1958 Sunbeam Rapier Series II Coupe de Sport

"The exciting new Sunbeam was born on the roaring straight-aways and tortuous turns of continental rallies and the world-famous Mille Miglia Road Race. British craftsmen took this success story of European racing and added the superb British touch. The result: family-car comfort coupled with brilliant sports-car performance – the new Sunbeam! Internationally-renowned drivers select the Sunbeam as their personal car. Americans choose it as a symbol of an exciting new era in motoring. Step into the bright, exciting world of sports car fun. Test-drive the incomparable Sunbeam at your Hillman/Sunbeam dealer's today!"

Just by reading the catalog poetry, one would certainly imagine that it describes something much bigger and more powerful than this tiny English sportscar. But while in America it was all power and style in the late 50s, postwar motoring in Europe still was a fair bit more frugal. And among other tiny boxes, the Sunbeam Rapier sure was quite a looker.

The Sunbeam Rapier has its roots in the Rootes Group, one of the British postwar car conglomerates that united different brand names under one roof. It was essentially a coupe version of the Hillman Minx. What made the Sunbeam interesting among other offers was the sporting setup, developed and proven through Sunbeam's successful involvement in motorsport.

As it was common practice in England at the time, the little Sunbeam was built in a lot of versions, from the Series I in 1956 through the Series V in 1965. The Series II, built from February 1958 through summer 1959 and pictured here, was the first full facelift. Incidentally, the roofline, the outward pointing tailfins and the three-piece front grille made the car look like a midget version of Studebaker's Loewy Coupes. Technically, the Rapier Series II shined with a bigger "Rallyemaster" engine, now sporting 73 bhp, almost ten more than in the Series I. A floor mounted shifter, improved steering and bigger front brakes completed the sporting overhaul, and more than 15,000 customers fell in love with the tiny sportscar.

Every new Sunbeam Rapier had been travelling quite a few miles before even arriving at the dealer's: the bodies were stamped at Pressed Steel Company Ltd. in Cowley near Oxford, then shipped to Thrupp & Marberly Coachbuilders in Cricklewood near London to be painted and trimmed, and then shipped again to Ryton-on-Dunsmore near Coventry, where the final assembly took place in the Rootes main assembly plant. What sounds like complete madness, was a not very uncommon way of building cars in postwar UK to keep smaller factories busy. It's rather surprising that the Sunbeam was renown for its sound build quality, despite this complicated assembly process.

1951 Packard Patrician 400 Sedan

"The way people are crowding into our showrooms to see the new 1951 Packard, you'd think they had never seen a new car before! And they haven't! Never a car like this one! Your first glance tells you why Hollywood's famed Society of Motion Picture Art Directors selected the 1951 Packard as the most beautiful car of the year. And so practical, too — from the new low bonnet and Guide-line fenders (for safer parking and passing) to the new giant luggage compartment! You'll get another lasting thrill from the stunning new Fashion Forum interior. So amazingly roomy, so luxurious. Plus new visibility that changes your entire outlook! And what a joy it is to handle! Effortless steering — and effortless performance! New Packard Thunderbolt engines — teamed with Packard's exclusive Ultramatic Drive (now even finer for '51) — give you America's most advanced automatic motoring! Come drive this wonderful car!"

One of 9,001 built, this battered Packard Patrician from Havana has already lost all the chrome trim around its rear fenders. We think that this clean look makes the car actually look better than when it was new.

Packard entered the 50s with an all-new lineup, styled by chief stylist John Reinhart under supervision of Packard's styling director Ed Macauley. The cars looked reasonably modern and lean, compared to their more traditional predecessors. Although they certainly didn't stand out from the crowd, their styling was well in tune with Packard's conservative brand image. All in all, the 1951 Packards were good cars. Yet, their success should badly suffer from decisions that had been made much earlier.

Traditionally, Packard had been America's most prestigious car maker, essentially a "Rolls Royce of the Americas". In the 30s, Packard management decided to enter the medium priced car market, which by then was a reasonable choice because it helped Packard riding out the shockwaves of the Great Depression. A new entry-level "Packard Clipper" line, introduced in the late 30s, initially enjoyed a massive demand, but it ultimately eroded Packard's luxury image because more people could own a Packard now, rendering Packard ownership a less exclusive affair. Making things worse, the postwar Packards were based on the outwardly successful "Clipper-styling", and by 1951, all Packards literally looked the same: just a shorter wheelbase and different trim pieces discerned an entry-level Clipper now from the top-level Patrician. For Packard's wealthy regular clientele, this patently was a "no-go".

