Half a century later…
Some readers may be distressed to learn that 1976 is now 50 years ago.
We hope to offer you a little consolation by listing some of the many cars introduced in that year, which you may pretend you are too young to have known about at the time.
We have to draw a line somewhere, therefore we have a self-imposed, 25-car limit, which means that some respectable candidates didn’t make the cut, so apologies if you’re a fan of the Dodge Aspen.
The Aston Martin Lagonda is worth mentioning at this point because it was unveiled in 1976, but it won’t be considered again because the first customer deliveries didn’t happen until three years later.
We hope you enjoy this selection of 25 automotive newcomers from half a century ago – the cars are presented in alphabetical order.
1. Alfa Romeo Sprint
From its introduction in 1976, this attractive coupé was known as the Alfasud Sprint on account of it being a derivative of the innovative Alfasud which had been launched three years earlier, and featured front-wheel drive and a flat-four engine.
A 1983 facelift coincided with the end of Alfasud production, and from then on the coupé was marketed simply as the Sprint.
Unusually for the period, the Sprint (whichever name it went by) was always fitted with a five-speed gearbox, but the capacity of the engine rose considerably from the original 1286cc to 1712cc.
Sprint production lasted until 1989, which had the odd effect of making this sporty model longer-lived than the more mainstream one it was based on.
2. Audi 100
The Audi 100 entered its second generation in 1976, and a year later it was placed a creditable second (behind the Rover SD1 and ahead of the Ford Fiesta, both of which will be featured shortly) in the Europe-based Car of the Year Award.
Among other notable features, this was the first Audi ever fitted with a five-cylinder engine, in this case a 2144cc petrol unit, with a very much less powerful 1986cc diesel ‘five’ being added to the range in 1978.
Some 100s were branded as 200s, and the car was sold in North America as the Audi 5000.
The model was replaced in 1982 by the third in the line, which featured considerably more aerodynamic bodywork.
3. BMW 6 Series
BMW first used the 6 Series name for a two-door coupé which replaced the E9 range, whose members included the original 2800 CS and the 3.0 CSL homologation special.
Every 6 Series of the generation introduced in 1976 was powered by a straight-six engine, though capacities ranged from 2.8 to 3.5 litres.
The top model was known in Europe as the M635CSi, and is regarded as the first car in the M6 line.
BMW 6 Series production ended in 1989, and there was no direct replacement (unless you count the 8 Series which followed shortly afterwards), though the name was eventually brought back in the early 21st century.
4. Bristol 603
The 603 represented both a continuation of tradition and a change of emphasis in Bristol’s history.
The use of a Chrysler V8 wasn’t new (that had been happening for a decade and a half), but the styling was much less distinctive than that of previous models, and perhaps even ordinary, as if a Bristol owner wasn’t expected to worry about appearance as long as the car offered the expected level of luxury.
In fact, this style became the new normal, since it was carried over, with only minor changes, to later developments of the 603 called Britannia, Brigand and Blenheim.
Bristol certainly appears to have been satisfied with it, because production of the Blenheim continued until not long before the company went into administration in 2011.
5. Chrysler Valiant
The Australian Valiant started out as a locally assembled version of the US Plymouth Valiant (with a switch of marque name because Plymouth didn’t mean much on the other side of the planet), but long before 1976 it had become a region-specific model.
There were four generations, but within them new series were created on a more or less annual basis.
The version launched in 1976 was known as the CL, and was the second last of the final generation, technically very similar to the immediately preceding and succeeding CK and CM.
Manufactured until late 1978, the CL was also the last Valiant with a high-performance Charger derivative.
6. Citroën LN
The first Citroën to be introduced after the company had been acquired by Peugeot was almost guaranteed to anger Citroën enthusiasts.
From the very first glance it was apparent that this was simply the shortened, two-door version of the otherwise four-door Peugeot 104, though you would have to look very carefully (or listen not carefully at all) to find that it was powered by the 602cc, flat-twin engine used in, among others, the 2CV, rather than by the usual Peugeot four-cylinder unit.
In 1978, it became the LNA by means of replacing the 2CV unit with the 652cc twin found in the Citroën Visa.
