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Over the years there have been collaborations between car companies that have produced some landmark machines.
But things don’t always go to plan, and sometimes pooling resources leads to disaster. These automotive collaborations prove that it can be better with two (or even three) – but you can’t always count on it. Let’s start with the successes:
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AC and Shelby
The AC Ace was a gentleman's sports car, powered by a 2.2- or 2.6-litre straight-six engine for decent (rather than indecent) performance. Then Carroll Shelby got his hands on one and fitted a 4.2-litre (260ci) Ford V8, later uprated to a 4.7-litre (289ci) unit to create the Cobra. Then things got really serious and a 7.0-litre (427ci) V8 was shoehorned into the engine bay and the car became a complete animal.
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Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Saab, and Fiat
As some of the examples make clear, teaming up just two car companies to make a car can be a complex business. But in the case of the ‘Type Four’ project, there were four firms collaborating to make a new executive car platform. Despite this, the resulting models - Alfa Romeo 164 (pictured top), Lancia Thema, Saab 9000 (pictured bottom), and Fiat Croma - were all creditable and competitive in different ways, and sufficiently differentiated to not tread on each other’s toes – which is impressive as many of their parts were interchangeable.
The first cars from the programme were the Thema and 9000, in 1984; the final cars produced were 9000s, in 1998. Partly because of its long life, the 9000 was the most prolific, with just over 500,000 produced.
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Aston Martin and Zagato
Aston Martin and Italian coachbuilder Zagato have had a relationship going back decades, and continues today with cars like the new DBS GT Zagato (pictured left). Before this generation, there were Zagato variations of the Vanquish, V12 Vantage and DB9.
Before that we had the Aston Martin DB7 and V8 Vantage, but it all started with the DB4 GT Zagato back in 1960 (pictured right – continuation model). Just 19 were built and now they're the holy grail of classic car collectors; one was sold for £10.1 million in 2018.
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Audi and Porsche
Produced for just over a year, the RS2 Avant was the first RS model to come from Audi – and what an opening salvo it was. It may have packed a mere 2.2-litre five-cylinder engine, but thanks to a turbocharger there was 311bhp on tap which was enough to take the car to over 160mph.
All of the near-3000 RS2s built also came with a six-speed manual gearbox and quattro four-wheel drive.
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BMC and Cooper
When Alec Issigonis (1906-1988) designed the Mini his intention was to create something that put economy first – there were never supposed to be any sporting pretensions.
Then John Cooper approached BMC with a view to working together and while Issigonis initially resisted, the Mini Cooper arrived in 1961, with the Cooper S appearing two years later. The car went on to be a massive success in the showroom as well as in rallying and circuit racing.
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BMW and Alpina
Alpina has always taken great BMWs and made them even better, but since 1983 the company has been recognised as a car manufacturer in its own right, rather than merely a tuner. It all started in 1962 when Alpina founder Burkard Bovensiepen (born 1936) developed a Weber fuel system for the BMW 1500, which the factory rather liked. Cars with this modification retained their BMW guarantee and the relationship blossomed from there.
Its latest car is the Alpina B3 Biturbo, a model based on the latest 3 Series; even in estate form (pictured) the 462bhp 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol engine will get the car to 186mph, and to 62mph from rest in less than four seconds.
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British Leyland and Honda
When British Leyland (later known as Austin Rover) teamed up with Honda it seemed that maybe the company had finally turned things round; instead it transpired that the partnership merely delayed the inevitable. For a while it was great though, the first fruit being a rebadged Honda Ballade which would prove to be Triumph's swansong in the form of the Acclaim. It horrified purists but it turned out to be the best built Triumph ever made, and 140 survive in the UK today – not bad for a nigh-on 40 year old car.
Later we got the 200, 400, 600 and 800 series all derived from Hondas, but after a series of ownership changes it all was ultimately for nothing, and what was by then known as MG Rover went out of business in 2005.
