In the 1990s Alfa Romeo was digging itself out of a financial hole as red as the colour of its iconic, but slow selling cars. The 155 had captured the minds if not the hearts of the Alfisti. If that car were to be given a report card, it would probably be “must try harder”. Well, Alfa certainly did that with the 156. It’s a car of legend and brought Alfa Romeo back from the brink. Where did the iconic shape come from, did Alfa’s famous quality problems torpedo sales, and what other cars did it spawn?

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It’s hard to believe the Lancia Delta was originally envisioned as an upmarket medium-size hatchback, something to compete with BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Its legacy is anything but that – its maybe the definitive hot hatch of the 1980s that had 6 World Rally Championships trophies to back it up. Lancia have tried to recreate the Delta magic twice, but fans still talk about the original in hushed tones. Why did Lancia want to make a luxury hatchback in the first place? Why did a twist of fate catapult the Delta to become a legend in motorsport? Why is a new Delta running around rally circuits in 2023 and is a new Delta on the way?

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The 405 arrived at a time when Peugeot were on a roll with cars like the 205, and it certainly proved popular with an unforgettable UK advert. And surprisingly as of making this video, various incarnations of the 405 are still being produced! Why was the 405, a replacement of the 305 not called the 306? Why was it so lauded in the USA but then pulled from the market only three years later? And just why and where is it still being made?

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Why did the XJ220, a car named because it was expected to go 220mph (354 km/h) only manage 212mph (342 km/h)? Why did the boss of TWR go white when he first heard of it? And why did it both win and not win the 24-hour race of Le Mans?

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Full interview with Nick: https://youtu.be/18BNEm38Z2s

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I do YouTube community polls from time to time where you get to choose the subject of an upcoming video, and in a recent poll the Aston Martin Lagonda won with 30% of the vote, but a video on Proton Cars got 29% so it would be a crying shame if I didn’t also do that one, especially as you seemed to like the video on Daewoo. I remember Proton making a splash in the UK in the late 80s with the cheap and cheerful Saga, but then it seemed to disappear. Well, there’s a lot more to Proton than just that! They bought Lotus, and surprisingly were still selling cars in the UK in 2016, although no one probably realised it and certainly no one was buying the cars. Why did Proton try exporting around the world for decades while selling almost no cars, and what are they doing now?

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A few weeks ago I was driving along the motorway in Britain and saw a van with TVR on the side of it might have been TWR, and it went by so quickly that I missed it, but it got me thinking about both TVR and TWR, and you’ve asked for videos about both of these car companies in the past so I thought it might be fun to a mashup where I go through the histories of both TVR and TWR together, sort of chronologically. So, let's find out together where TVR got its name, what the heck happened with the Russian investment in the 2000s and what happened to TWR.

Links to know more about blood pressure:

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Chart of the top 10 vehicle manufacturers in the USA from 1961 to 2022.

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Opus One by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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If you’re not aware, the Front-end Bra or Car Bra is a, usually, vinyl cover that goes on the front of a car. Drivers generally fit them to stop rock chips, bugs or other detritus from the road damaging the paintwork on their treasured possession. They seem to be more popular in North America, and were quite a thing in the 80s and 90s. But today they’re getting rarer and rarer. Why was that?

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Sometimes you look at a concept and just wonder, why did they think this would be a good idea? The Italdesign Machimoto seemed to be a car with all the disadvantages of a motorcycle with none of the benefits. But it was an iteration of several designs that Italdesign, and Volkswagen, thought could be the future of automotive design, and maybe even the next Golf.

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I've teamed up with Neil from the RMC channel (@RMCRetro) to look at 5 driving games and the cars behind them.

Take a look at the RMC channel here: www.youtube.com/RMC-Retro

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