Upmarket LNAs with Peugeot four-cylinder engines under their bonnets – and therefore simply 104s with Citroën badges – arrived in 1983, three years before the model was cancelled.
7. Ferrari 400
The 400 was only slightly more than an update of the 365GT4 2+2 introduced in 1972.
Its name revealed an increase in the approximate swept volume of each cylinder the V12 engine, which was now 401.93cc thanks to a lengthened stroke and gave a total capacity of 4823cc.
The power output also rose and, in a more surprising development, customers could specify a GM-sourced, three-speed automatic gearbox, though the 365’s five-speed manual was still available, too.
In 1979, the six Weber 38 DCOE carburettors were replaced with fuel injection and the car became the 400i, while in 1985 a further capacity increase to 4943cc resulted in the 412, which also received several styling revisions.
8. Fiat 147
The 147 was a version of the Fiat 127 built initially in Brazil but later in other South American countries, too.
While the 127 was predominantly a hatchback, the 147 was also available (for an admittedly brief period in the 1980s) as a two-door, three-box saloon called the Oggi, whose name translates both from the Brazilian national language of Portuguese and from Italian into the English word ‘today’.
Another non-commercial variant was the Panorama which, unlike the 127, had an estate body.
In 1979, the Fiat 147 became the first series-production car to be fuelled by ethanol, the result of a research and development programme which had begun three years earlier.
9. Ford Falcon
Very much like the Chrysler Valiant, the Australian Falcon started out as a repurposed American car but later became specific to its region, and was produced in several generations which each included several series.
The version introduced in 1976 was the XC, the third and last model of the third generation, and differing only slightly from the immediately preceding XB.
Produced until 1979, its styling made it look more different from the XB than it actually was, while new legislation regarding exhaust emissions forced a rethink of the available straight-six and V8 engines.
In 1977, competition-prepared versions of the Falcon GS500 hardtop coupé finished first and second in the 1000km race at Bathurst, a lap ahead of the nearest Holden Torana.
10. Ford Fiesta
With 50 years of hindsight, it seems natural that Ford would have a front-wheel-drive hatchback on sale in 1976, but in fact this was a kind of car the company had never previously attempted.
Known as Bobcat during the development process, it was going to be sold as the Bravo, but Henry Ford II preferred Fiesta, and had no difficulty obtaining permission to use that name from General Motors, which had previously used it for station-wagon versions of the Oldsmobile 88.
The engine, initially available with the curious capacities of 957cc and 1117cc, was called Valencia, but it was simply the well-established Kent unit adapted for transverse application in the Fiesta.
Ford enlarged it to 1.3 litres for the Supersport, and then to 1.6 litres for the XR2, the only hot hatch of the Fiesta’s first generation.
11. Holden HX
The HX was not so much an individual model as a whole range of them, derived from the HJ which was itself derived from the HQ launched in 1971.
Saloons and estates were known, in ascending order of price and equipment levels, as the Belmont, Kingswood (pictured) and Premier, and there was also a performance-oriented Monaro GTS and a range of commercial vehicles.
Following GM Australia’s usual practice at the time, a more luxurious, long-wheelbase HX was marketed as the Statesman rather than as a Holden.
The engines – a 3.3-litre straight-six, as well as V8s of 4.2 and 5 litres – were affected by the 1976 introduction of stricter emissions regulations.
As the result of yet another update, the HX was discontinued after not much more than a year, when it was replaced by the HZ.
12. Honda Accord
In its original, 1976 form, the first-generation Honda Accord was a three-door hatchback one size up from the Civic, and powered by a 1.6-litre engine whose Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion system made its exhaust emissions favourable at a time when that subject had become very important in the motoring world.
The car had front-wheel drive and, in its early days, either a five-speed manual gearbox or Honda’s two-speed, semi-automatic transmission.
Later developments included the introduction of a four-door saloon body, a conventional three-speed automatic and a rise in engine capacity to 1.8 litres.
The second Accord came along in 1981, and became the first Honda produced at the company’s factory in Marysville, Ohio, in the USA.
13. Lamborghini Silhouette
Despite being styled quite differently, the Lamborghini Silhouette was a close relative of the Urraco launched in 1972.