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Chrysler & Mitsubishi
Chrysler and Mitsubishi formed an alliance in 1985 called Diamond-Star in an effort to get around import curbs on the latter’s cars. It resulted in a new plant at Normal, Illinois. The first output was a new co-designed platform, which produced the Plymouth Laser (pictured top) and Eagle Talon on the Chrysler side, and the Mitsubishi Eclipse (pictured bottom) on the Japanese side. All were unremarkable, and not especially successful; the Plymouth only survived for four model years, for example.
Mitsubishi took full control of the plant in 1991, and in the 2000s made various Mitsubishi saloons like the Galant, but production collapsed in the 2008-2009 recession, and didn’t markedly recover afterwards. The plant was closed in 2016, but the site has recently been bought by electric pickup startup Rivian.
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BMW and Toyota
BMW needed a follow-up to its Z4 and Toyota wanted to revive its much loved Supra nameplate. But the economics are tough: the sports car class just isn’t growing right now. So they teamed up, with BMW building an open-top while Toyota produced the coupé. And technically, neither are making the car, as both models are being contract-manufactured by Magna Steyr in Austria.
While visually the two cars are pretty different, they had to make a call on the interior – with the result being that both cars have virtually identical BMW-designed interiors, but noone apart from Supra diehards are complaining about that. Both cars handle pretty well, though we concluded that the Supra could be a better drive than it actually is.
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Citroën, Peugeot and Toyota
The cost of developing an all-new car is very high, and the smaller the car the smaller the profits. So when France’s PSA and Toyota wanted to produce a new city car at the start of the 21st century it made sense for the two companies to work together. The result was a brilliantly affordable small car that survived for almost a decade, available as a Citroën C1 (pictured), Peugeot 107 and Toyota Aygo.
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Fiat and Mazda
Car makers are collaborating more and more, to share the development costs of new models. One of the most recent joint ventures is between Fiat and Mazda which produced the 124 Spider (pictured below) and MX-5 (pictured above) respectively, and built both models in a Mazda factory in Hiroshima, Japan.
While the 124 Spider wasn’t bad, we’d take the MX-5 over it every time. And now we have no choice; the 124 didn’t last long on sale. It’s not quite clear why it was axed after just two years or so – the reason is either its engines not getting through new emissions rules, or poor sales – quite possibly both.
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Fiat and Ford
Fiat do not exactly shout about this, but each and every one of its new Fiat 500s (pictured top) - the 2007 rebirth of its quintessential Italian small car from the 1950s - have in fact been made in a plant in Tychy, Poland. And built alongside it was its sister car, the second generation Ford Ka (pictured bottom). Both firms reckoned that margins on small cars were small enough as it is so teaming up made sense.
However, while the Fiat has been a smash hit for the company – more or less overshadowing everything else the firm sells in Europe – the Ford never got close to capturing the spirit and sales of the first Ka. Indeed, aside from 15 seconds of fame in a product placement spot in the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, many can barely remember it existed today. Production quietly died in 2016, while the 500 soldiers on.
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Ford and Cosworth
Ford bought British firm Cosworth Racing in 1998, but the relationship started in the early 1960s when Cosworth designed the camshaft and manifold for the Cortina GT. In 1965 Ford commissioned Cosworth to create a new Formula One engine; the result was the V8 DFV which was unveiled in 1967 and went on to become the most successful F1 engine of all time.
For road car fans the pinnacle came in 1986 however, with the introduction of the bespoilered Sierra Cosworth, which was succeeded by the Escort in 1992.
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Ford and Lotus
In the UK, one of the most high-profile 1960s automotive joint ventures was between Ford and Lotus, which resulted in the Lotus Cortina. This hot two-door saloon featured a twin-cam 1558cc four-pot rated at just 105bhp – but it turned the lightweight Cortina into a giant killer. The Lotus Cortina proved such a hit that a Mk2 edition followed, now called the Cortina Lotus.
