The Veyron has secured its place in the pantheon of the world’s most insane performance cars, but has it really been imbued with the heart and soul of the Bugatti brand? Over the decades there have been a number of marques and models that have suffered deaths both justified and ignominious, only later to be reborn in some form or another. Sometimes this has worked to great success, and other times ended in embarrassing failure. Consider if you will the last iteration of Ford’s iconic Thunderbird. That car attempted to drag the marque back to square one with a two-seater port-hole hard-topped sporty car, but its odd amalgamation of styling tropes from across the Thunderbird’s history made it eerily reminiscent of the T1000 meeting its demise in Terminator 2. That’s just one example of an attempt to restart a brand or car model, and one that sadly didn’t go quite as planned. Some other attempts have been more successful – Triumph motorcycles come to mind – while others have been less so, like the above Packard. You can be thankful that’s all of the attempted Packard restart I am showing you. Those are just a pair of examples of marque that have seen hiccups in their lineage. Another is the Camaro, which presently seems to be hitting the marque’s heritage right out of the park. What do you think has been the best of this breed of reimagined brands? Which do you feel have been the most respectful to their heritage? Image: Hemmings
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