1970s Cars | Car Reviews | British Motoring industry | Drive in | 1973
Vložit
- čas přidán 17. 08. 2019
- Tony Bastable and Richard Hudson Evans take a look at the latest British offerings that are being shown at the 1973 motor show at Earls Court.
First shown: 15/10/1973
If you would like to license a clip from this video please e mail:
archive@fremantle.com
Quote: VT8217 - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Wow, the date of release!! 15th October of 1973!!
The following day (16th Oct 1973), amid the Yom Kippur war, the Arab petrol-producer countries announced the oil embargo that would start the crisis and would change the car industry for ever. The British makers wouldn't survive it.
We can say that this video is, literally, from the last day of an era.
I doubt it had much influence on British car makers. Other things doomed them.
Not just change the car industry; the embargo arguably ended the entire post-war political consensus.
Amazing point. Can still remember queueing for fuel in the early 80's...
Very interesting factoid. But I think it was only a piece of the puzzle that killed British car industry. The main one being that they were shit.
@@TregTube How dare you!
The jags look gorgeous !
for sure
Interesting to see footage of an XJC from 1973 as it didn't come on the market till 75.
Timeless design. They still look great today.
5.3 L v12
Seen a few days ago a dark green colour white interior V12 XJC CONVERTIBLE!
it was in a petrol station in rathmines village, Dublin, Ireland.
Still looks great the old Jaguar.
Kind regards from Dublin.
How beautiful were those vehicles. Well, they still are beautiful 👌
Yeah the landcrab was a work of art. Totally didn't fail in the market cause it was ugly as hell
They only live on film.
That RS2000 is bloody gorgeous!
Yes, but TVR offers 5 years warranty for corrosion.
Escort Mk 1s are fine looking cars. No wonder they cost a bomb nowadays
That RS2000 made the hairs on my arm stand.... It's EASILY the best car out of all of these cars in this video... Well worth the most money anyway.
I'll take them all please. I always wanted a Dolomite Sprint. All of these cars would have been scrapped or sold for peanuts when they were 'out of fashion' It pays to keep your bog standard cars if you have the space.
In another 5 years, anything shot now on the British car industry will be a history film.
spankysmagicpiano These docs are fantastic, my Triumph was a 1500 with Rotaflex couplings. One of the buggers split and in attempting to change it under a jack and bricks while outside a local shop, managed to smash my 1980’s glasses with a 3/4 AF spanner ending up at Melton A and E! Closed now of course. Happy Days indeed!
I’ve own 8 Dolly Sprints over the years but 1 in particular I would buy back tomorrow but fear scrapped now😬 I rebuilt the engine myself as fast road twin 45’s etc...👍
You're more than welcome to keep the Allegro and the Marina.
All quirky and individualistic....😍😍 still designed by humans ,fabulous,thanks for posting 🏴✊
It be good if all these cars got put in storage after this programme and found 50 years later
1:23. HOH902L. The MGB GT is still taxed and MOT'd according to the DVLA!
Come over to Malta you can find all most every model and in mint condition there's a car show every other weekend
@@georgejacob3162 I know. I own it.
@@markanthony9112 I'm going to come over and steal one of the cars.
Mark Anthony. I visited Malta a couple of years ago and on the journey between the airport and the hotel I saw a Jaguar C Type on the road. It's apparently owned by the guy who owns a glass blowing business. We stayed in Bugibba which has regular classic car meetings at Bugibba Square and at the National Aquarium. Of course Bugibba also has the Malta National Car Museum which is well worth a visit and which also has another Jaguar C Type as well as Minis, Alfas, MG's, Triumphs, DKW's, Corvettes and a Ford Thunderbird amongst many other cars. You know you're at the museum when you see a Bugatti Type 35 outside!
When I was first in England (May 1984 in Bournemouth) they were still on the road and me as a petrolhead it was very fascinated because they were very rare on our german roads.
What a fantastic bit of film!
Firenza droop-snoot. Be still my beating heart!
