The best '50s sportscars that aren’t Ferrari 250s

But the ‘50s certainly was a fine decade for sportscars with styling, engineering and performance evolving at a breathtaking pace as the austerity of the post-war era began to recede. The public had a new-found appetite for style, power and sophistication and the cars we have chosen here definitely delivered. We could of course create an entire list just featuring the 250 and 275 Ferraris (maybe we will) so please don’t think we’ve forgotten them.

1951 Lancia Aurelia GT

Mike Hawthorn, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jean Behra. When drivers like these choose a particular car as their own personal transport – and free of the restrictions of sponsors – then you know it is something special. Named, in Lancia’s fashion, after a Roman road, the Aurelia used the world’s first production V6-engine, an all-alloy jewel designed under the auspices of legendary engineer Vittorio Jano mated to an innovative transaxle which combined the gearbox, clutch, diff and in-board drum brakes in one unit. The Aurelia was also the first car to be fitted as standard with radial ply tyres.

There was a handsome saloon, the B12, but it was the B20 with its Ghia-designed and Pininfarina-built fastback body that is regarded as the first ‘Grand Touring’ car, as its initials attest. The Aurelia proved formidable in competition as well, winning its class at the 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans, taking the first three spots in the 1952 Targa Florio and victory at the 1953 running of the Lièges-Rome-Lièges trial. Maybe racing drivers just really like ‘firsts’?

Lancia Aurelia GT specification

1953 Porsche 550

Alright, so this is technically mid-engined but you really wouldn’t describe it as a supercar with its 1.5-litre flat-four power sitting just ahead of the rear axle. Porsche had already established this layout as its engineering signature with the 356 which went into production at the tail end of the 1940s. But it was very nearly a different story as the prototype 365/1 was in fact mid-engined; it adopted its production layout for reasons of costs and the opportunity to add a pair of back seats.

Ferdinand Porsche revisited the mid-engined layout he had pioneered with the Auto Union Grands Prix cars of the 1930s for the first post-war sports racing car to be called a Porsche. The engine, regardless of where it was situated, was quite something; all-alloy, air-cooled, four-cylinder boxer with double overhead camshafts, twin carbs and dual ignition it produced 110PS. Introduced in 1953, it won its classes at Le Mans and the Carrera Panamerica that year, the latter victory leading to Porsches carrying the ‘Carrera’ badge to this day.

The Porsche 550 was also, notoriously, the car in which James Dean lost his life, in a collision with a Ford Tudor driven by 23-year old Donald Turnupseed while on the way to the Salinas Road Race event of October 1^st and 2^nd 1955. A keen amateur racer, Dean had originally ordered a Lotus Mark IX but bought the Porsche after the Hethel car was delayed. Dean had the car customised by famous customiser George Barris who painted the nickname ‘Little Bastard’ on the tail.

Porsche 550 specification

1953 Austin Healey 100

If the Porsche 356 was the sportscar birthed from the Volkswagen Beetle then the Healey 100 applied the same approach to the Austin A90 Atlantic, a bulbous two-door which tried, unsuccessfully, to apply American styling ideas to British-sized cars. Former Monte Carlo Rally winner Donald Healey had been producing high-end hand-built cars under his own name since just after the war but wanted to make something cheap enough to win mass-market appeal. Hitting on the A90 as the donor car, Healey designed the rakish 100 (has any sportscar worn two-tone paint better than the ‘Big Healeys’) around its mechanicals.

The design impressed Austin boss Leonard Lord and a deal was done to jointly build the Austin-Healey 100, the number referring to its ability to reach the magic ton with its 2.6-litre four-cylinder engine and three-speed with overdrive manual gearbox. The bodies were produced and trimmed by Jensen Motors in West Bromwich and the mechanicals installed at Austin’s Longbridge plant.

