Some of the excellent stuff BBC Top Gear did was remembering fallen manufacturers, like on the Cheap Car Challenge where they bought British-made sportscars and visited old premises of Lotus, Jensen and TVR. Elsewhere, their special films of two linked manufacturers who have been dying for years, Saab and Lancia, turned out to touch the hearts of anyone who ever gave a good god damn about those two makes.
It’s tragically funny that the Saab film was done in 2012, and Saab still tries to get back into form in some way, even if it means being an electric car maker. Lancia on the other hand consists almost entirely of Chryslers with Italian badges these days.
[youtube width=”720″ height=”480″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jemRabq74WA[/youtube]
[youtube width=”720″ height=”480″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1RKpdFjE4I[/youtube]
The Saab clip gives the 99 Turbo the approval it deserves, while the Lancia Fulvia just looks and sounds amazing in its own film. The Saab video here is sadly truncated, but I imagine it’s available in full length in some remote corner of the internet. Maybe.
Weekend Edition: Saab and Lancia remembered on Top Gear
By Antti Kautonen
Mar 29, 2015
By Antti Kautonen
The resident Finn of Hooniverse. Owns old Peugeots and whatnot, writes long thinkpieces on unloved cars. These two facts might be related.
Bradley Brownell
There’s no good substitute to TG’s epic road trips AFAIK, though. That’s what JC & team should do if they go indy. Just specials. Well, many other parts of now ex- TG are BBC’s intell. property anyways.
That was my comment and it was in the wrong thread. Deleting makes it Guest comment. hmm
every time i see the Lancia special, i really really want a Stratos, i’d never fit in it and i know it’d blow itself into tiny little pieces of Lancia about 35 minutes after i bought it,but i still want one