They look better than today’s cars
Bob I agree. todays cars you have to admit are more reliable, but you cannot tell one make from another. car makers then had their own styles whereas today they seem to all use a cookie cutter template.
True,even the Marina looked good !
@@insertnamehere5146 ??? And there's me struggling to tell apart the Avenger, Marina and Viva all based on the coke bottle idea.
@@smorris12 sorry you're struggling with 1970s design. todays cars must be terrible for you, like me.
jam 68 Are you ‘aving a 🦒? 😆
Born in ‘63 these are the models of the first cars I remember and in 1980 when I passed my test. In fact my first car was a £325 J Reg Cortina MK 3. Owning a 6 year old car like these as 17 year old was beyond my dreams and budget. That Jag Coupe is fantastic even now.
J = 1971
We had a marina and drove all
The way to florida in it from canada what a trip that was
i am feel very sorry for you, we had a W115/8 Mercedes in the early 70s...that car is still driving...
I actually liked the looks of the Dolomite. Triumph made pretty nice looking cars.
"Despite their problems, Chrysler...." that phrase seems to have proceeded any introduction of a Chrysler product for the last 50 years
Despite their problems, Chrysler managed to build the Hillman Avenger which I'm about to take out to the shops 47 years later. It wasn't all bad.
@@video99couk That Marina TC Special may still be going as well as there are some of them still going and the MG is certainly still going today so not bad there as well. Any car from back then if it was looked after and rust proofed by the owner would easily survive till now and many have even though the cars werent rust proofed the way cars are today.
I burst out laughing reading this comment 😂
Except the valiants in Australia. They WERE well built. But they STILL went broke in Australia. Just to come back again.
I think the Escort would be worth the most today, maybe the Jaguar coupé next?
Completely ridiculous because they were horrible pieces of shit. My grandfather had an RS2000, horrible thing.
The Jag on the other hand is gorgeous. The MGB V8s are also getting pretty pricey. The TVRs are also expensive when they come up for sale.
If I'm not mistaken, the driveway is the stately home at Polsden Lacey, near Bookham, Surrey. Quite a nice place to walk around these days.
I'm going there now. I shall urinate in the driveway.
1984. I had just arrived at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk. I walked to the local garage in Barton Mills and rented their green-gold Viva until I bought a new car. Great time.
I was born within 2 months from this film 😊 Remarkable how in early 70's most part of cars still had chrome bumpers and trimmings. From 1974 on the plastic was gradually taking place in bumpers - the corners mostly - and all chrome slowly getting old fashioned. The Ford Escort RS 2000 ❤
I love chrome on cars! Some cars today still have a bit of it on (or a metal that resembles it.) My Astra J has a chrome bar above the badge and my Ford Focus before that had one too.
Looking at the cars from above they look like matchbox toy cars!
They remind me a bit of the cars my brother had as a kid.... although that was the late 80s and early 90s, the shape of them hadn't really changed significantly.
I passed my test in 1976 when I turned 17 and dabbled in the motor trade ever since and with the exception of the TVR have owned one version or another of all of those cars. Some were much better than others but I would love to drive a well sorted version of some of these to see what the felt like now.
Imagine having the rs2000 and them jags on your driveway, beautiful cars!! Also that TVR looks like its been sent thru a time machine from modern day back to the 70s, gorgeous motor!
Imagine having all these in a garage nowadays as the brand new condition they are in here!!
3:44 Wow, my dad had a Hillman Avenger on a N plate, almost exactly the same spec except it was metallic blue! 😀
i bought myself a 2dr Sunbeam Avenger 1300 about 2 months ago and have loved it, except for the previous owner painted it in plum, and did all sorts of edits, that i have to undo. whole car cost about 1600€ and i consider it a good deal.
I've still got one......a GLS in metallic blue!
@@paulosborne1628 Nice !
My first car was a Hillman Avenger in the mid 80's, I paid £35 for it.
I wish vinyl roofs would make a comeback 😢
You say that until the car gets a few years age on it, then they rust out under there, sometimes bad enough to put holes in the roof and leak.
