. 6 IL WC SOHC 1087cc & 1271 cc. Transmission. 4
speed & reverse. Suspension front. Beam axle / 1/2 elliptic.
Suspension rear. Live axle / 1/2 elliptic. Brakes front. 8inch to
13inch drums. Brakes rear. 8inch to 13inch drums. Weight. NE
Magnette 16 1/4 cwt. Wheelbase. 94 3/16 inches. Engine output. 37
to 120 bhp. @ R.P.M. Max speed. 75 mph minimum.
Riley developed the Nine throughout the nineteen thirties, with
various saloons on offer, The Monaco, the Falcon, the Kestrel and
finally the Victor, which could be purchased with the 1087cc or the
1496cc version of the Nine four cylinder engine that was to
continue in production until 1955, in the 1.5 litre model from 1935
to 1938 again with various saloon bodies and in post war models. In
1933 they introduced the 12/6 model with a six cylinder 1458cc
version of the nine engine, with two saloon version available the
Mentone and the Kestrel which was only produced
for two years.
1937 Riley Kestrel
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The Nineteen Thirties
Singer 1.5 Litre Sports Saloon
To have a sporting car, you have to have a tuneable engine. In
1927 Singer Motors introduced a new small car the Junior with a
four cylinder single overhead camshaft engine, that in 1933 had
been developed and was to power the new 972cc Nine Le Mans model, a
development of the Nine Sports model, one version available was a
four seat sports saloon. Also in 1933 they introduced the 1.5 Litre
model. This had a six cylinder engine of 1493cc, also with a single
overhead camshaft. Again it was available with a four seat sports
saloon body, and was produced until 1937.
In the beginning of the nineteen thirties the Triumph Motor
Company of Coventry England, was the producer of the Triumph
motorcycle and a range of good quality small cars, but after
financial difficulties the company sold off the motorcycle business
and began producing more sporting models, including saloon
versions. The Gloria range of cars, consisted of the Gloria Four of
1934-37 with a 1087cc or 1232cc engine. The Gloria Six of 1934 -37
with a 1476cc engine and the Gloria Fourteen/1.5 Litre model of
1937 to 1938. The last of the original Triumph models before the
companies collapse was the Dolomite 1.5 Litre of 1938 to 1939.
The Rapier had originally been a model produced by Lagonda, but
had been dropped in favour of their larger engined models.
Production was taken up by Rapier Motors of Hammersmith, London in
1936. The heart of the car, was a double overhead camshaft, four
cylinder engine of 1104cc, that could be run up to 6,000 RPM.
Amongst the three hundred produced by 1938 where sports saloons.
Although I have only mentioned British cars so far, one model from
Germany the BMW 315 of 1934 was offered in the sports saloon form.
The first of the six cylinder BMW,s with a 1490cc engine it was
produced until 1937, thereafter only the 2 Litre was produced.
Although not listed as a sports saloon, the 1937 Lancia Aprilia
with its advanced chassis and a willing Vee four overhead camshaft
1352cc engine, it was an indication of the future of sport saloon
concept.
Rapier Sports Saloon
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The Nineteen Forties and Fifties
Riley 1.5Litre RMA
The nineteen forties was not a great time for any kind of
sporting machinery, with throughout the world all manufacturing
concentrating on war materials. With the end of the World War the
great need was for transport, with sporting machinery a luxury that
had to wait. Aston Martin, Alvis, Lea Francis and Lagonda were to
only producing cars with much larger engine from that time. Riley
were ready with the 1.5 litre RMA Sports Saloon in 1945, with ten
and a half thousand produced by 1952. With a 1496cc classic Riley
engine, a coach built body on a separate chassis and a top speed of
75 MPH. It was replaced by the similar RME model that was in
production until 1955. MG had prepared for production a new
sporting saloon in 1941, the YA, but it wasn’t introduced until
1947. Not very fast, with a 1250 cc engine which with it chassis
would be the basis of the MG TD of 1949. The MG Magnette ZA and ZB
models of 1953 to 1958, where to last of the Abingdon built MG
sports saloons. With a unitary chassis/body shared with a Wolseley
model as well as an Austin engine of 1489cc, they still conveyed
the spirit of the sports saloon of the past.
Another British saloon car first produced in 1947 was the Jowett
Javelin. With a history going back to 1906, Jowett had produced a
long line of utility cars, but with the Javelin they had an up to
date model with a 1486cc flat four engine, unitary chassis and
advanced suspension and steering, it could easily outrun the MG.
Another British model that was listed as a 2-door sports saloon was
the Sunbeam Rapier, It was produced from 1955 to 1967. Alfa Romeo
where renowned for their sporting cars, but the changing world of
the nineteen fifties led them to produce the outstanding small car
the Giulietta. The Berlina was the saloon version and Berlina TI
model was a sports saloon in fact if not by designation. The
Giulietta’s 1290cc double overhead camshaft four cylinder engine
carrying on the Alfa tradition for fine engines would propel the
Berlina TI to a top speed of 98MPH, this in the mid nineteen
fifties. It was produced until 1964 and was replaced by the 1570cc
engined Giulia TI, that was produced until 1972, being replaced
inevitably by a new model with a larger engine.
