The Best British Cars We Never Saw

The British motor industry is a force to reckon with when it comes to exciting innovations.

19:29 16 July 2015

The Austin Mini’s space–saving feature, the McLaren F1’s stability even searing speed and the Jaguar E-Type’s combined good looks and high performance readily comes to mind.  However, there are a number of great British car designs that were, for some reason or another, never produced.  Following are some of what would have been superbly designed concept cars that remained as just amazing ideas and trial prototypes.

 

At the 2010 Paris Motor Show, Jaguar first presented the C-X75 as a gift to Jaguar’s 75th birthday.  The car featured a revolutionary hybrid-electrical drive system with each wheel attached with an electric motor driven by two micro-turbines using diesel fuel.  It was further announced that 200 samples of the C-X75 will be produced and will be priced from £700,000 and £900,000.  Some revisions were indicated but still guaranteed a 3–second dash to reach 60 mph with a maximum speed of 220 mph.  Unfortunately, with the continuing global economic collapse, Jaguar cancelled its planned production totally.

 

Another ill-fated futuristic car design that never saw daylight was the Aston Martin Bulldog.  The car which was internally named “K-9” after the robotic dog of Dr. Who boasted of digital equipment, closed-circuit camera on the dashboard display instead of a rear view mirror, five hidden headlamps.  Its 5.3 twin-turbo V8 engine can bring the car to a top speed of 237 mph.  The original plan was to produce 25 samples but the final production came to just one unit which was bought by the highest bidder for £130,000.

 

Then there was the EX-E which was conceived by MG and was presented 1985 at the Frankfurt motor show.  It was envisaged to counter Italy’s Ferrari 308.  The car was made of composite body panels and modular aluminium sub-frame which was bonded by adhesives.  The lightweight material allows a very low drag factor.  MG boasted that the super lightweight coupe can sprint to 60mph within 5 seconds or less then achieve a maximum speed of 170 mph.  Sadly, this future Ferrari-killer remained as a concept car that never saw fruition.