Every car firm has a wealth of unrealised projects in its archives. Most will never see the light of day, but occasionally we get tantalising glimpses into alternate histories.
One such instance came in 1975, when we met Phil Weaver, who had retired from Jaguar, having worked in its Special Projects and Competitions department.
Back in the early days, Jaguar had two development channels, one official and one for founder William Lyons’ private projects.
One was the Brontosaurus, an intended sports-racing prototype, a flimsy, soap-bar-like thing that predictably went to the scrapheap.
One creation of that era that did survive was a little roadster with a 1.8 Standard motor, used by Lyons’ son, albeit inexplicably in the US.
Jaguar also fancied a Formula 1 entry in the 1950s, and it’s thought three original C-Types were taken apart for this unrealised project.
Another lost treasure was 1957’s E1A, the first E-Type prototype, tested at MIRA and on the road, scrapped just for taking up space.
This was then succeeded by the fully sized Pop-Rivet Special.
Come the 1960s, the primary project was the XJ13, a Ford GT rival that never raced. Rebuilt after a crash in 1971, it now lives at the British Motor Museum.
The Special Projects shop may be long gone now, but many newer secrets surely hide in Coventry.
Mystery coupe finally outed as new Lancia
Far from simply a sporting coupé variant of the Lancia Beta saloon, the Beta Montecarlo had a muddled upbringing. Our first clue was sighting a Pininfarina test car in Turin in late 1972, presumed a replacement for the Fiat 124 Spider and thus dubbed the Fiat X1/20. The plot then thickened when Abarth entered a pair of similar-looking cars called 030 Pininfarina into the 1974 Tour d’Italia rally.