Over at GM, Cadillac happily filled the void that was left by Packard's erratic brand strategy: because there was no need to create production volume by offering lower-priced cars, Cadillac could concentrate just on their high-priced lineup, flaunting an ostentatious styling that was perfectly matching the general mindset of the decade. Thus, Cadillac soon became the number one luxury car maker in the US, leaving Packard far behind. With 100,000 cars in 1951, Packard still closely trailed Cadillac, and was outsold by just about 10,000 cars. Five years later, the picture was a different one: 154,577 Cadillacs versus 10,353 Packards – guess, who was winning!

1959 Pontiac Catalina Vista

"Clean  . . .  classic . . . completely right wherever you go! You can be fully as proud of your car as you are of your thrift when your driveway features a Catalina. Its distinctive, Bonneville-inspired styling is a masterpiece of good taste. Its new, low silhouette . . . Vista-Panoramic windshield . . . sweeping glass expense . . . and slim-line roof definitely mark you as the owner of America's Most Modern Car!"

Sporting no less than four tailfins, a "Flying Wing" roof with a huge wraparound rear window and abundant chrome trim, this "Wide-Track" Pontiac from Havana looks anything but frugal. Mind you, the Catalina was Pontiac's base model in 1959.

At the end of the decade, after some years of really sluggish sales, Pontiac rose like a phoenix from the ashes. General manager Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen, who was in charge of the division since 1956, presented the first lineup that was completely developed under his management. Now, his plan, to change Pontiac's brand image from a stuffy old man's brand towards America's performance car maker, began to pay off. Sales rose by more than 75%, boosting the division from sixth to fourth place in the annual industry ranking. The numbers were still not comparable to Pontiac's sales in the better years of 1955 or 1956, but it was an encouraging signal, nonetheless.

Ironically, Pontiac's success was quite simply built on raw power, rather than a refined strategy. When Bunkie Knudsen arrived at Pontiac in summer 1956, he instantly hired two well respected engineers: Pete Estes from Oldsmobile and John DeLorean (yes, that DeLorean) from Packard. These young petrolheads didn't loose time and went to work on raising Pontiac's performance figures, which Knudsen saw as a crucial step to attract younger buyers. By 1959, Pontiac offered "Tri-Power" carburetion and V-8 engines, sporting up to 345 horsepower. Adding the Pontiac-exclusive "Wide-Track" chassis with "Gyro-Level Ride" made these cars really hot performers. Consequently, Motor Trend Magazine awarded the Pontiac "Car of the Year".

Fortunately, all the power under the hood was backed up by a matching new design direction. The flamboyant Harley Earl styling of the 50s, still evident in Pontiac's 1957 and 1958 models, now gave way to a much leaner and crisper design which already shows a strong influence of Earl's eventual successor Bill Mitchell, who should lead GM into the 60s with his new "Linear Look" design philosophy.

1982 Land Rover Santana

"Outwardly, the Land-Rover has undergone no fundamental change over the years because its functional design and rugged construction have proved to be best-suited to the enormous diversity of jobs it is called upon to do. But mechanically, and in various other respects, it has been progressively developed to improve the breed and keep pace with the special and ever-growing needs of operators throughout the world."

Imagine any tough offroad setting in a remote place of the world, and you'll find essentially three vehicles with go-anywhere capabilities in the picture: the ubiquitous Jeep in all of its evolutionary stages, the Land Rover, or the Toyota Land Cruiser from Japan. In Cuba, too, there is no shortage of any of these vehicles.

Meet the Land Rover Santana, offspring of a dynasty of offroad cars from Great Britain. English by design, but with a Spanish heart, this Land Rover was fruit of a collaboration, license-built in Andalusia by "Metalúrgica de Santa Ana", hence the name Santana. It is, technically speaking, a Series III LWB, featuring a wheelbase of 109-inch (2769mm), as opposed to the 88-inch wheelbase of the SWB version.

Incidentally, the first prototype for the Landrover (written in one word or hyphenated through 1980, later as two words) was literally built on the chassis of a Willys Jeep in the spring of 1947. The production model, now based on a bespoke chassis, was presented in 1948 and became an immediate success. Customers appreciated its ruggedness and easy maintenance, which is one reason why the dependable Land Rover still is so widespread throughout the world. The other reason has to do with material shortages right after World War II: the Land Rover body panels are made from "Duralumin", which was much more expensive than steel, but easily accessible, because the British aircraft industry didn't build bombers by the thousands anymore. Because these aluminum panels don't rust, the Land Rover became famous for being a durable and almost indestructible mud-plugger.

Land Rover will stop producing the "Defender", the youngest embodiment of the original Landrover, in 2015. By then, the Land Rover has been built in essentially similar shape for more than 67 years, which is by far the longest production run of any automobile model worldwide.