The two cars essentially shared a chassis, and the V8 engine, mounted transversely across the rear axle, had a capacity of 3 litres, as it did in the Urraco P300.
The chassis had to be adapted for the new model, though, because the Silhouette was Lamborghini’s first series-production convertible (with a removable ‘targa’ roof panel), and some strengthening was required to regain some of the lost torsional rigidity.
A total of 52 Silhouettes, 12 of them with right-hand drive, were built before production came to an end in 1979.
14. Lancia Gamma
The 1976 Gamma was the second Lancia of that name, the first having been produced briefly in 1910.
The later version was offered both as a four-door saloon and a short-wheelbase, two-door coupé, though their profiles slightly suggested that those names might easily have been swapped over, the saloon being a fastback and the coupé having a three-box design.
In each case, the usual engine was a 2.5-litre flat-four, though Lancia also made a 2-litre derivative available in Italy to bring the Gamma below a significant tax threshold.
Very much a prestige model rather than transport for the masses, the Lancia Gamma was discontinued in 1984 after only around 22,000 examples had been built.
15. Lotus Esprit
A prominent role (partly as a submarine) in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me brought the Lotus Esprit to widespread public view in 1977, but it was already an eye-catching and thought-provoking car when it went on sale the year before.
Giorgetto Giugiaro’s sharp-lined bodywork certainly drew attention, and the mid-mounted, 2-litre, 16-valve engine was something quite out of the ordinary for a British sports car, even though it had already been fitted (in a more conventional position up front) to the Jensen-Healey.
With many developments, including turbocharging, some restyling and a V8 engine, the Esprit would remain in production for more than a quarter of a century, making it the longest-lived of all production Lotus cars.
16. Maserati Kyalami
Named after the race circuit in South Africa that hosted Maserati’s final Grand Prix win, the Kyalami was the first Maserati to go on sale after the marque had been acquired by Alejandro de Tomaso, and bore a strong resemblance to the existing De Tomaso Longchamp.
There were, however, several differences, not least the fact that the V8 in the Kyalami was Maserati’s own (and available with capacities of 4.2 or 4.9 litres) rather than, as with the Longchamp, the 5.8-litre Cleveland unit supplied by Ford.
Of the two similar-looking models, the Kyalami is the rarer by quite a margin because it was discontinued in 1983, while the Longchamp, which had been on the market since 1972, survived all the way through to 1989.
17. Mercedes-Benz 123-series
Part of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class heritage (though there was officially no such thing as an E-Class until 1993), the 123-series first went on sale in January 1976 as the W123 saloon, which was joined in successive years by the C123 coupé and the S123 estate.
The saloon body was always the most popular, accounting for nearly 2.4 million of the approximately 2.7 million 123s ever built, though the very last example to leave the production line was an estate.
Among other highlights, a diesel wagon was the first turbocharged Mercedes-Benz ever sold in Germany (the same engine having previously been used in the S-Class, but only in export models) and a 280E saloon won the 1977 London to Sydney Marathon.
18. Mitsubishi Galant
The 1976 Galant was the third, and by some margin the most elegant, Mitsubishi of that name to have been introduced so far.
Known internally as the Galant Sigma, it appeared first as a saloon, though an estate derivative would soon follow.
Looking back at these cars many years later, Mitsubishi emphasised their sophisticated suspension and steering, along with the smoothness of their engines, demonstrated in period via an advertising campaign by placing a cup of water on top of a unit while it was running at 6000rpm.
In December 1976, seven months after the launch of the Sigma, Mitsubishi brought out the Galant Lambda, a two-door coupé sold in export markets as the Sapporo.
19. Panther Lima
Standalone headlights, a prominent radiator grille, running boards and a passenger compartment placed very far back all provided the Panther Lima with the character of an open two-seater from the 1930s.
The mechanical components, however, were all up-to-date in 1976 terms and supplied by Vauxhall, including the floorpan and the 2.3-litre, slant-four engine from the Magnum.
The Mk2 (pictured) was more different from the original model than it appeared, because it had a tubular chassis.
After Panther ownership had been transferred from the UK to South Korea, the Lima was reworked into the Kallista, which looked similar but used Ford engines.
