10 British cars designed in Italy | Axon’s Automotive Anorak

As its amusingly-contrived title suggests, this work is a detailed study of all of the cars built in Britain, but styled in Italy. Italy has long been recognised as the greatest car designing nation in the world, creating some of the most beautiful, influential and admired vehicle styling for decades. Seminal Italian vehicle design moments have included the stylish Zagato-bodied 1930s Alfa Romeo 1750 GSs and Touring 8Cs, Pininfarina’s widely respected and influential 1947 Cisitalia 202, plus later classics as diverse as the Ferrari 250 GTO, Giugairo’s Fiat Panda and elegant Pininfarina Peugeot 406 Coupe.

In the vital Export or Die era of the British Motor industry post-war – the largest vehicle exporter on the planet in the 1950s – Britain’s car makers popped out some worthy but staid machines, benefitting from sound engineering and quality, but with grey porridge’ designs that lacked a certain style or flair.   

When paying a formal visit to BMC’s styling studio at Austin’s Longbridge drawing office in the mid-1950s, for example, none other than H.R.H Prince Philip remarked to the motoring giant’s eager hosts proudly giving him a privileged sneak peek of their planned future family saloon cars, that the models were too staid and unadventurous, recommending that BMC goes to the celebrated Italian designers to style attractive and appealing cars. BMC took note and acted on Prince Philip’s shrewd advise. They commissioned Pininfarina of Turin to design a number of important future models. These included the influential truncated-tail Austin A40 that set the two-box pattern and profile for today’s popular hatchbacks, years before such machines existed. Pininfarina was also tasked with styling the sensible upper-medium-range salons of 1959, these successful Austin Cambridge/Morris Oxford family models collectively known as the Farina cars. The car that dominated Britain’s new car sales throughout the 1960s – the Austin-Morris 1100-1300 range – also enjoyed that crisp, modern styling Pininfarina excelled at.  

Beyond BMC and Pininfarina, a wide variety of other British car makers have beaten a path to the doors of Italy’s finest vehicle designers and studios for many years; from the late 1950s Meadows Fiskey microcars, though to Triumph, AC, Aston Martin, and even Rolls-Royce.

Here are ten prime examples of British cars, in no particular order, all dressed in sharp Italian suits. There is considerably more detail given on each machine (plus many others) in Chris Rees’ highly-recommended Encyclopaedia Britalicar, a steal at £48 for all real car lovers.

1960 Gordon-Keeble GK1 by Bertone

Originally unveiled at the 1960 Geneva Salon as a classy 2+2 GT design exercise, commissioned by John Gordon from the ashes of his failed Peerless GT (later Warwick GT), the Gordon was a gorgeous stop-dead-in-your-tracks Chevrolet V8-powered coupe, the first public project designed by a young Gioetti Giugairo, then working for Bertone.

Pioneering slanted double headlamps on a British car (as also later used to great effect on the Triumph Vitesse, Bentley S3 Continental MPW, AEC double decker bus, etc.) the first production Gordon did not appear for another four years, by which time its name had been changed to Gordon-Keeble. Using the previous Peerless/Warwick tubular underpinnings as its base, the glorious Bertone design was mercifully retained, with GRP coachwork hiding a 5.3-litre GM lump.  Very keenly priced, the 140mph GK1 could have easily rivalled the more established Aston Martin DB5, with equally sharp styling, but the Gordon-Keeble marque was a new and unknown quantity with no dealer network and the promise of export sales never transpiring. Just 99 GK1s were built at Gordon-Keeble’s ex-Supermarine Spitfire factory at Southampton Airport, with a lack of cash flow leading to the Company’s premature demise.

1960 Bristol 406 S by Zagato

No sooner had the very first Bristol 400 car been revealed in 1946 with its own advanced separate chassis and initially obvious pre-war BMW roots than a brace of the celebrated Italian coach builders and stylists descended on Bristol to clothe the new model’s sturdy and capable separate platform with elegant Italianate body styles. Pininfarina and Touring of Milan were quick to create desirable alternative coachwork for the Bristol 400 and 401 models, with Viotti created a one-off drop head 406 for Peter Sellers, and the daring Zagato trying its hand at some striking 404 and 406-based GT coupes, the latter of which, the desirable 406 of 1960, was dressed in a choice of two distinct GT body styles; a smart three-box coupe with long bonnet, plus a rakish lowered S model that ultimately lead to the creation of the now-legendary Aston Martin DB4 GTZ, which the then Newport Pagnell sportscar maker commissioned Zagato to create as soon as it had seen the Bristol 406 S. Bristol revived its Zagato connections in the mid-1970s with its more angular 412/Beaufighter semi-targa/drop head models.

1963 Aston Martin DB5 by Touring of Milan

Though many enthusiasts might argue that the Bristol-inspired Zagato Aston Martin DB4 GTZ remains the marque’s most beautiful car to-date, the DB5 (plus its snub-fronted DB4 predecessor and subsequent extended-tail DB6) are arguably the most revered and instantly identifiable of all Aston Martins.

Styled by Touring of Milan, employing its complex Superleggera lightweight body construction system of hollow steel former tubes, the sensational Italian design of the 1963-65 DB5 soon shot the model (and marque) to fame globally when James Bond (played by the definitive 007, Sean Connery) first drove a clever gadget-laden metallic silver coupe example in the film Goldfinger. This made (and continues to make), the DB5 the most familiar and sought of all the Aston Martins, with the model making frequent later appearances in subsequent Bond movies, leading to Aston Martin itself even building a very limited run of commemorative 007 DB5 Continuation models, complete with gadgets such as a boot-mounted foldaway gun fire shield, plus revolving license plates.

