Time to take it easy?
Urban areas are slowly but surely becoming 20mph zones, and motorways and main roads are guarded by cameras that mean even slight concentration lapses can get you in trouble.
What is a classic car enthusiast to do? Grab a placard and join a frontline protest? Trailer your pride and joy to track days or indoor shows?
Or – maybe – own a classic car that actually likes the slow life and was never meant to react to ‘flooring it’ in the first place.
And, as a bonus, it means you can enjoy the passing scenery more.
With that in mind, here are 24 of the lowest-top-speed classic cars, starting with the one with the most modest top speed.
We might have scoffed at these once, but now they’re coming into their own…
1. 1974 Zagato Zele 1000 – 25mph
A tiny electric car from the least likely of Italian sources, the upright Zagato Zele was actually miles ahead of its time, and if you wanted a zero-emission two-seater for the city then here it was to buy, rather than just ogle at a motor show.
It was quite likely the very slowest four-wheeled car offered in the post-war period (sold in the UK by Bristol Cars and in the USA by Elcar), with a fit person generally able to run faster than a Zele could move flat-out.
A Marelli industrial electric motor drew power from a bank of four 12V batteries, with a maximum range of 37 miles.
In the first two years, 500 were sold, helping keep the Milan coachbuilder solvent.
2. 1948 Citroën 2CV – 41mph
“Design me a car to carry two people and 50 kilos of potatoes at 60kph, using no more than 3 litres of fuel per 100km… Let it be disgustingly economical.” So said Pierre Boulanger, Citroën’s 1930s managing director, when laying out his vision for the 2CV.
That meant he wanted those potatoes at 37mph, and so the 2CV made do with 9bhp of power, turning the front wheels from a 375cc air-cooled two-cylinder engine.
It was the slowest conventional car at the 1948 Paris motor show, where it made its startling debut.
That launch was actually eight years late, because the Second World War had got in the way, yet in fact the 2CV was more relevant than ever in those austere times, and its corrugated countenance and fabric roof reflected that.
Long-travel suspension and low-pressure tyres helped it make snail-like progress across France’s rutted backwaters.
3. 1976 Enfield 8000 – 48mph
With a range of around 40 miles and almost a ton of lead-acid batteries that took 10 or more hours to fully charge, the Enfield 8000 is bound to look primitive in comparison with its present-day contemporaries.
But at the time it went on sale it was Britain’s most ambitious attempt at a production electric car.
The Enfield was backed by a Greek shipping multi-millionaire’s money to chase a contract from Britain’s Electricity Council to supply a fleet of 60 electric city cars for long-term evaluation.
The drivetrain came from a Lansing Bagnall forklift truck, and racing-car designers created its tubular spaceframe, wind-cheating aluminium body panels and even an ability to withstand a 30mph frontal crash.
Trying to achieve its claimed top speed tended to use power rapidly, trashing the claimed 40mph range which, on very cold days, was only about 15 miles!
Just 55 were sold to private buyers.
4. 1955 BMW Isetta 300 – 49mph
The Isetta ‘bubble car’ design originated in Italy in 1953, where Iso planned it as a step up from a two-wheeler.
It provided city transport with weather protection and four wheels, the rear two positioned just 19in apart, and a single door forming the car’s entire frontage, hinged at one side.
Despite carrying two adults and a child, this ‘cabin scooter’ wasn’t very popular, until BMW took the project over.
The German version had BMW’s 295cc, 13bhp ’bike engine, while an Isetta built in Britain was converted into a three-wheeler, and sold a rather astonishing 30,000.
They all kept the rain off, for sure, but a driver could never be in a hurry.
‘The human factor is really the one which would normally limit the car to local or suburban use,’ said The Motor magazine in 1957. ‘Gentle cruising, or main road work with a following wind, are comparatively restful, but a strong headwind has a pronounced effect on performance, and the noise rises accordingly’.
5. 1947 Jowett Bradford – 53mph
Fifty-three miles-per-hour would be frankly unbearable in this antique van-with-windows, and there will be few owners today who’ve ever put themselves through this ordeal.