A run of five lightweight ‘100S’ models were built with aluminium bodies and cylinder heads, bumpers and convertible top removed and a cutdown windscreen made in plastic. Intended for racing these were also the first production cars to feature all-round disc brakes. Sadly, an Austin-Healey 100S was involved in motorsport’s greatest tragedy, the 1955 Le Mans crash when one was rear-ended by Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes which was then launched into the crowd, killing 84 people including its driver.

Austin Healey 100 specification

1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing

Car dealers don’t often get a say in how the models they sell get developed but US luxury car importer Max Hoffmann had a hand in more than one car on this list, as well as others such as the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider and Porsche 356 Speedster. Hoffman suggested to Mercedes-Benz that a road going version of its Le Mans and Carrera Panamerica winning W194 racer, would be a hit with well-heeled Americans.

The 300SL (for ‘Super Light’) used the same construction techniques as the racer, albeit mainly in steel rather than aluminium, and it was the tube frame underneath the body panels that, due to its high sides, necessitated the iconic gullwing doors. The roadcar used the same 3.0-litre overhead cam straight-six as the W194, canted over at 50-degrees for a low bonnet line. Unusually, the engine was much more powerful in fuel-injected road trim, producing 243PS to the racer’s 177PS and making the 300SL the fastest production car in the world on its release.

Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing specification

1956 BMW 507

Here is another Hoffman-inspired entry which the dealer persuaded BMW to build because he wanted a cheaper convertible to sell alongside the 300SL cabriolet. Hoffman envisaged the car being half the price of the Mercedes and selling in its thousands so BMW designed it around as many existing components as possible, including a chassis adapted from the BMW 502 saloon and its 3.2-litre V8, which with twin-carburettors produced 150PS.

The body was the work of Albrecht von Goertz (who later designed a grand piano for Steinway & Sons) at the insistence of Hoffman, a friend of his. The result was undoubtedly pleasing but proved to be a challenge to build, each one being hand formed from aluminium and no two cars being identical, to the extent where a hardtop from one example will not fit another correctly. This also meant the price almost doubled, leading to only 252 being sold, nearly bankrupting BMW. Two of those cars were owned by Elvis Presley however and another was gifted to John Surtees by Count Agusta for winning his company the 1956 500cc World Motorcycle Championship.

BMW 507 specification

1957 Jaguar XKSS

Another racer turned road car in the vein of the 300SL Gullwing, the Jaguar XKSS was conceived as a way to make use of unused chassis from the D-Type competition programme, recouping their development cost. A fairly thinly veiled adaptation of the D-type, the XKSS gained a passenger door, windscreen and side screens but lost the D-type’s glorious fin along the rear bodywork and the divider in-between the driver and passenger areas. A properly trimmed cabin and rudimentary convertible top added a modicum of refinement while bumpers and larger Jaguar XK140 rear lights helped increase safety.

In total, 25 cars were planned but on February 12^th 1957, a fire at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory destroyed nine of the cars, although two were later created using existing D-types. Most of the remaining 16 were sold in America, including one to actor Steve McQueen, who referred to it as ‘The Green Rat’. In 2016 Jaguar resumed production, finally building the remaining nine cars.

Jaguar XKSS specification

1958 Lotus Elite

Is there any car company that is able to do so much with such seemingly humble components as Lotus? Case in point; the Lotus Elite was powered by a 1.2-litre Coventry Climax engine originally usually used as a water pump on fire engine. With it, the Elite won its class at Le Mans six times. Unveiled in 1957, the Elite was the first production car to feature a fibreglass monocoque forming the body and load-bearing structures of the car (with a steel windscreen hope and subframe for mounting the engine). As a result, the car weighed just 500kg, helping it to two Index of Thermal Efficiency wins at Le Mans as well.

Pretty, quick and with sublime handling the Elite was also fragile with suspension points pulling away from the monocoque and suffered from persistent vibrations. Just over 1,000 were produced from 1958 to 1963.

Lotus Elite specification