The best cars you’ve (probably) never heard of

BMW 700

While it seems freakishly unlikely today that BMW would ever build a tiny sports car with a rear-mounted 0.7-litre engine, it’s important to remember that in the 1950s the company was one step away from financial collapse, saved from complete disaster only by production of the Isetta bubble car.

The 700 came along at just the right time. This was an excellent little machine, backed up by very positive publicity due to its success in motorsport. It was so popular that BMW had to build nearly 190,000 examples between 1959 and 1965 to satisfy demand. If it hadn’t been for this car, BMW would probably be as well remembered now as, for example, Horch or Peerless.

Buick Series 50 Super

Some cars have become obscure not because they were unsuccessful but because they were produced for a very short time. The Series 50 Super, based on the widely used General Motors C-body platform and powered by a 4.1-litre version of Buick’s Fireball straight-eight engine, is a case in point.

Average annual production is believed to have exceeded 100,000, but the car was available (with saloon, coupe and estate body styles) only in the 1940 and 1941 model years.

Cadillac Series 72

The Series 72 was contemporary with the Buick Series 50 Super but had an even shorter life, being introduced at the start of the 1940 model year and discontinued at the end of it.

It was a derivative of the Series 75, with the same 5.7-litre V8 engine and bodies made by Fleetwood, but its chassis was three inches shorter and it cost slightly less. Its short life suggested that it didn’t appeal to Cadillac customers, but it did leave a legacy – recirculating ball steering, available only in this model when it was in production, became standard across the range the following year.

Cartercar

Cartercar was a pioneer of friction-drive transmission, an ingenious and very early equivalent of today’s continuously variable transmission (CVT). Maintenance of the system was said to be extremely cheap by the standards of the period.

General Motors founder William Durant (1861-1947) was so enraptured by the friction drive that he bought the company in 1909. Durant was ousted from GM shortly afterwards, and by the time he bought his way back in (using the fortune he made from Chevrolet) in 1915, the people who ran the firm during his absence had decided Cartercar wasn’t worth bothering with, and closed it down.

(PICTURE: Cartercar Model 7 Touring)

Chevrolet Yeoman

Motoring enthusiasts the world over are familiar with famous Chevrolet nameplates like Camaro and Corvette, but few will have heard of the Yeoman. In its day, it was the cheapest and most sparsely equipped of the full-size Chevrolet station wagons.

If you wanted lots of space with no unnecessary frills, this was the car for you, and as such served a useful purpose. The idea was used for several models known as Brookwood, but the Yeoman itself was a brief flash in a dime store pan, being sold only in the 1958 model year.

Chrysler Airstream

The brilliant Chrysler Airflow is best known for being one of the first fully streamlined mass-production cars, and for looking so odd in the context of its time, even after several hasty facelifts, that potential customers decided in their droves to buy something else instead.

The Airstream, so unfamiliar to modern readers that you may well be reading about it for the first time right now, was a brilliant comeback. It was not nearly as adventurous technically, being essentially an updated 1920s Chrysler Six, but although it was also streamlined its looks were far less upsetting. Another point in its favour was that it was much cheaper than the Airflow, which it outsold in a big way, even though it was available only for two models years (1935 and 1936) rather than the Airflow’s four (1934 to 1937).

Citroen GS

For very different reasons, the 2CV and the DS are regarded as brilliant cars representing two high points of Citroen’s history. The GS (later known as the GSA), introduced to fill the enormous gap between them and produced from 1970 to 1986, should be thought of in the same way, but somehow isn’t.

In sharp contrast to what motoring journalist Leonard Setright (1931-2005) described as the motor industry’s “lemming-like rush towards a sea of mediocrity”, the GS was a technical marvel, with a smooth flat-four engine (providing a usefully low centre of gravity), self-levelling suspension and a very aerodynamic body. Other than Citroen itself, manufacturers almost completely ignored the lessons it taught, and the GS soon faded, quite unfairly, into obscurity.