The Jowett Bradford was essentially a 1932 design that staged a comeback after the Second World War, offering super-basic transport with, thanks to cart springs front and back, precious little comfort.
Moreover, the brakes were mechanical and the 1-litre flat-twin engine noisy and gutless, although maybe surprisingly there was synchromesh on all three gears.
The Bradford normally came as a van or pick-up, but the four-seater Utility estate car sold quite well in the penny-pinching 1940s. And it couldn’t really be simpler to run.
6. 1957 Fiat 600 Multipla – 55mph
Among 1950s Fiats, it’s usually the Nuova 500 of 1957 that gets namechecked for its inertia, and indeed that tiny car is 1mph slower at its limit than this Multipla of the same era.
Yet the Multipla really had its work cut out. The original 633cc four-cylinder, water-cooled engine had a lot more bulk to propel than in the standard 600, in terms of heavy metal and glass.
And as the Multipla was also sold as a five-seater and in taxi specification, a full complement of occupants really blunted its already modest urge.
Conversely, with just the driver sitting, forward-control as in a lorry, at the wheel, the ride could be a bit choppy, and leisurely gearchanges tended to suit the wafty gearlever.
7. 1958 DAF 600 – 57mph
It’s a quirky period piece today, but 1950s car enthusiasts didn’t have much time for this neat little saloon from The Netherlands.
It seemed destined to kill driving pleasure by turning all small cars automatic. The Variomatic continuously variable transmission system meant a clutch wasn’t needed, so the dream of ‘two-pedal’ motoring had finally arrived at an affordable price.
The first cars had DAF’s own 600cc, air-cooled, flat-twin-cylinder engine giving power through the rubber-belt Variomatic to the back wheels.
Just three years after launch the capacity was upgraded to 746cc, but it was still not a fast car.
8. 1957 Berkeley Sports – 58mph
In a motoring world before the Austin-Healey Sprite, there were several attempts to produce an affordable small sports car.
This was one of the most ingenious, a co-production between designer Lawrence Bond and Bedfordshire caravan tycoon Charles Panter.
Visual inspiration may have come from Ferrari, but to give the cute two-seater some legs the entrepreneurs turned to ’bikes, fitting the Berkeley first with an Anzani 322cc twin-cyliner unit and then, from 1957, an Excelsior motor.
These drove the front wheels by chains, and there was a three- and later four-speed motorcycle-type gearbox.
The structure was a clever, three-piece plastic monocoque, but the lightweight build couldn’t overcome some of the inherent crudities of the ’bike bits.
Still, with the roof down, the car didn’t feel as slow as it really was…
9. 1949 Ford Anglia – 59mph
This is another example of an economy car long past its sell-by date that thrived in the post-war period.
In essence, the Ford Anglia was little different from the marque’s 1930s Y-type 8hp, with its all-round leaf-spring suspension and mechanical braking system. Only the sloping grille was a new feature.
Neither refined nor comfortable, it nevertheless provided cheap family transport at a time when most journeys were short and unhurried.
The sidevalve engine had limited lung capacity, but it was easy to work on, and those petrol coupons could have been dispensed stingily, because 35mph was easily possible.
10. 1955 Land-Rover 107 Station Wagon – 59mph
The basic Land-Rover had been around for seven years and had evolved into this, the ultimate Series One passenger-carrying edition: a 107in long-wheelbase, five-door, factory-produced station wagon that could be used as anything from a building site crew bus to a tool for scything its way through a jungle with Oxbridge students inside.
It wasn’t just this Landie’s coal-bunker aerodynamics that held it back from achieving 60mph; it now sported a 2-litre petrol engine in its truck-like chassis, but everything about it was intended for heavy mud-plugging, with a focus on torque and traction, on-road eagerness a distant third.
The LWB station wagon also had 12 seats, remember, so human cargo could act as an anchor, too.
11. 1954 Volkswagen Microbus – 59mph
A slightly bigger (1192 versus 1131cc) power unit appeared in the Volkswagen Transporter van in 1954, the Type 2 that had followed the original Beetle-style Type 1 saloon on to German roads in 1949.
