Reliant Scimitar GT

David Ogle had left a large hole with his untimely death in 1962.  His design firm had many open contracts, including one for a sports car based in the Daimler SP250.  Tom Karen took the reigns Ogle Design and finished making the boss’ final automotive vision a reality.

Two sports coupes known as the SX250 were delivered to one customer in the early 1960s, but there seemed to be no other takers.

Karen would eventually start a relationship with Reliant who built everything from small three wheeler vehicles to Israel’s first sports car, the Sabara.  Reliant thought the SX250 could do well on the chassis of their Sabre, the British version of their Israeli sports car.

Ogle Designs shortened the layout to fit onto the Sabre, and then traded the Daimler’s 2.5-liter V8 for a 2.6-liter six-cylinder motor made by Ford in Britain…the Reliant Scimitar was born.

There were only about 1,000 Scimitar GTs made over a six-year run, but more importantly, it was the basis for the Scimitar GTE.  The GTE came with more power and a more striking shooting brake design that stayed in production from 1968 to 1986.

Talbot Tagora

Over the last few decades Chrysler’s financial situation has been in the red as often as it has been in the black.  So in 1979 when the company had just as many money problems at home in the U.S. as it did in Europe, something had to change.  Chrysler Europe was sold to PSA Peugeot Citroen to help keep the home fires burning.

One of the cars Peugeot Citroen inherited from Chrysler in this sale was a large sedan design known as the C9.  The company already occupied this part of the market with cars like the Peugeot 604 and Citroen CX, but the C9 project was so far advanced that Peugeot Citroen decided to bring it to the market.  The car was produced under the Talbot marque that was also obtained in the Chrysler sale (as we already know from the Peugeot 309 that brand didn’t last too long.)

The Talbot Tagora entered a crowded European market in 1980 that was still feeling the effects from the second oil crisis.  It was a sedan with not much character from a company that didn’t know exactly what to do with it, so it was no surprise that the Talbot Tagora was discontinued in 1983 with less than 20,000 examples produced.

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