I had a Cortina and an Escort and never had a problem with that. I suppose when they get to classic age it could be an issue - but then at classic age everything becomes a problem 😃
@@brunster64 Back in the '80s, a friend of mine had a 1973 Delta 88 with the vinyl peeling off the roof and you could see a little rust and a lot of glue under it. After tearing off the vinyl and masking if off, we painted it with a roller and it looked almost like a new vinyl roof.
They kinda do, I have seen vauxhall making hatchbacks with a white roof (akin to old Bel Aires). So we might see vinyl as the next logical step.
My Dad had a 1978 Marina 1.8 Special in dark metallic blue with matching vinyl roof 😎
The Austin Allegro, Available in 50 Shades of Sage.
Damn.... I've owned most of those at sometime. The jag coupe.... gorgeous car.
Jag coupe ..most beautiful car ever made ?
biryanikebab all of these cars were dirt cheap a few years back, I've had plenty of jags including an Xjc wish I had kept a couple my first car was mk3 cortina red with a black vinyl roof in the 80s & 90s they were common and so cheap
@@TheDeviantgeezer I've got two XJ6's and they're not for sale at any price.
charlie peebles the last series 3 xj6 I had suffered a rear end bump and was written off, I bought it back from the insurance company and made it into a 2 door pickup kept it for a few years to promote my business it always attracted attention
Well done for the excellent quality of the footage.
Good old days no sodding diesel engines with all the filters & sensors that cost a fortune to replace basic is best
yeh but the electrics were sure to short out in the rain. AA membership was a must for holidays. rust was going to happen even before it needed an mot. crashing your car into a tree at 20-30mph was fatal.
Had a 1974 mk3 Cortina 2000E (Executive) in Jupiter red back in the late 90s. It was absolutely rotten with worn void bushes and the timing constantly went out but it was a real attention grabber and the 2 litre pinto was excellent.
Is that why you never got to Tom's office on time?
Firenza for me please. I'll just have to make my left foot out of lead, so I can operate the clutch in heavy traffic as Tony already pointed out in another video!
Wow, a 5 year warranty against rust 😅
Brave of them, that must be the equivalent of a 20yr warranty today, given how all cars were for rusting away back then.
Not just 5 years but 5 FULL years
@@kingshearer2 Probably from the day it rolled out of the factory, not the date of sale!
Grandad Gamer only applicable in Africa.
I had an RS2000 1973 model, around 1978. Great motor!
Olympic Blue MK1 RS2000 with optional four spoke 5.5x13 RS alloys please. Only worth the sharp end of 40-50k now.
K W
And I traded mine in for £1200 against a XR3 in 1984...
David Winthrop And we thought it was the right thing to do, I chopped my Modena Green RS2000 in for a second hand S1 RS turbo, that I sold for £1800 when I got a shed like Mk2 Astra company car 🙁
K W
The same thing goes for my Brooklands Green Capri 280 that I couldn’t give away in 1991 when it was replaced with a 5-cylinder Audi 90. One of the biggest mistakes I ever made!
Best car of the bunch I thought. Stone cold classic!
The question is, why? It looked no better or worse than the other cars there, so it it the performance? Or is it one of those cars that lots of people love for no apparent reason?
I love the classic ford escort rs2000 and the vauxhall firenza,it looked so ahead of its time
Some great colour combinations there...
Looks like it was filmed yesterday at a classic car show! Quality film why is it so clear ?
Guaranteed against corrosion for *5 full years*
Five years? Not a bloody chance! :)
5 full yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah... right
5 full years! In the sense of rigorous imprisonment where days and nights count separate?
As supposed to..: "five half years"?
It will need it
That 2200 looks good! I saw one in Holland and got surprised when I saw the 3500 V8 label! I didn't know it was powered by the 3.5 Buick V8! That engine was a true savior (well, it did its best against the stupidity of the big cheese in BL), much like the Cosworth DFV was for small teams wanting to compete in F1!
