Nostalgia is a hell of a thing.Today, companies, social media influencers, and Peter Kay all make a living by sticking on a pair of rose tinted specs and telling you things were better in the good old days.
Car makers have been at it for years too. Just look at the success of the BMW Mini or the new Fiat 500. Both iconic cars had a tonne of nostalgia attached, and when they were reinvented for the digital age they became overnight successes.
But what happens when manufacturers dip a hand into their back catalogue and rip out something…not iconic. Something a bit meh. Something people have probably forgotten about?
As is typical of a new car, the firm teased it a bit. But then smack. Bang. Wallop. The gorgeously brown carbonfibre clad coupe arrived and immediately took over the internet.
The stunning restomod has the same doors, windows and underbody as the original, but is much lower and 170mm wider. It swaps the 1605cc petrol engine for a 270bhp electric motor mounted to the rear, making it rear-wheel drive.
At the time, Hyundai called the mix of blocky styling and ultra modern technology as “retro-futurism” and today, it somehow looks even more bizarre.
All of the dials are digital, there’s a widescreen infotainment system and for some reason there is a portrait style screen that controls a virtual piano.
And back in 2021 Opel dipped its toe into its back catalogue and emerged with an electrified version of the Manta Coupe.
We drove it back in 2021 and were surprised by how well sorted it was considering it was basically a rolling concept. We were also pleasantly surprised to find a four-speed manual gearbox.
Boreham Motorworks was chosen by Ford to produce and remaster one of its most revered cars. The company’s take on the RS200 will be built in Coventry from the ground up as an "entirely new" creation, rather than using components from existing cars.
No word on what it will be powered by, but the company has cited the RS200’s mid-mounted engine and four-wheel drive system among its defining attributes. So it is likely it will maintain these.
Earlier this year the firm revealed an outlandish, 600bhp reworking of the Jaguar XJS, complete with carbonfibre bodywork, a supercharged V12 and a manual gearbox.
TWR Performance will build 88 of these XJS Supercats. The number has been chosen to commemorate the firm’s first Le Mans win in 1988. Price? £225,000 a piece.
The company is normally a behind the scenes affair that works closely, and quietly, with OEMs but the TR 25 concept was released to mark Triumph’s centenary as a car maker and the 70th anniversary of the Triumph TR2.
There are no plans to put it into production, but maybe if you had extremely deep pockets and asked very, very nicely, Makkina might build you one
The HWA Evo replaces the Cosworth-fettled 2.5-litre four-pot with a Merc twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6, said to be good for 443bhp - or 493bhp if you want to pay even more money and get the Affalterbach performance package
Only 100 examples will be made, priced from around £600,000. They do at least come with a 12-month/12,000 mile warranty, though...
It has a pretty simple premise. Take an iconic van, bring it up-to-date with styling cues and an electric platform, and hey presto, you have a winner.
At the press conference the Chinese backers were confident that independent businesses would use it not only for transport, but as a canny way to advertise themselves. Alas it has still not arrived. But the company’s Instagram is still active, so there’s hope yet.
Yes that’s right, another electric restomod blesses this slideshow. The Nyobolt concept was designed by Julian Thomson, the same man who designed the original Elise, and features an EV powertrain good for 470bhp.
The firm’s battery tech slashes charging times to just a few minutes with its special tungsten anodes. It says this technology makes cars lighter and quicker to charge, which of course, lends itself to sports cars, hence the Elise.
But the original Pony, while designed by Giugiaro, owes an awful lot to the Morris Marina.
The new Pony concept hit the internet like a Kardashian selfie in 2021, gathering thousands upon thousands of likes. The silhouette remained distinctly unchanged from the original, but the new Pony featured camera-based mirrors, a digital-touch transmission and the Ioniq 5’s head and tail-lights.