De Tomaso Vallelunga

The Vallelunga was the first, and probably the least celebrated, production car built by Italian company De Tomaso. Introduced in 1964, it was one of the earliest mid-engined road-going models, powered by a modified version of the 1.5-litre Ford Kent four-cylinder engine used in the Cortina.

This might have led to a long series of nimble cars renowned more for their handling than for their straight-line performance. Instead, the Vallelunga’s successor was the Mangusta, which also had a mid-mounted Ford engine, but this time a 4.9-litre V8. De Tomaso had headed in a new direction, and never returned to its roots.

DKW F2

The F2’s name indicates that it was the second DKW model with front-wheel drive. It made its debut in 1932, but became truly outstanding the following year, when DKW acquired – and fiercely guarded – the rights to build petrol-fuelled two-stroke engines for cars and motorcycles with a system called loop scavenging.

In loop scavenging, which was invented by Adolf Schnuerle (1897-1951), exhaust gases leave the cylinder on the same side that the fuel/air mixture came in. This practice is archaic in four-strokes, but tremendously effective in two-strokes, leading to much higher efficiency and therefore improved performance and economy. With these advantages, the F2 soon became DKW’s most popular model, and pushed the brand towards becoming one of the most successful of its period in the German motor industry.

Ferrari 208 Turbo

The 208 looks identical to the 308, which is hardly an obscure Ferrari. The most important difference was that the latter’s 2.9-litre V8 engine was reduced to 1990cc for the 208. This made the 208 much slower, but because its capacity was below the 2.0-litre threshold in the Italian tax system it was also very much cheaper.

In 1982, two years after the launch of the original 208, Ferrari had the bright idea of turbocharging the engine. The maximum power output accordingly shot up from 153bhp to 217bhp, which was actually more than the 308 produced after fuel injection was added in 1980 but before it gained a four-valve cylinder head. Sales were much lower than for the 308, but that’s because the car was sold only in Italy.

Fiat 1100

The 1100 hasn’t caught the global imagination in quite the same way as two Fiats also introduced in the 1950s – the 500 and 600 – but it was a mainstay of Italian life for many years.

From 1953 to 1969, it was produced as a saloon, an estate and a roadster called the Trasformabile, before being replaced by the 128. Commercial versions remained on sale until 1971. The 1100 survived far longer in India, where it was built locally and sold as the Premier Padmini until the turn of the century.

Ford Model 18

There’s nothing about the name Model 18 which suggests any particular significance if you’re not already in the know. In fact, this was an epoch-making car. One of many in the 1932 Ford line, it was distinguished from all the others by having a V8 engine known as the Flathead.

V8s were not new. What was new was the fact that this one was available in a moderately-priced car. Its power and refinement were therefore available, if not exactly to the masses, then at least to the moderately well-off, who would not previously have been available to afford them. Other manufacturers followed Ford’s lead, and the V8 became almost the default engine layout for American cars for several decades.

GMC Syclone

For well over a century, GMC has built almost nothing but trucks and, latterly, SUVs. The Syclone of 1991 was a truck, but one quite unlike anything GMC had produced before. Based on the Sonoma (essentially a Chevrolet S-10 with different badging), it had a turbocharged 4.3-litre V6 engine which produced 280bhp and drove all four wheels.

Frankly, it wasn’t much of a truck – GMC warned that a load of over 500 lb (227kg) could cause damage to the drivetrain and suspension. But in independent testing a Syclone was found to be quicker over a quarter-mile from a standing start than a Ferrari 348ts, which cost nearly five times as much (and, in fairness, would have won easily if the race had been twice as long). GMC followed up the Syclone with the mechanically similar Typhoon in 1992 and 1993 before pulling out of the pickup dragster game.

Isuzu Piazza Turbo

The Piazza was a coupe sold in two generations from 1981 to 1992. The only version sold in the UK in significant numbers was the first-generation Turbo. The Turbo had its suspension modified by Lotus, to excellent effect. Other Piazzas were criticised for their poor handling, but the Turbo, while far from perfect, was a very enjoyable driver’s car, and deserves to be remembered better than it is for that reason.