I would really like to bring the management and workforce of these companies to the present day, just to show them what a complete balls-up they made of the British motor industry, starting from a year or so before this programme was made.
The Ford Cortina a definite winner, followed by the Vauxhall Victor.
The colours love it
Lets see... tax due dates
Allegro - no reg visible
Marina - no reg visible
Triumph - 17 October 1984
Rover - no details
MGB - Still on the road!
Jag saloon - 1 June 1980 - of note is that the date of last V5C (logbook) issued was 8 August 2019 so it looks like it still exists somewhere.
Jag coupe - 1 August 1989 - again date of last V5C (logbook) issued was 23 March 2021 so looks like it's still around too.
Cortina estate- 1 June 1992
Cortina saloon - 1 Feb 1985
Escort - no details
Viva - 1 June 1991
Victor - 21 Sept 2001
Firenza - no details
Avenger 4 door - 1 April 1985
Avenger 2 door - no reg visible
TVR - 12 Nov 1992
Overall pretty reasonable longevity really - better than I was expecting & I can't believe I've actually found one of the cars in one of these videos that is still on the road! I wonder if the owner knows about this video?
Good work, interesting info.
I LOVED this!, seeing all the cars I remember on the roads as as Child Brand new, I am RESTORING on my channel a 1974 Mk.3. Ford Cortina in the same colour as the 2000E seen here, an extremely rare one, as she was built by Ford as one of their promotional cars, only two cars left the factory with gold coach lines, and she is the only surviving one of the promo cars,
Who'd've thunk that Avenger would end up being sold as a Volkswagen in South America until the early 1990s?
also a Dodge Polara in Brazil.
Ahh the "all agro" my dad had one of these. In blue. Then bought a rover 213, then a dishatsu charade 1.5, then a Peugeot 206cc and finally he has Peugeot RCZ. These are literally all the cars he's owned.
Im literally about half his age (im 41 he's 80)
- I've already owned at least twice as many as him lol .... I do love my dad though. Hope he keeps his rcz and I get to have it eventually like he did for the diahatsu.
Amazing. Takes me back to my youth. My Dad had 2 Marina’s from new. A teal blue L reg and then an N reg in Bracken. I remember my Mums friend seeing it for the first time and commenting “ oh your new car is the colour of baby poo” it stayed with us till 78 when Dad was going to change it for a new Avenger, he waited so long because the Chrysler factory was on strike. In the end he got fed up and bought a year old Opel Ascona, compared to the Marina’s it was the difference between day and night. It stayed with us till the early 80’s. Happy days
Good God, I'm not alone in growing up in a 2 new Marinas household , both 1700L estates in Pageant Blue and Sandglow. The paint started dropping off the second one from its early days, but it did soldier on for around ten years. A terrifying motorway cruiser, setting up a strange swaying motion. Made my later Lada seem pin sharp in comparison. Leyland Cars, a great deal and a great deal more.
In terms of user experience its amazing how common place oil leaks and drip trays were even in showrooms then .
The individuality of styling was a plus point ...body corrosion and time spent in workshop well what can i say.
Nice vintage clip This coincided with the oil crisis period i think
Ooo MK1 Escort RS2000, Vauxhall Firenza, XJ Coupe... plus the rare Cortina 2.0 Executive, can I stop drooling yet? My first car was a Magnum, that was until it turned out to be a ringer and was heartbroken when the old bill took it away, so bought a J reg Hillman Avenger and I travelled from the top of Britain to the bottom in it abs epic car. Then I had a banana yellow MK3 Cortina estate which was also an epic motor... happy memories :)
Great video. Think I’d have the Escort out of that lot 👍
Air-con as an option. On a Jaguar! Even run-of-the-mill small cars have it as standard now.
The jag has been untaxed since 1989 but had a new logbook issued on 23 March 2021! May still exist
MGB also still exists! And is MOTED and TX
Edit the Jag was sold at bonhams auction in march 2021 in a half restored state for £16.875 and is in fact a prototype.
Guaranteed against corrosion for five full years.