20. Porsche 924
The 924 signalled a major departure for Porsche, because its engine was water-cooled, had four cylinders arranged in-line and was mounted up front – three completely conventional features elsewhere in the motor industry, but all of them new to the German marque.
The 2-litre engine, already familiar from the Audi 100 but modified by Porsche for this application, was not noted for its power, but more performance became available thanks to turbocharging, and later (in 1986) came the arrival of the Porsche-designed, 2.5-litre unit also used in the 944.
Other front-engined sports cars followed, and it seemed to some observers that Porsche might be drifting away from the rear-engined 911.
However, the line came to an end in 1995 (the next Porsche with this layout being the Cayenne SUV), while the 911’s production life would continue past the 60-year mark.
21. Renault 14
Though not otherwise one of the most distinguished vehicles in the marque’s history, the 14 was the first Renault with a transversely mounted engine.
This unit was co-developed with Peugeot (which had first used it in the 104 back in 1972), but while Peugeot used it extensively Renault only ever fitted it to the 14.
Remarkably aerodynamic for a compact mainstream model introduced in 1976, the Renault 14 was quickly nicknamed ‘the pear’, this being beyond question the piece of fruit it most closely resembled.
The 14 was gradually replaced by the 9 and 11 (saloon and hatchback versions of the same car), which had less rounded bodywork and used well-established Renault engines.
22. Rover SD1
SD1 was the codename for a car which was marketed with a variety of four-figure numbers approximating to the capacity of the engines of the models to which they were attached.
The use of 3500 denoted the celebrated Rover V8 (originally a Buick design, though substantially modified), the 2000 was a petrol, in-line ‘four’, the 2400 a diesel ‘four’, and the 2300 and the 2600 a pair of straight-sixes.
The V8 came first, and in this form the SD1 was named 1977 Car of the Year by European journalists, beating the Audi 100 and Ford Fiesta.
None of the engines were new, but the styling was unlike that of any previous Rover, and included a certain front-end resemblance to the Ferrari 356GTB/4 Daytona.
Rover SD1 production lasted for a full decade until the car was superseded in 1986 by the 800 series.
23. Seat 1200 Sport
The mechanicals may have been designed by Fiat, as was always the case with Seats in those days, but the 1200 Sport was the first of the Spanish marque’s products which did not look remotely like any Fiat model.
Its unusual appearance is credited to Aldo Sessano, who unsuccessfully offered it to NSU for a rear-engined concept.
The Seat was front-engined, the engine in question having a capacity of 1197cc (approximated in the car’s name) at first, though a 1438cc unit became available in 1977 for an otherwise identical car called the Sport 1430 (pictured).
The prominent black bumpers led to both cars being given the nickname Bocanegra (Spanish for ‘black mouth’), and Seat would use this again for a version of the Ibiza introduced in 2009.
24. Škoda 105
The 105 was one of the first cars – and, at 1046cc, the smallest-engined – in a new series of Škodas which lasted from 1976 right through to 1990.
Sold as Estelles in the UK, they were nearly all rear-engined saloons, though in 1980 the Garde (later renamed Rapid) was introduced as a replacement for the previous-generation 110 R coupé.
Engine capacities reached 1289cc in some versions, and while Škoda’s principal appeal in western Europe was that its cars were cheap, the more powerful derivatives were extraordinarily effective in the up-to-1300cc class in international rallying, especially when driven by Norwegian star John Haugland.
By Škoda’s own account, 2,011,044 examples of the 105 and its companions were manufactured before fully giving way to the front-wheel-drive Favorit, which had been on the market since 1987.
25. Volvo 343
Regardless of its badging, Volvo’s first compact car was actually the work of Dutch manufacturer Daf, whose passenger-car division was gradually transferred into Swedish hands during the early-to-mid 1970s.
The three-door hatchback had a 1397cc, Renault engine up front, with a continuously variable transmission (a Daf speciality) mounted at the rear in the interests of weight distribution.
Volvo would later fit its own engines and more conventional manual gearboxes, while also adding two doors (cars of this type being known as 345), creating a saloon body and slightly revising the naming system.
With 340s and 360s becoming available in the 1980s, it has become easier to refer to the whole range as the 300 series, but the 343 was the version that started it all back in 1976 – 50 years ago.
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