Alfa Romeo Giulietta
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The Nineteen Sixties
Mini Cooper S
The sports saloons in the previous decades where almost
exclusively produced by companies with a background in motor sport
and sporting cars, From this time these companies saw their future
in heavier cars with larger engines to provide the ever increasing
demand for speed. The sporting four or five seat sporting cars of
the nineteen sixties and beyond were to be very different. The
field was left open to makers of mass produced cars to fill a void
in the market for a relatively modestly priced sports saloon,
producing higher performance versions of their small family saloons
by tuning the chassis and engines. The Cooper Car Company of
Surbiton, Surrey, were racing car Manufacturers, carrying on the
concept of the mid engines single seat racing car from the pre-war
Auto Union. They made cars for various racing formulas, and in one
they utilised a highly tuned BMC A series engine to good effect. It
so happens that the latest saloon model to have that engine fitted
was found to be very light, had outstanding roadholding and
steering. The British Motor Corporation decided to produce a new
small car and the design work started in March 1957 Alex Issigonis
who had designed the Minor, returned to the front wheel drive
layout for this new design. The aim was to produce a very compact
car with maximum space utilisation. To achieve this Issigonis
decided to fit the engine transversely in the car, with the gearbox
located in the engine sump. With the final drive unit gear driven
from the gearbox it could be located centrally. This allowed equal
length drive shafts to be used, without the need for an added jack
shaft. The component that made the design acceptable to Alex
Issigonis was the Birfield-Rzeppa constant velocity joints made by
Hardy Spicer, fitted at the outer end of the drive shafts. Early
Mini's had flexible rubber drive couplings at the inboard end of
the drive shafts. Later manual gearbox models had offset sphere
type joints. While Auto-box and Cooper S models had universal
joints and sliding joint shafts. Other features of the Mini
design were rubber springs and ten-inch wheels. Prototypes were
running on the road in October 1957 and production started in 1959.
It was first marketed as the Austin Seven and the Morris Mini-Minor
and it wasn't until 1962 that the name was changed to Mini, after
popular usage. So Cooper cars installed their tuned engine into one
of these saloons and created the Mini Cooper. The 997cc four
cylinder engine only produced 55bhp, but that was sufficient to
turn the very compact four seat Mini into a sports saloon, that was
in 1961 and by 1967 BMC had produced almost one hundred thousand
examples. In 1963 a rally winning version was added the Mini Cooper
S, with various increases in the engine capacity and power output
up to 1275cc and 75bhp respectively. The Cooper models had such an
impression on the motoring scene that the Mini Coopers name is
again used by BMW on some of todays models. Following the lead by
BMC and Cooper linking a mass produced model with a racing car
maker, Ford who wanted to go production car racing to boost their
image teamed up with Lotus another racing car maker. The result was
the Lotus Cortina, a lightened production saloon with a revised
suspension and a 1558cc double overhead camshaft version of a Ford
four cylinder engine, that produced 105bhp giving it a top speed of
108mph. Very much a sports saloon, over three thousand were made of
the Mk1 model between 1963 and 1966. Its replacement the Cortina 2
Lotus/Cortina Twin Cam, was made from 1967 to 1970, with a 109.5
bhp version of the engine in the latest version of the Cortina.
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The Nineteen Sixties
Lotus Cortina MK1
It seems that Ford were happy with the impact of the sports
saloons and in 1968 they turned another family saloon into a sports
saloon. They introduced the Escort Twin Cam. Being smaller and
lighter than the Cortina with the same engine the Escort could
reach 115mph, as against the Cortina’s 105mph. It was replaced in
1970. Throughout the nineteen sixties Saab were very involved the
rally scene with Erik Carlsson’s many success’s. Building on this
success they produced the Sports/Monte Carlo model in nineteen
sixty two. A tuned chassis and engine version of their 96 model,
utilising the 841cc two stroke, three cylinder engine driving the
front wheels to good effect, a speed of almost 90mph could be
reached, but it was the agile front wheel drive chassis that
enhanced the overall performance. In the nineteen fifties Renault
had the assistance of Gordini a French racing car producer, to
create a mildly hot version of their rear engined Dauphine saloon.