You're spoiling us!
Dunno what he meant by full years. Its either 5 years or its not 5 years😂
Bring back vinyl roofs.
Well overdue a comback. Love em!
Consumer Reports described them as a useless decoration , but the first time I bought a car without one , I realized how much they did to prevent the racket of rain hitting the roof, so they were probably particularly useful in the UK. Even the padding that they sometimes added under the vinyl helped keep the noise down and it helped the vinyl survive freeze-thaw cycles. Seems that a lot of features on cars and appliances die not because they are useless, but because their manufacturers fail to point out the purpose they serve and no one else notices.
Bring back justin lee collins
When the drove them away there was probably a pool of oil under where a majority were parked.
Such a shame, I was only a kid at the time but I remember all those cars. Especially the Cortina's, my Dad hired 3 of them to go on holiday with as he didn't own a car.
The mk11 Escort is my all time favourite car.😊❤️
Hillman's Hunter and Imp models appear to be absent here, as well as the other former-Rootes Group variants that were still being produced in '73.
Being a British auto journo in the early ‘70s looks like it required a lot of patience.
So far I've counted three "My dad had.."s, mine had a Cortina 2000E estate, Daytona yellow.
1:41 What's a "high-opera-American" bumper? The bumpers on that Jaguar certainly don't look like the 5 MPH battering rams we had over here.
Could somebody explain why the Pintosaurous engined RS2000 is worth so much more than the Droop Snoot. I know which one I would have. Oh and the Dolly Sprint. Absolutely no contest.
Dolly Sprint please
Because it's a ford,fords never broke down,rusted and were the best cars ever in the 70s,even though they were as bad as everything else,
@@Thecrazyvaclav Thank you Keith, I agree. And I still haven't forgiven the Japanese for producing the most rust prone , short lived engines and oil consuming dangerous cars they made in the seventies. Phew that feels better....
Probably due to its rallying success. RS2000's are hugely sought after for historic rallying.
@@stevepearce6689 Toyota Celica was excellent.
Austin Allagro my brother had 3 of these, 1 driver and 2 for spares!
Presumably he was one of those guys who always bought other peoples unlooked after heaps then. I had a 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe and my mother had a 1978 Allegro 1500 LE and they were both excellent and very reliable cars and we didnt need to keep any other Allegros for spares.
The vinyl roof coverings were routinely added by Ford when the paint wasn’t up to scratch. It was a cheaper and quicker way to get the car out.
The HP Firenza stands out as easily the best-looking car here (I'm biased, I've owned 2), it's a bit of a pity they didn't put a bit more effort into its engineering and build quality. I believe the car here (WXE66M) is still in existence and in good condition. I wonder how many of the others can say the same?
Great to see the Viva upgrades
And zero mention of the Ford Capri, wtf???? Always thought that was the best looking english Ford ever made, by a good margin too.
I think these were all just changes in that model year. Like, the Mini gets no mention here either, or the Land Rover, or the E Type for that matter
I'm with u I had 3 Capri's first was a blue 16Gt then a 2lt GL white and my last one a 2LT laser red in colour that came to Malta with me fantastic cars
But if you start chucking it hard around some bends, you would quickly wish you were in a Hillman Avenger which handles much better.
indeed
@@video99couk yes Avengers and Hunters handle quite good with the simple strut and live rear axle.When Rootes were developing the Avenger about 1966/7 they experimented with various rear suspension design s and found that for a car weigh in at 17 CWT coils with
upper and lower arms gave great roadholding .even better than the class leading BMC1100/1300& a match for the early Escorts.
Oooh Victor VX4/90 for me please in that lovely blue, or gold 🥰
What colourful cars! ☺ Unlike the mundane white, silver/grey and black cars on the road today. (Although my car is white and looks nice lol.)
Spot the manufacturer's home towns in the registrations also, with plenty of Coventry HP etc
Triumph Dolomite Sprint is very interesting with a first 16v engine
Lovely cars.'
