MAGNIFICENT SEVEN LOST MODELS

Or seven versions of familiar BMC and British Leyland models that never made it to the showrooms:

i) BMC J3 Van. Or the J4 powered by the 948cc A-series engine. The acceleration figures must have been 0-60 in several years - so it is not entirely surprising that the J3 never entered production.

ii) Triumph 2000GT. In 1964, twelve years before the launch of the Rover SD1, Triumph experimented with a five-door fastback version of the 2000. Canley devised a running prototype but eventually decided to make the 2000 Estate instead.

iii) Rover SD1 Estate. British Leyland created two SD1 Estates - LOE 99 P, which now resides at the British Motor Museum, and SHP 549 R, displayed at the Haynes Motor Museum and formerly used by Sir Michael Edwards. The motoring historian Declan Berridge believes that BL's plans for an Estate finally vanished circa 1980. This was “the point in time, when it became clear that the SD1’s future shelf life would be limited, and that the potential benefit in market share would be negated by the investment costs required in order to get it into production".

iv) Austin Metro Saloon. BL initiated Project AMI in 1978, two years before the launch of the Metro. However, the booted version was cancelled in 1979, a victim of BL's extremely limited funds. As sales of the Vauxhall Nova saloon subsequently demonstrated, this may have been a short-sighted decision.

v) Triumph Lynx. The Lynx is possibly one of BL's greatest missed opportunities - a LWB three-door coupe version of the TR7 with the Rover SD1's five-speed gearbox, rear axle, and 3.5-litre V8 engine. Graham Robson wrote on Triumph Sports Cars that “serious development was underway by 1975”, and Leyland planned to manufacture the Lynx alongside the TR7 at their Speke plant, with projected annual sales of circa 19,000 models. But 1979 saw the cancellation of the project and the green example at the British Motor Museum is believed to be the sole survivor out of 18 prototypes.

vi) Mini Four-Door. Longbridge had apparently considered a four-door Mini as early as 1957, and around five years later their engineers devised an Austin-badged prototype, using the Countryman/Traveller's floorpan. Alas, the idea never reached fruition, despite its potential at home and in many export markets.

vii) Daimler SP252. Or the SP250 Mk. II, as it would probably have been known, had Jaguar decided to approve production. It certainly looked promising - a second-generation 'Dart' with appealing lines reminiscent of the Aston Martin DB4 Convertible. But, as Martin Buckley wrote of the surviving prototype in Classic and Sports Car:

The fate of the SP252 lay firmly in the financial and practical issues the car raised: it was powered by an engine that was tooled up for no more than 140 units a week and was already proving popular in the Jaguar Mk2-based Daimler V8-250 saloon. At a time when Jaguar could not produce enough E-types to satisfy demand, it didn’t make sense to become distracted by a car that was more expensive, in terms of man-hours, to build.

Looking at pictures of the SP252,, that does seem a lost opportunity.