9 Strange, Cool & Forgotten Production Cars of the 60s and 70s

After some years of interess and research about peculiar old cars , especially from the 60s and 70s, I come up today with this list of 10 cars we may have forgotten; but were cool, very cool or even a little bit peculiar.

1. Alpine A310 1600

We all know the first Alpine, the A110, and the second generation one, the A310 V6. Between those two cars, Alpine produced the A310 1600. It had similar looks to the Citroën SM; they were both created in the early seventies.
It had a 1.6 l 4 cylinder engine out of a Renault 16, which had a lack of power. It also wasn’t as great to drive and to look at as the Alpine 110. This is due to financial problems at Alpine in the early seventies. They had to accelerate the production to have a chance to survive, which had as consequence a bad overall quality.

2. Bond Bug

Bond was a famous three wheeler manufacturer in the UK after the war. Reliant (famous for their Robin) bought the company in 1970 and decided to create a sportier version of the Regal for the young generation. It was designed by Tom Karen (Ogle Design), who gave it this amazing looks and this saucer inspired canopy. The car itself had better performance than a Mini (in a straight line of course), but its price was higher, what had a consequence on sales; only 2000+ were built between 1970 and 1974.

3. Brubaker Box

The Brubaker Box is the work of Curtis Brubaker. This eclectic ‘van’ is considered as the first minivan ever, because it had a limited seat number and because it was smaller than vans, like the VW Bus, which the Box is based on.
Also known as the Automecca Sportsvan in its ‘kit-car days’, the Brubaker Box is a really strange car. Instead of having a ridiculously high number of doors, it only had one; which was a mixture between a gullwing and a sliding door. The interior was also very peculiar. Most of the commands were on the panel under the driver’s window, leaving the dashboard very poor in instruments. The back seats were nothing other than a big sofa. And that’s because I adore this car.

4. Lotus Elite 75

From 1974 to 1982, Lotus produced the four seat, considerably larger Type 75 Elite. Lotus sought with this design to position itself upmarket, and move away from its kit car past. The Elite replaced the ageing Lotus Elan Plus 2, whilst the mid engined Lotus Esprit replaced the Europa. It looked quite sporty as a shooting brake, but also had four seats, and tried to attract a new generation of persons, young parents who liked sporty cars.

5. Matra M530

French car manufacturer Matra launched in 1967 a very strange car, called the M530. It had very futuristic looks, an engine in the middle and pop-up lights. A little car never seen before; this was the starting point of a cool car genre, followed by the VW-Porsche 914 and the Fiat-Bertone X1/9. Powered by a Ford V4; it only had 70hp and wasn’t really a car we would nowadays call “fast”. Approximately 8000 were made during 1967 and 1973.

6. Nova

Yes; that is actually a car you could buy in the seventies. And yes, this one is a kit car. Developed by ADD, this kit was sold all around the world always under another name. So I will just call it the Nova. The crazy looks are possible thanks to a fiberglass shell; and the crazy performance due to a Beetle chassis and engine. It wasn’t maybe a cracker, but just look at it!

7. Saab Sonett III

This Saab could be Saabs only proper really sporty looking coupe. I say “looking”, because its performance was a bit disappointing and not really sporty-ish. Thanks to a modest 65 hp output, the car could only reach 103 mph. But the design was the most important thing on this car. It was inspired by the Italians; a very curvy side with a diving front end, possible thanks to pop up lights. Disappointing sales, especially during the 1973 oil crisis, led Saab to end production in 1974. A total of 8,368 Sonett IIIs were manufactured between 1970 and 1974.

8. VW Karmann Ghia Type 34

Beside the famous Karmann Type 14 we all know, VW produced a more luxurious Karmann called the Type 34 (the other one is the Type 14), which was based on the newer Type 3 chassis and not the elderly Beetle chassis. It was at the time the most luxurious and expensive car VW produced. For the same price, you could get 2 Beetles. I would rather have one of these …

9. VW SP2

To understand maybe why you may not know this car, let’s first make something clear. It was made in Brazil, for the Brazilian market by a Brazilian company called “VW do Brazil”, which was a subsidiary arm of Volkswagen Group. In the 70s, the Brazilian market was closed for imports. The only sports car officially made there was the aging (and by then retired) Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, and its failed successor, the Karmann Ghia TC.
VW do Brazil entirely developed this rather good looking coupe; which had some similarities with another cool Brazilian VW, the Brasilia. Over 10 000 were made; a lot of them are still in Brazil; some were imported lately to Europe.
Luckily, if you want one; two are actually for sale in Europe.

Thanks a lot for reading . What’s your favorite? Any other cars to mention that are not on this list?