Lamborghini Islero S

Produced only from 1968 to 1970, the Islero is perhaps the closest thing there is to a ‘forgotten’ Lamborghini. Its impressive specification included a 3.9-litre V12 engine producing 340bhp, but against that were very restrained styling (certainly compared with the Espada which Lamborghini launched at around the same time), pricing 15% higher than that of the Aston Martin DBS V8 and a reputation for not having been put together very well.

The first version was quickly replaced by the superior Islero S, which featured a power upgrade to 350bhp, a better interior and closer attention to build quality. This was a car worthy of its maker, but the damage had already been done, and Lamborghini called a halt after just 225 examples (125 of the original and 100 of the S) had been assembled.

Lancia Ardea

The Ardea was a small but high-quality vehicle, available mostly as a four-door saloon. Over 20,000 examples were built from 1939 to 1953, despite obvious delays caused by the Second World War and its consequences. At 903cc, its V4 engine was one of the smallest of its type ever used to power a car, though much smaller ones have been fitted to motorcycles.

Later versions were fitted with a five-speed gearbox, an amazing development for a mid 20th-century model. Several years after the Ardea was discontinued, three forward gears were still considered appropriate for a relatively inexpensive European family car, and four an extravagance.

LaSalle Series 340

LaSalle was one of four ‘companion makes’ linked to existing General Motors brands (in this case Cadillac) but occupying slightly different spaces in the market. It operated only from 1927 to 1940, so its models are not familiar to most people today, and they were all impressive.

Any LaSalle could therefore be included in this list. We’re going for the Series 340, which was sold only in the 1930 model year. Very luxurious, even though it was a step down from what Cadillac was producing, it was powered by a 5.6-litre V8 engine, and available with whichever Fleetwood body the customer thought most appropriate.

Lincoln Lido

Ford Motor Company was slower than rivals Chrysler and General Motors to offer hardtop coupes around the mid-point of the 20th century. When it got round to doing so, it offered four at more or less the same time – the own-branded Crestliner, the Mercury Monterey and, from its most exclusive division, the Lincoln Cosmopolitan Capri and Lido.

The Lido (of which it was said in the brochure that “few cars have ever been so pleasingly customized”) had a lot going for it, but pitching it against three similar models from the same manufacturer, along with more established rivals from the other Big Three companies, was no way to attract customers. It sold poorly in the 1950 and 1951 model years, and was then abandoned.

Marquette

Neither of the two GM brands named Marquette is famous today, which is hardly surprising since the first lasted only from 1909 to 1912 and the second – the one we’re looking at here – had an even shorter life. It was the companion make to Buick, and although there were six model names they all referred to different body styles on the same car.

This was cheaper than any Buick, which was just as well since it was produced in the 1930 model year, around the time of the Wall Street crash and subsequent depression. Total production in US and Canadian factories amounted to around 40,000, so there was clearly a market for the car, but disquiet within GM led to it being discontinued after just one season. In a strange twist, its 3.5-litre straight-six engine was then used to power an Opel truck.

Mercedes 35hp

The 35hp was designed by Daimler at the request of one of its agents, Emil Jellinek (1853-1918), who recognised the importance of making a car’s centre of gravity lower than was normally the case in the 19th century. This, along with a powerful 5.9-litre engine, made the 35hp a formidable competition machine when it appeared in 1901, and it was soon developed further as an extremely capable road-going production model.

Jellinek used the name of his daughter for the car – and, indeed, for almost everything else he was involved with, including several houses. Daimler subsequently registered it, and has put it on its cars for more than a century. You certainly know about those, even if, until now, you weren’t aware of the fabulous racer which preceded them all.