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Ford and Shelby
Carroll Shelby had the Midas touch in the 1960s – everything he got his hands on turned to gold. He created the AC Cobra, Sunbeam Tiger and this – the Mustang GT350 (or the Shelby GT350 from 1966) with its 306bhp 4.7-litre V8. Later came the GT500 with a 7.0-litre V8, but by 1969 it was all over.
Ford revived the Shelby Mustang in 2005 though and the model is still available in 2020 in the US as the Shelby GT500, a $72,900 (£56,000) 760bhp hotrod.
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General Motors and Toyota: NUMMI
It may have seemed odd that two of the world’s largest rival car companies decided to team up to produce cars, but in 1984 it made perfect sense. GM was extremely nervous about Japanese imports making inroads into America, and wanted to learn more about the vaunted Toyota just-in-time manufacturing system, which was widely admired for being both highly efficient and resistant to errors.
On the other hand Toyota would gain its first US factory location and learn about implementing its systems in a highly unionized labour-force. So New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI) was born; the partnership inherited an old GM plant at Fremont in northern California, which had operated in 1962-1982.
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General Motors and Toyota: NUMMI
Employing around 2000 people initially (and ultimately rising to nearly 5000) it built a variety of vehicles in the late 1980s including the Toyota Corolla E90 (pictured top) and GM’s Geo Prizm (bottom) sister cars. Annual production peaked at 430,000 cars in 2006. The GM cars were noted for generally having a lower level of defects than GM cars made elsewhere – while Toyota seems to have concluded that unions were to be avoided.
Certainly, when it opened its first wholly-owned US factory in Kentucky in 1986, it was non-union, and has kept unions out of all its US plants since. The NUMMI plant was a victim of the 2008-2009 financial crisis and closed in 2010. But this isn’t quite the end of the story, since part of the Fremont site and its equipment was then sold to an obscure electric car maker by the name of Tesla. Whatever happened to that?
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Innocenti and De Tomaso
We love left-field classics and you don't get much more left-field than this. Innocenti offered its own version of the classic Mini, designed by Bertone, in 1974. At first power came from a Mini-sourced A-series engine but from 1982 a three-cylinder Daihatsu engine was fitted.
De Tomaso offered hotter versions of both Mini and Daihatsu editions, including a turbocharged version of the latter.
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Jaguar and TWR
The Scotsman Tom Walkinshaw founded his own racing team and engineering company in 1976; within six years he had developed Jaguar's XJS for the European Touring Car Championship. Later on would come Le Mans cars plus a heated up XJ220, along with some rather glorious XJS road cars including the 6.0-litre XJR-S (pictured).
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Mercedes and Porsche
The W124 is one of the greatest Mercedes-Benz models ever and top of the W124 tree is the 500E - from 1994 it was known as the E500 - that was created in conjunction with Porsche and produced in a Porsche factory. Packing a 5.0-litre V8 as seen in the contemporary SL, more than 10,000 of these 322bhp super saloons were built between 1990 and 1995, by the same people who built the Audi RS2.
An elaborate production process kept the cars expensive and exclusive, but they have quite a following today.
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Renault and Gordini
Although Amedée Gordini (1899-1979) raced and tuned cars in the 1930s, it wouldn't be until 1957 that he first worked with Renault, the first fruit of which was a heated up Dauphine. In 1962 the first Gordini-tuned Renaults took part in the Le Mans 24 Hours then two years later came the all-time Renault-Gordini great, the R8.
Later we'd also get the 12 and the 17, the latter being killed off in 1978. Renault dusted down the Gordini brand in 2010, for versions of the Twingo, Wind and Clio, but they only lasted a couple of years on sale.
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Rootes and Shelby
The Sunbeam Alpine looked great, but with its 1.6-litre engine the performance was rather lacklustre - especially in the US market where a bit more muscle was required. Sunbeam was part of British manufacturer Rootes Group and Ian Garrad, Rootes’ US West Coast manager, realised there was an opportunity to spice things up a bit.