With only a modest power output and the disadvantage of a simple
swing axle rear suspension to compromise its road holding its
performance was limited. The 8 Gordini model of nineteen sixty four
was a much more impressive performer. With lowered suspension and a
1108c or 1255cc engine producing 90bhp it was equal in performance
to the Mini Cooper S. BMW having almost failed in the nineteen
fifties due to their attachment to the overpriced over sized luxury
car, and then recovering with the help of bubble car production,
found their feet with an all new 1.5 litre saloon in nineteen sixty
one. A modern design in every way, it is inevitable that a sports
model would be produced. The model that is relevant to this study
is the 1600-2 Ti of nineteen sixty seven. The 1547cc single
overhead camshaft, four cylinder engine produced 104bhp, and a top
speed of 109mph. Only produced for a couple of years, because of
the inevitable increase in engine capacity in the search for more
performance. NSU had been producing cars since the beginning of the
century and in the nineteen sixties had a range of rear engined
economy cars, one of which was the 1000. The model with the highest
performance was the TTS in production from nineteen sixty seven to
nineteen seventy one. The transversely mounted, single overhead
camshaft four cylinder 9966cc engine produced 84bhp or 102bhp. a
top speed of 100mph was possible. The TTS (shown below,) was used
extensively for rallying and Motor sport in general.
NSU TTS Saab Monte Carlo
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The Nineteen Seventies
Ford Escort RS 1600
The nineteen seventies was the period when in Europe the small
saloon gave way to the hatchback and rear wheel drive, either with
a front of rear engine, gave way to front wheel drive.
At the beginning of the decade Ford produced a couple of hot
versions of the rear wheel drive Escort. The Escort Mk 1 was the
first product of Ford Europe, produced in 1967 in Britain replacing
the Anglia and 1970 in Germany when Ford Germany discontinued the
12M their first front wheel drive car. The Escort was a state
of the art design, except for the live rear axle with half elliptic
springs at the rear, making the Escort less space and weight
efficient than it could have been. The Mk 1 Escort, was replaced by
the Mk2 in 1975 the last with rear wheel drive, that was replaced
in 1980, with around three million of both Mark’s made world
wide.The Escort RS1600 replaced the Escort Twin Cam, this time with
a 16 valve, twin cam, 1599cc Cosworth BDA engine, that produced
120bhp. It was capable of 113mph. Less than a thousand were made
between 1970 and 1974. The other model the Escort Mexico was a
tamer model with 86bhp version of the Kent overhead valve engine.
Almost ten thousand of these were produced in the same period. In
the early nineteen seventies Alfa Romeo had built a new factory
near Naples in southern Italy, specifically to to produce a new,
lower priced than the usual Alfa cars. The result was the front
wheel drive Alfasud. It was found to have excellent handling
properties and by 1974 the Alfasud TI model was produced to take
advantage of it. Over one hundred and fifty thousand were produced
by nineteen eighty one. The largest version of the horizontally
opposed four cylinder engine of 1490cc was developed to produce
105bhp. Although the Alfasud was classified as a saloon, the body
style was that of a hatchback but without a hatch, indicating the
way body styles were heading in the future.
Alfasud Ti
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The Nineteen Seventies
Golf GTi
The accepted forerunner of the hot hatch was the Volkswagen Golf
GTI. The Volkswagen Golf was first produced in 1974. This the first
of many Golf models would be considered today to be a supermini and
was of similar size to the 2006 Toyota Yaris, although like most
mini and supermini cars of sixties and seventies it was only about
eighty percent of the weight of the equivalent models at the
end of the century. The contrast in weight between comparable
models in the 1940’s and 1950’s and 2000 was even greater. The Golf
was the first Volkswagen design to have a transverse engine and a
transmission arrangement similar to the Fiat 128 and was an
instant success, with engines from 1093 cc to 1781 cc used. Over
six million examples were produced by 1983. The original model with
a 1600 fuel injected engine was in production for eight years,
between 1975 and 1983, with a production total of six hundred
thousand. It was only in the last few months of that period that
the engine capacity was increased from 1588cc, with an output of
110bhp to the higher output 1800. The Renault 5 Gordini (Renault
Alpine) of 1976, was the sporting version the Renault 5 small
family hatchback, with a tuned version of the largest engine
available for the 5 of 1397cc. This version of the four cylinder
overhead valve engine produced 93bhp, but could be made to produce
100bhp, arguably giving it a performance comparable to the Golf
GTi. The Talbot Sunbeam 1600TI, used the name of two great motor
manufacturers of the past that had no engineering links to its
makers. The story of it creation is an indication of the state of
the British motor industry at the time. It was the work of Chrysler
UK, who had taken over the failing Rootes Group in 1967. They had a
struggling factory at Linwood in Scotland that needed a new model
to sustain it. With finance from the British government they
produced a new hatchback based on an existing but elderly Rootes
model the Avenger. The result was a car with a modern shape, but
underneath what was by then, an old fashioned front engined, live
axle rear wheel drive layout. The 1600TI was the sporting version
of the new model with a 100bhp engine. Not long after it was ready
for sale Chrysler had sold out to the French PSA Groupe. They dug
out a couple of names for the Rootes Groups past using Talbot for
the company name and Sunbeam for model. Only in production from
1979 to 1981 and just over ten thousand examples of the 1600TI
produced, the Sunbeam was an unusual link between the past and the
future.
Talbot Sunbeam 16Ti
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The Nineteen Eighties to the present will follow in part
two.
Renault 5 GT Turbo
Ford Fiesta XR2
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