The upgrade did little to improve overall speed – taking a 0-60mph acceleration reading was impossible – but it didn’t matter, because by then the VW van already had a fantastic reputation for reliability.
The Microbus, with its opening twin barn doors, was a popular basis for campervans, and that made a crucial difference.
After a legal test case in 1956, a ‘motor caravan’ was declared not to be a commercial vehicle, freeing it from the 30mph speed restriction that then applied to vans.
12. 1948 Renault 4CV – 60mph
The Renault 4CV was an awful lot faster than a 2CV, but still very sluggish by today’s standards – and not a car ideally suited to the autoroute, because this model’s cruising speed is way below its paltry maximum.
None of this stopped the 4CV from becoming a big hit in France. Its water-cooled four-cylinder engine was in its sloping tail and all 4CVs came with four doors.
With more than the 18bhp available, the rear weight bias might have given tricky handling (later versions could be a bit lethal), but it was too feeble for that.
All-round independent suspension made it comfortable, rack-and-pinion steering meant it felt precise.
13. 1949 Morris Minor Tourer – 61mph
This is a car that never really made it in San Francisco or the French Alps, or anywhere else where there were steep hills to tackle.
Despite being an accomplished design, the Morris Minor’s early days were hampered by an old sidevalve engine that made it feel anything but athletic.
In 1952, a Series II came along with the 803cc overhead-valve motor from the Austin A30, but it wasn’t until the 1956 arrival of the Minor 1000 that skins on rice puddings could start to be dislodged.
The rare and desirable early Tourer at least distracts from the overtaking traffic with its wind-in-the-hair character.
14. 1951 Vauxhall Wyvern E-series – 62mph
The E-series Wyvern and Velox were Vauxhall’s giant stride into the future in 1951, not only adopting the latest Chevrolet-influenced styling from Detroit, but offering it in chassis-free monocoque bodies that were a quantum leap in refinement, with independent front suspension.
The four-cylinder Wyvern was the six-cylinder Velox’s twin, but with an initial 35bhp it was woefully underpowered for the job of hauling the heavily engineered new saloon around.
After just one year the engine was worked over to give a 14% power hike, yet even then the top speed was just 72mph. Thank goodness motorways didn’t exist yet…
15. 1989 Mahindra Indian Chief – 65mph
Mahindra & Mahindra of Mumbai had been building Jeeps under licence since 1949, primarily for domestic consumption.
Things changed after 1987 when the Jeep CJ was replaced by the Wrangler in the US, and exports of the Mahindra ‘Jeep’ could then begin.
The model that emerged was the MM540, equipped with a Peugeot-designed 2.1-litre diesel engine, and it was sold in the UK very briefly as the Mahindra Indian Chief.
The marketing tacitly avoided any performance figures, but the near-authentic WW2 driving experience, while effective across-country, didn’t encourage haste of any kind.
16. 1958 Mercedes-Benz 180D – 68mph
British motorists did suffer the agonising 66mph of the Standard Vanguard Phase II diesel…
But the only diesel-powered car really worth considering in the 1950s came from Mercedes-Benz, and was this 2-litre version of the so-called ‘Ponton’ saloon.
It was a very slow car, although the many taxi drivers who chose one for reasons of fuel economy were content with its slothful urge.
One of these 180Ds was discovered in the USA in 1957 with 1.2m miles on its clock, chugging it into The Guinness Book of Records as the world’s most durable car.
17. 1947 Sunbeam-Talbot Ten – 68mph
The Ten was reintroduced after the Second World War, having been a brand-new car in 1938.
Behind its flowing and rakish looks, though, was the humble and old-fashioned underpinnings of the equivalent Hillman Minx, and that meant mechanical brakes, solid axles and a sidevalve 1.2-litre engine that did not foster enthusiastic driving.
The pretty body and luxuriously trimmed cabin added extra weight to a separate frame that was already old-school.
It was described as a ‘sports’ saloon, and the chassis was underslung at the back for lower lines (and scraping the ground) but it was always more croquet than hockey…
18. 1949 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith – 69mph
It seems scarcely believable that a prestige car with a 4.2-litre straight-six would not be able to meet the British national speed limit of today.