1967 BMC 1800 Aerodinamica by Pininfarina

When BMC tasked Pininfarina with designing its new upper-medium family saloon, the innovative but bloated Austin 1800, the famous Turin styling studio faced quite a challenge as the 1800’s front-wheel-drive packaging (as defined by Alec Issigonis) constrained the designer’s creativity. The car had to clearly resemble its smaller BMC ADO16 sibling (the best-selling Austin-Morris 1100), but it wide grille and truncated rear end didn’t translate so effectively to a larger vehicle format. 

Once the 1800 had been launched, Pininfarina revisited its capable and capacious platform to create a hugely influential one-off prototype; the smooth BMC 1800 Berlina Aerodinamica of 1967. As can be read in one of my older Anoraks this sublime Pininfarina prototype heavily influenced later outstanding production saloon cars, including the Citroen CX (and smaller GS), plus the Rover SD1 and Berlina/Saloon derivatives of Lancia’s two-box Beta and Gamma, both of which were ironically also styled by Pininfarina.

1960 Triumph TR3A Italia by Vignale

Looking far more Italian than English, this attractive Michelotti-styled (and Vignale-built) Triumph was understandably chosen by Chris Rees as the lead image for the cover of his excellent encyclopaedia. Resembling a scaled-down and more affordable Maserati 3500 GT, the sticking TR3A-based Italia formed part of an extensive portfolio of Triumph car models designed by Michelotti, from the Herald and sporting TR4 onwards (including the iconic Triumph Dolomite, Spitfire/GT6 duo, 2000 and Stag models). Built in LHD form only, and never officially sold in the UK, the beautiful Italia has now become a much-prized collectors’ classic.

1966 AC 428 by Frua

Following its outstanding work on the Maserati Mistrale (plus various Glas and Renault coupes), when Thames Ditton-based AC Cars looked for a more elegant and subtle solution to clothing its fierce 427 Cobra chassis, it selected Frua for the work.

The rare and expensive 428 was the end result. Closely resembling the Maserati Mistrale, though sharing no common coachwork, the AC had an eight-year career, the model’s chassis assembled in Surrey, before being dispatched to Italy for Frua to fit the svelte coupe and convertible bodywork and then retiring the car to the UK for final build. This long-winded construction method made the AC 428 a very rare machine, with just 80 examples made, each one priced above its rival Aston Martin, Jensen or Bristol rivals.

1966 Fissore Elva GT 160

Specialist English sports car maker Elva underwent many complex management changes in the mid-1960s, resulting in Trojan acquiring the firm and aligning it with McLaren competition cars.

At the 1966 Turin Motor Show, small Italian coach builder Fissore presented a shape and ultra-modern BMW-powered mid-engined GT closed-coupled coupe, the striking Elva GT 160. Actually designed by an Englishman working for Fissore – Trevor Fiore (his actual surname being Frost, which he changed to Fiore to sound more Italian!). Fiore also styled the clean Trident coupe and convertible prototypes for TVR whilst at Fiore (Trident later become a marque in its own right, retaining his razor-edged design), plus an appealing stillborn Lea Francis. Despite great promise, sadly just three Elva GT 160s were made, its demise caused by never-ending Trojan/Elva management changes. A tragic lost opportunity.

1990 Jaguar Kensington by ItalDesign

The aptly-named Kensington was a stylistic development of the high-status saloon, featuring Jaguar’s typical exterior design traits. The creation of the gifted Giotta Giugairo’s ItalDesign studio, the basis of the Kensington began life as his submission to design the eventual new Jaguar XJ (XJ40).

Jaguar rejected his proposal for a less-balance in-house creation, so rather than let a perfectly good creation go to waste, after displaying his re-worked Jaguar at the 1990 Geneva Salon, Giugairo sold the design to Daewoo in South Korea, this would-be leaping cat eventually morphing into the handsome Leganza as Daewoo’s range-topping executive saloon.

1974 Innocenti Mini by Bertone

Improving on near-perfection is always a tough call, but Marcello Gandini of Bertone (the author of such celebrated poster wall cars as the Lamborghini Countach, Lancia Stratos and Alfa Romeo Montreal) almost managed it in 1974 with his update of the legendary BMC/BL Mini for Leyland’s Italian subsidiary; Innocenti.

Using the Mini’s famous underpinnings as a base, Gandini/Bertone brought the Mini concept bang up to date for the mid-1970s with the delightful boxy but small three-door hatchback Innocenti Mini 90/120 SL series. Denied the British market, but sold alongside the original Issigonis Mini via British Leyland dealers throughout Continental Europe, the Innocenti Mini hatch helped to generate fresh interest and business for BL for many years, the later versions of this unusually long-lived model switching Mini A-Series engines for Daihatsu-power, this adding welcome five-speed gearboxes and turbo charging. Renamed the Mini Tri and ultimately Small, this charming compact urban Innocenti hatchback continued in production until the 1990s.

1967 Rover 2000 TCZ by Zagato

A ‘sensible’ Rover 2000 P6 executive saloon might seem an unusual choice on which to base a stylish aerodynamic coupe, yet this is precisely what Milan coachbuilder Zagato did for one of its stand-out show cars for the 1967 London and Turin Motor Shows. 

Styled by the talented Ercole Spada, the Zagato designer accredited with the not dissimilar Alfa Romeo 105-Series Junior Zagato and seminal TZ1 and TZ2, plus the Lancia Fulvia Sport Zagato, the Rover 2000 TCZ shared a similar profile with its forward-slopping nose and high, dramatically truncated tail.

Despite a very positive response to the TCZ prototypes, staid Rover appreciated the extra publicity this dramatic coupe generated, but never had any plans to produce the car.