Classic Car Buyer Magazine No.217 Secret Sale of Rare Cares Back Issue

Due to the wonders of social media, I recently had a discussion over Twitter with JJ, who was wearing his editor-of-Retro-Cars hat at the time, about modern car design. The gist of the discussion was that modern cars are all very much alike and there was much more stylistic variety
back in the ’Seventies. It’s not a point of view I really agree with. People have been bemoaning the fact that ‘all cars look the same these days’ since time immemorial. In the ’Seventies we had the MkIII Ford Cortina,
the Hillman Avenger and the Vauxhall Viva HC, all of which were indistinguishable in side profile to all but the ardent car enthusiast. There was styling variety in the period but the likes of the NSU Ro80 and the Citroën GS were regarded as freakish and unfashionable. Interestingly, what all three of those cars I just mentioned had in common was variety in engineering, and there I would agree that there is much less choice in the modern car market than there was in the classic era. Back then BMC championed front-wheel drive against the established products from GM and Ford. Citroën had its dedication to hydraulics and aerodynamics,
Mazda believed the rotary engine was the future, Tatra knew that the
boot was a silly place for an engine but stuck with it, Saab thought that
the turbocharger was a pretty nifty idea and so on. By the ’Nineties this had all coalesced into a mass of indistinguishable cars with frontwheel
drive, transverse engines, MacPherson strut front suspension and round steering wheels. The reasons for this are many – as the car matured as a product it became clearer to manufacturers what does and doesn’t work.
Technology advanced and required fewer compromises (you can get
the same ride as Hydragas with normal steel springs these days). The science of aerodynamics has led to all cars gaining the same basic shape as that’s what works best. Legislation on emissions and safety discourages off-the-wall engineering.