THE MOTOR SHOW - COLOUR

(14 Nov 1976) Among the visitors to the last Motor Show to be held at Earls Court, was Prime Minister, Mr James Callaghan. Next year the Motor Show moves to the NEC at Birmingham. One of the stars of the Show was the new Aston Martin 'Lagonda' with its electronic dashboard.
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[@andrewbarney7698]

I went to that very motor show in 1976. Sat in that yellow xjs. A lot for a 10 year old boy to comprehend, but I did end up becoming a motor mechanic

[@djx64]

OMG I went to that.. I was 10, John Pertwee was also there and I got his autograph on my Rolls Royce brochure.

[@yumyumbaboon]

Me too Les! My dad took me up on the train from Ashford. He was looking for a replacement for his Bronze(with black vinyl roof!)72 Cortina GXL. As an X Maxi owner he was quite interested in the all new Volvo 300 series but thankfully he never bought one! Actually he ended up buying the Mitsubishi Colt Sigma which was the first car we reached the magic ton in! (Did miss his Cortina though)🙂

[@lawrenceholden5716]

I'd go back in a heartbeat if I could. Another 10 years and forced to drive milk floats or walk. Sad times for car enthusiasts.

[@lewstone1934]

Not quite. The government will be bankrupt after Brexit and Coronavirus - and too broke to invest in ANYTHING LIKE the 10's of 1000's of miles of infrastructure that will be needed. This country will be economically finished. They will be paying millions a Universal Basic Income. New infrastructure my backside. How will they raise the tax when millions are unemployed. Pathetic government shit. Also there will be a ban on the sale of NEW petrol and diesel vehicles - not all vehicles. I will still be driving my Triumph TR6. Also - there will be a switch back to petrol when scores of people are killed crossing the road by silent vehicles: they are a menace.... I was nearly killed by one a couple of months ago. Forget to look three times and you are DEAD.

[@insertnamehere5146]

best to get into the classic car market and grab something reasonable that will be exempted. you and I will be long dead before they stop producing petrol. The classic car market will survive its just new cars.

[@TheSpritz0]

I remember when you could buy those Triumph Spitfires in Canada- sexy cars, girls loved them!!

[@marks6663]

Cars were so sexy back then. Sure, the build quality was poor by today's standards, but they were sexy as hell. So much character and such distinctive looks. Now everything has become one egg-shaped blur.

[@brianmilligan1787]

I know i yoused to do paper rounds on cold mornings and the amount of cars with footprints on the windscreen from the night befores steamed up windows Lol

[@bluegtturbo]

Chrysler Alpine at just over £3000. It wouldn't be worth that even today if it was new..a pile of crap..

[@video99couk]

There are doubtless a few cars there which would have made great investments if kept pristine. Alas the Apline isn't one of them. A nice Avenger might be though.

[@philnewstead5388]

As was the entire Chrysler range as the Avenger had been around for four or five years then and was getting a bit long in the tooth. I don't think the Solara or the little Sunbeam had come along by 1976 and the Minx/Hunter was still about in various guises.

[@alanoconnor6921]

Luckily enough the Morris marinas all came with a complimentary bus timetable,

[@dominicdomehead7049]

LOL! Mind you, I always saw more FORDS in the hard shoulder of the motorway than BL cars.

[@alanoconnor6921]

Ah yeah,, but that's only because the ford's could make it as far as a hard shoulder,

[@clintonflynn815]

I want this guy to narrate the next time my girlfriend and I are in bed.

[@dominicdomehead7049]

With some of that funky KPM/De Wolfe ( etc ) music library in the background too?

[@insertnamehere5146]

@@dominicdomehead7049 something like "oh deary, it looks like Mr Flynn is a 2 pump chump as our american cousins might say"

[@clintonflynn815]

@@insertnamehere5146 Lol!

[@mohabatkhanmalak1161]

I came here for the beauties, and Mercedes Benz. Didn't see any MB's but some consolation, the beauty at 2.35 made my day!

[@mercmush]

I’ve watched loads of these as they keep coming up in my suggested feed but I don’t see any of them featuring Mercedes Benz from their halcyon days ?

[@jourwalis-8875]

Did you notice the Citroen-type one-spoke steering wheel on the Aston Martin Lagonda!

[@ianshippen279]

I can't imagine George Best being sober long enough to drive that XJS ..

[@solsol1624]

Lol. I'm sure he could have afforded the Lambo anyway

[@knut-hinrichqwalter2463]

The swansong of the british car industry, thanks to British Leyland, the great undertaker !

[@dellawrence4323]

The unions killed the British motor industry.

[@clintonflynn815]

@@dellawrence4323 No, it's bigger than the unions. Dying/dead empires commit hari kari in strange ways.

[@alanjones6359]

British Leyland crap cars

[@stuartsmith5308]

Is that the Blue Peter presenter talking on these MotorShow clips ? John Noakes

[@WyreForestBiker]

NO !! 🤣

[@MrMenefrego1]

At 0:43 *"Chrysler's Research Safety Vehicle ('RSV')" looks quite similar to the 1980's Dodge, Omni 024.*

[@Beethoven80]

Fascinating to see the cars new in the colours of that time. Can't believe the Jaguar XJS was promoted in citron yellow back then!

[@YllaStar95970]

I had a Dorchester Grey.

[@jourwalis-8875]

Full electric car in 1976!!?

[@AtheistOrphan]

I’ll take the Lagonda please.

[@RoadCone411]

00:43 The front of the Chrysler Research Safety Vehicle looks a lot like a Dodge Charger 024/ Plymouth Turismo from the early 1980s in this clip. They were both two seat coupes based on the Omni/Horizon twins.