MG SA

Things have changed in recent years, but MG was once known primarily for its sports cars, such as the MGB and several generations of Midget. To the alarm of the brand’s enthusiasts, the SA saloon of 1936 was larger, heavier and more conventional than they had come to expect, and had a power-to-weight ratio which made sparkling acceleration impossible.

This, along with the fact that production ended less than four years after it began, might explain why few people outside the MG faithful know of the car today, but there were compensations. It looked fantastic, it was competitively priced, it was a fine high-speed cruiser and it handled splendidly. Furthermore, it was the third-best seller of the many MG models sold before the Second World War.

Nissan Be-1

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Nissan produced several extravagantly styled models known collectively as the pike cars, which design writer Phil Patton (1952-2015) once described as “the height of postmodernism”. The best known outside Japan are the retro-modern Figaro and the bizarre S-Cargo (a small van which looked like a snail), but both were preceded by the Be-1, which made its debut in early 1987.

Based on the first-generation Micra – an excellent starting point – this cute little two-door saloon caught the imagination of potential customers in a big way. Nissan said it would build no more than 10,000 examples, but received more than that number of orders. Determined to keep the car special, Nissan stuck to its original plan, and chose who was allowed to buy it by means of a lottery.

NSU Ro80

The Ro80 was one of the very few mainstream cars of its time to match – one might even say exceed – the Citroen GS for innovation. Fully independent suspension, all-round disc brakes, a very aerodynamic body, a twin-rotor engine and a clutch operated simply by touching the gearlever all contributed to the car being named Car of the Year for 1968.

There was good reason to hail it as a masterpiece, but that rotary engine was desperately unreliable in the early days. While the problems were eventually fixed, the reputation of the brilliant Ro80 had already been damaged beyond repair, which led to poor sales and, by the late 1970s, the discontinuation of the NSU brand.

Opel 24/110

To this day, Opel has never built a longer car than the mighty 24/110 of 1928. Commonly known as Regent, though not to be confused with a slightly later and much smaller car of that name, it measured 5400mm (212.6in) from end to end, and was available as both a coupe and a limousine, powered in each case by a 6.0-litre straight-eight engine.

The Regent was as luxurious as Opel could make it, and it might today be seen in the same terms as contemporary models from Rolls-Royce or Cadillac. Instead, it’s almost unknown, since only around 25 examples were built before production came to an abrupt halt in 1929. Some sources see a connection between this and the fact that Opel was taken over in that year by General Motors, which owned Cadillac.

Peugeot 204

In the 2020s, it’s reasonable for someone with a moderate interest in cars to believe that the first great Peugeot was the 205. The much older 504 has its place in history too, but there is no longer much talk, sadly, of the once highly regarded 204.

Peugeot was late in adopting front-wheel drive, which it used for the first time in 1965 for this very car, but early in fitting a diesel engine, added to the range three years later. It also offered saloon, estate, coupe and van body styles, along with a very smart convertible. Some of these were naturally more popular than others, but on the whole the 204 was a great success, leading the French sales charts from 1969 to 1971.

Porsche 912

The car pictured here looks very much like a Porsche 911, and everyone has heard of those. In fact, it’s a 912, which is more or less the same thing except that it has a four-cylinder air-cooled engine, and sounds very similar to a Volkswagen Beetle.

In 911 terms, the 912’s performance was disappointing, but enthusiasts will tell you that its lighter engine contributes to better handling. It was also cheaper and more economical, so from 1965 to 1969 the 912 opened up the possibility of Porsche ownership to people who could not otherwise have afforded it. All of this also applies to the 912E, sold exclusively in North America and only in the 1976 model year

Renault 16

Depending on your exact definition of the word, the 16 was not the world’s first hatchback, but it was arguably the first in the modern sense, with a two-box body style and several seating configurations. At the time of its introduction in 1965, there was no single word to describe it, and it was generally referred to as a combination of a saloon and an estate.

Quite separately, the 16 was the first car powered by the all-aluminium Cléon-Alu engine. This would later appear in many other Renaults, and in two models as different from the 16 as could be imagined – the World Rally Championship winning Alpine A110 and the Lotus Europa.