Yeah, they all look great. In reality the cheaper cars here had crappy interiors, & terrible poorly made seats. And let's not forget bad mechanical design. For example the Hillman Avenger 1500 had rubber engine mounts & after a while they would soften to some extent. If you had to do a sudden stop the engine and radiator fan bolt would move forward just enough to puncture the radiator!
It was like night and day sitting in a Japanese car from that era. Everything looked good & worked real good. And kept on working real good for a really long time. The British cars looked like they had been designed and built by a committee who hated one another's guts! Which of course pretty much sums up what was happening in BMC at the time.
The American British cars looked like they were designed by people who were in a bad mood. That high trim Victor was a special affront to one's eyes. Exception: that Cortina wagon/estate. More about that one, please.
Yet oddly the FD Victors which preceded them were (to me anyway) really good looking cars!
The Cortina estate had the same Coke-bottle lines Ford was pushing in the USA on the Torino and Maverick. But the generic grill and rectangular headlights were starting the box-i-fication that was slowly taking over car styling in the 1970s.
Jubilee Marinas? :-D But I do like quite a few of the cars shown indeed,
Love the woman sitting with the rollers in her hair
Rostyle wheels. Best looking wheels of all time.
The jag looks nice.
Like the Cortina station wagon & no Triumph TR-6 or Spitfires ?
the yellow MG (HOH 902L) Still on the road, MOT 09/08/21, Tax 01/04/21
Why o why did they leave the engine of the TVR running? Honi soit qui mal y pense...
And a rust warranty of "five full years" for the car's very central structure... I'm impressed...
they didn't know it would start again due to electrical problems lol
Look at the state of all the cars here the tvr Jag and the mgb are a different class when it comes to design
I would love to see the modern equivalent of that opening Ariel shot, with 2019/2020 cars from the same manufacturers., Oh wait..........
But in all seriousness I would like to see the equivalent cars of today. Who would you say is the 2019 version of rover? Kia maybe?
Derek Murray I guess it depends which era of Rover you’re looking at. 70s Rover and Triumph could be BMW but at the end, today’s Rover would be Skoda.
Am I the only one who thinks that the magnum and avenger with quad lights are the coolest cars here?
The rover, as much as I like it, looked dated in 1975.
It did get replace the following year.
@@billybellend1155 good point.
The SD1 was just around the corner!
@@whelkboy which was ahead of its time
Jimmy N13 it may have looked dated but it technically more advanced than the car that replaced it having disc brakes all round and independent suspension
I was a teenager when i looked on the british cars for the first time for close ! Where are they today ! I'm realy sad for their disparition, perhaps will they coming back with the "brexit" ? But... for some economic reasons... i don't think so in fact !
Wow that brown Chrysler Avenger!! 😂
Last minute quote - "Guaranteed against corrosion for five full years!"
"Guaranteed against corrosion for five full years"!
Dolly sprint .marina t.c please and the jaguar my top 3 .
Still quite a lot of appealing cars from the British motor industry at that critical moment, I notice. To make a choice is always to loose, but I must say the Vauxhall magnum and VX 4/90 look very appealing here. A little bit more modern than the Ford cars, though they were the better sellers.
The mk3 was sold more than the other cortinas mks.
best cars
Saw the thumbnail thought it was toy cars! :(
ditto!
2:33 I thought he said "uranium"!
Now where are the keys for the time machine I want to go back to October 1973 and have these cars
@@RussEdgar445y7tlfj lol
3:51 is that rust behind the wheel/bottom of the wing already?!
No two cars look alike, each having its own distinct character. Cars are surely better today, but so bland. I'll start off a Sunday morning debate by saying the Marina looked ok here, in yellow and black vinyl roof. Check out the white highlighting on the tyres. Snazzy!
Thanks for the videos. They are pure gold.
Weirdest to me is how the Escort is probably today worth more than half this bunch combined ! When I was ten in period the Jags had the exotica image.
which one did i pick in 1973,none of these the renault 16
The MGB's still on the road :)
The jag was sold at auction in march 2021