[@insertnamehere5146]

didnt all volume car makers make a lot of rubbish cars in the 70s? I would have been about the same age then, its was when the 80s rolled around that cars became reliable, edgy and had some serious punch.

[@grumpyoldman3458]

2:23 still looks like the car of the future.

[@dreisternehof]

Does anyone know a little more about this "EVR1" between the Cortina and FIAT? Thank You!

[@richardorchard5197]

No mention of Citroen at all.

[@insertnamehere5146]

shitroen?

[@tommyboo21]

In contrast to British and European cars at the time, the big opulent American gas guzzlers were offering comfort, luxury, power, and beauty. They included Lincoln, Buick, Cadillac, Pontiac, Chevrolet. And Dodge!

[@RoadCone411]

It’s arguable, but American cars of that era might have been as bad as British cars, possibly even worse. They may not have been as underengineered as the stuff coming from BL, but the build quality on US-made cars was abysmal by the mid-1970s. I think the era of malaise was the worst in the entire history making cars: basically anything from Chrysler was trash, and the other three had some clunkers too. Terrible fit, finish and paint, but opera lights, vinyl roofs and wood grain trim were options on so many cars. The Mustang was still a performance joke (although things were about to get better) and America couldn’t make a decent small car. The most significant cars to come from this era in America were the ‘77 Caprice/Impala and ‘78 Fairmont, both of which showed that a far more efficient use of space was possible with downsizing. All of that would change again in the 1980s with the death of the rear wheel drive car, or most of them.

[@vinbar35]

Beauty isn't a word I'd use to describe American cars of the period.

[@corvetcoyote443]

I test drove an MG Midget but didn't buy it because when I got beside A sub compact Mazda GLC,it was a semi 🚛 compared to me,the car in this video I wish I could have is the beautiful Aston Martin Lagonda!

[@gerrywhelan5761]

To me it looks ugly, beauty in the eye of the beholder I guess!

[@jourwalis-8875]

What year?!

[@DiscretionPlease]

"The 1976 Motor Show. Before the NEC was built in Birmingham the Motor Show was always held in London at Earls Court. This was the last year before transfering up to Birmingham for the next 30 years." Quoted from: www.flickr.com/photos/loose_grip_99/519786990

[@philnewstead5388]

DiscretionPlease We did have the London Motorfair every other year for many years the NEC Motorshow was only every two years.

[@Rsaxon]

Good lord cars back then were terrible!

[@williamwoods8022]

@@Tolpuddle581 The Marina wasnt a truly awful car. It was designed to be a cheap and easy to maintain fleet car and was popular with fleets because of that. Yes a lot of the components and suspension were from earlier cars but them again so were cars from Ford etc in the same boat - MK2 Escorts for example with cart springs etc as well. Our company used Ford Escorts and Cortinas as company cars and they went through engines and gearboxes as if they were wear and tear items and our company would not change to another make because Ford sold to them cheap. I never bought a Ford after that and I did buy a 1978 Marina 1.8 HL/TC which was an ex-company car with over 70,000 miles on the clock and it was an excellent, reliable, fast and fun car to drive. The ONLY reason that I do not have that car today is because it was written off in an accident when a woman drove through a junction without checking if it was clear to do so. I replaced that car with a 1980 Allegro 1750 Equipe which was also an excellent reliable car. Some people just like to spout the drivel they were told by Top Gear etc or they were the type that bought other peoples old unlooked after bangers or never looked after their own cars and then blamed the car/maunufacturer. I also worked on my own cars and worked in two different garages back in the 1980s and BL cars were no worst or better than most other cars and at least BL tried to come out with designs that were not square boxes like most cars then and went front wheel drive etc long before other manufacturers such as Ford but they just didnt have the money they needed to do everything they wanted - the Marina was supposed to have modern strut suspension but that got cut because of the lack of funds.

[@vinbar35]

@tecdessus I had a 74 TC saloon in metallic purple, tints and a black vinyl roof. Same engine as the MGB and sounded pretty good, went fairly quickly in a straight line: round corners not so much. However, it never went wrong for the 3 and a bit years I had it.

[@vinbar35]

@tecdessus Sundym, that what I had but couldn't remember the name for it. The brown, if I remember correctly, was a metallic colour and didn't look as bad as some will probably think. I had a few lifts from someone who had an Ambassador which was the facelift of the Princess and was a super smooth ride. BL had some novel ideas but never really put the effort into R & D.

[@insertnamehere5146]

@Jerry Donohue my comment is not aimed at any one manufacturer. all 1970s volume cars were mostly unreliable, not very stylish and rubbish. it took the mid 1980s for the volume makers to start churning out some really good cars

[@fasthracing]

Electric cars? No way

[@kynismos]

No German cars?

[@solsol1624]

There never seems to be in these clips. My W123 was launched that year I was hoping to see it😕

[@horsenuts1831]

2:21 Hmmm, Datsun Cherry 120A FII (the 'fastback' version). Used to own one of those. Excellent mechanicals and very easy to work on (could change a clutch with just a 12mm socket in 20 minutes). But bodywork with the rigidity and rust resistance of a wet tea bag.

[@grumpyoldman3458]

I had a 120y , I loved it but you could almost hear it rusting away in the rain.

[@thomaswykes3647]

My grandad bought a new one. It was metallic blue and had black plastic seats which burnt the backs of your legs in the summer. As already mentioned, you could practically hear it rusting on the drive. RIP grandad!

[@april7_]

...dreaming of non polluting electric cars and when the day comes, no way those expensive battery polluters! 😂