Rolls-Royce 20hp

Known informally as the Twenty, the 20hp was a new type of Rolls-Royce – smaller, lighter and less expensive than the 40/50 ‘Silver Ghost’ and intended for owners who either couldn’t afford a chauffeur or simply preferred to do the driving themselves. Its simplicity in some areas was not universally well received when it was revealed in October 1922, and for several months afterwards our correspondence pages vibrated with the robust expression of contrasting opinions.

The fuss eventually abated to such an extent that the Twenty is now one of the less well-known Rolls-Royces, but owners (one of whom claimed to have driven from Liverpool to Versailles without changing gear) liked it. 2940 examples were built before the Twenty was replaced in 1929 by the even more successful 20/25, which was essentially the same car with a more powerful engine.

Simca 1100

Like the Renault 16 introduced two years earlier, the Simca 1100 of 1967 was a front-wheel drive hatchback with folding rear seats, but it also had the more modern feature of an engine mounted transversely rather than lengthways under the bonnet. The car’s name suggested that the engine in question had a capacity of 1.1 litres. This was partly true, but smaller and larger versions were also available.

As well as the hatchback body style, the 1100 was offered as an estate, a pickup and a van. The 1100Ti introduced in 1974 produced a mighty 82bhp, and is sometimes referred to as the world’s first hot hatch, predating the original Volkswagen Golf GTi by two years.

Skoda 422

It’s difficult to believe now, but in the second half of the 20th century Skoda was regarded as a joke brand – not because of any shortage of talent among its workers, but because they were desperately underfunded during the Communist era.

Before the Second World War, things had been very different. The 422, manufactured from 1929 to 1932, was of a quality not often found in small mainstream cars even several years later. Well equipped by the standards of its time, and very comfortable to sit in (especially in the roomy rear), it served as a reminder of what Skoda had once been, and what it would become again.

Toyota Century

The Century is hardly known outside Japan, where it is available only to the very rich or the very powerful, including members of the royal family. It’s Toyota’s flagship luxury model, and has been produced in just three generations since 1967, with updates in 1997 and 2018.

Most versions have been powered by large V8 engines, but the second series was fitted with Toyota’s first V12, developed specifically for this car.

Triumph TR250

As with several other cars on this list, the familiarity only car in the Triumph TR series with a three-digit number in its title varies dramatically according to what country you live in. In the UK, its home country, it barely registers at all (except among Triumph enthusiasts and classic car experts), but in the US it’s far more familiar.

The TR250 is almost exactly the same thing as the TR5 of the late 1960s, except that its 2.5-litre straight-six engine was converted from fuel injection to carburettors. This had a disastrous effect on the power output, which plummeted from 150bhp to 104bhp, but made the car suitable for sale in North America. The result was, you might say, triumphant – there were only ever 2947 regular TR5s, but the TR250 was so popular that it was worth the effort to build 8484.

Vauxhall 10-4

Vauxhall receives less credit than it deserves for the 10-4, described on its debut in 1937 as “one of the most brilliant pieces of design that has been seen in Britain for ten years”. It completely revolutionised the 10 horsepower class, until then dominated by Ford, Morris and Standard, with its hydraulic brakes, synchromesh, torsion bar independent front suspension and, above all, its not entirely new but still very unusual unibody construction. Fuel economy of over 40mpg even in hard driving was yet another plus point.

Its glory days lasted until 1940, when Vauxhall suspended all car production in favour of trucks and tanks. When it returned in 1946, it was less powerful (to account for low-quality post-War petrol) and much more expensive. This was disappointing, but it didn’t alter the fact that in its original form the 10-4 was a little masterpiece.

Viking

Of GM’s four companion makes, Viking was the only one which occupied a higher market position than the more established brand it was associated with. Its single model, known as the Eight-24, was powered by a 4.3-litre V8 engine and available with both saloon and convertible body styles.