You could have looked elsewhere, but Daimler’s equivalent, the DE27, was similarly lumbering, with a best-ever road-test top speed of 81mph.
These cars were no mechanical greyhounds, of course, but the main drag on their speeds was the corpulent heft of the limousine coachwork that their vast chassis carried.
Every car was bespoke, and the buyers didn’t hold back on the walnut, leather, padding or gadgets for the sake of a few more mph.
19. 1955 Toyota Toyopet Crown – 72mph
This was quite a heavy machine for a 1.5-litre engine producing just 48bhp to haul along, but Toyota’s engineers thought it was robust enough, especially after one put in a spirited showing as the first Japanese-built car to complete the 10,000-mile round-Australia Mobilgas Trial in 1957.
The six-seater Crown, however, had a terrible time on US roads in an ill-judged Californian launch in 1957.
Any assault on its lamentable top speed on smooth freeway tarmac exposed engine power draining away, shuddering vibrations and cracking components. It forced Toyota to start again, from scratch.
20. 1949 MG TC – 73mph
Is it sacrilege to include an all-time classic MG here? Well, its low top speed is not for harsh criticism, and its 0-60mph time of 22 secs was okay for its day.
Everything about the MG TC was from the mid-1930s, and aerodynamics just do not apply here.
Not only that, but contemporary rivals were little quicker – the 1949 Singer Nine Roadster was out of puff at 70mph.
Today, in a world of drastically reduced speed limits, however, the simple, slow-burn pleasures of the MG TC come into their own.
21. 1974 Dacia Duster – 74mph
There wasn’t much around in the 1980s to rival this Romanian off-roader on several fronts.
For a start, it’s long been a paid-up member of the Bad Car Club, although for a time in the 1980s when it was sold in the UK it was a grimly able four-wheel-drive utility vehicle from the state-owned ARO, or Automobil Romanesc.
Next come its awful dynamics and the lamentable build quality around its ladder-frame chassis, rust-prone panels, selectable four-wheel drive, and 65bhp 1.4-litre engine and drivetrain from the Renault 12.
Having said all that(!), it cost about 40% less than the most basic Landie…
And then, of course, there was the Dacia’s tortoise-like urge, with a 22-sec meander to 60mph identical to that of the MG TC we’ve just looked at.
22. 1954 Panhard Dyna Z – 75mph
Panhard claimed 80mph, but independent tests found this incredible six-seater saloon could realistically be expected to do 75.
So what, you might reasonably ask? Well it did that using an air-cooled, horizontally opposed, twin-cylinder engine of just 845cc.
From a designer’s viewpoint, the Dyna Z was a problem-solver’s delight. An all-aluminium structure with an all-alloy engine kept weight low, and with a coefficient of drag of just 0.26Cd, it was much more slippery even than the famed 0.30 Audi 100 of almost 40 years later.
Therefore it could zip along happily while still delivering 40mpg.
23. 1982 Suzuki Alto FX Auto – 78mph
You’ll have a hard job finding one of these today outside Japan, but this Alto was sold in the UK from 1983.
And, while hardly setting the small-car market alight, it held a unique position as the smallest fully automatic car you could buy.
For that you got a tiny but well-made five-door hatchback that could only do 78mph but, with its 796cc three-cylinder engine, was a no-brainer around town with its two-speed auto.
At the time, no one could imagine the mark this Alto would leave on the global car industry; as manufactured by Maruti, it became the first decent affordable car to find massive success in India.
24. 1953 Daimler Conquest – 81mph
In this review of characterful classic torpor, we coast to a halt just beyond 80mph with a model that had no right, really, to associate itself with the label ‘sports saloon’.
For a 2.4-litre six-cylinder compact, performance was pathetic.
This was down to the short-stroke design of its 75bhp engine, made from solid iron and equipped with a single carburettor.
The preselector gearbox was another part of its stately, as opposed to swift, progress.
An aluminium head and twin carbs transformed it into the 101bhp Conquest Century, which took to the saloon-car-racing circuit, but was never a Jaguar-beater.
Still, for today and the future of classic car use, the meek regular Conquest will do just fine!
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