He approached Carroll Shelby who repeated his AC Cobra trick, shoehorned a 4.2-litre V8 into the nose and voila! An Alpine that was rather more swift, and now called the Tiger.
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Subaru and Toyota
This collaboration seems rather one-sided because while both the Toyota GT86 (pictured top) and Subaru BRZ (pictured bottom) first launched in 2012 are brilliant to drive, it's the former that gets more coverage and most of the sales.
That's despite the BRZ being cheaper and better value - and it was also Subaru that did most of the development work and designed the flat-four engine. While neither car has been a huge sales hit, it does seem they will be replaced in due course.
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Vauxhall and Brabham
While Vauxhall's work with Lotus is widely remembered, its collaboration with F1 champion Jack Brabham (1926-2014, pictured) is now largely forgotten - probably because it was for a single project back in the 1960s.
Launched in 1967 and canned in 1968, just a handful of Brabham HB Vivas were built, each with twin carbs plus a straight-through exhaust with an improved manifold – giving a 9bhp boost.
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Vauxhall and Lotus
The Lotus-powered Vauxhall Carlton was a 377bhp, 177mph super saloon that was so fast and powerful that it upset some newspapers. For some reason, it was fine for Ferrari and co to make fast cars, but not a mainstream company. But that was just one of the many positives about this car, built in 1990-1992, which could transport a family and its luggage at warp speed across continents.
Sales were small in their day relative to the mainstream Carlton, but today a majority of the Carltons left are of the Lotus variety – and nice ones can sell for over £100,000. They were all produced in a dark shade called Imperial Green.
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Volkswagen, Ghia and Karmann
Why stick with one partner when you can have two? This particular ménage à trois involved Volkswagen, which in the early 1950s was producing the Beetle and the Transporter. It wanted a more upmarket model to sell and approached Karmann which in turn got Ghia to come up with a design.
The result was a car based on the Beetle's floorpan and running gear, styled by Ghia, built by Karmann and sold through VW dealerships. More than half a million were built between 1955 and 1974.
What about the partnerships that were less happy? Read on
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Chrysler and Maserati
The 1980s wasn't a great period for Chrysler and it was pretty dire for Maserati too. So when the two collaborated on a luxury convertible the outcome wasn't likely to be an all-time great. And so it wasn't, because the Chrysler TC by Maserati was lambasted by all who reviewed it.
Poorly built, lacking in power and overpriced, just 7300 were built in a three-year production run; Chrysler had initially hoped to shift up to 10,000 of them each year.
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Lancia and Ferrari
While the already-mentioned Thema was decent enough, the V8-powered version made little sense as it was nose-heavy and no faster than the turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder - but what a glorious anachronism. It wasn't the first time that Lancia had borrowed one of Ferrari's engines though, as the Stratos shared the Dino's V6.
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Mitsubishi and Volvo
You'd be hard pressed to successfully argue that any of the cars that resulted from Mitsubishi and Volvo working together were landmark cars. We got the most inappropriately named Carisma (pictured), the 440 and 460 plus the original S40 and V40, all as lacklustre as each other.
The collaboration produced Volvo’s first front-wheel drive cars but they were largely forgettable aside from the quirky 480 ES.
What about the partnership that was downright ugly? Read on
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Alfa Romeo and Nissan
Collaborations don't always go well, and this was one of the most disastrous. The marriage produced two children: the Alfa Romeo ARNA (Alfa Romeo Nissan Autoveicoli) and the Nissan Cherry Europe, both of which proved a disaster for their respective makers. Ideally you would have teamed up Italian design flair with Japanese engineering and electrics, but they decided to do it the other way round – this reheated Nissan Cherry used Alfa boxer engines and a mixture of Alfasud and Cherry suspension with Italian electrics.
Italian car fans saw it as Japanese so they shunned it, while Japanese car fans saw it as Italian so they gave it a wide berth too. The project was a complete disaster from start to finish.
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