A while back we ran a piece about small coupés, which we defined as having engines of 1.3-litres or smaller, rather than by body size. For many drivers, these are a compromise between a wind-in-the-hair two-seater roadster and their first sensible four-door family saloon, something some men in particular try to resist for as long as possible. Offering style and sporting pretensions with full weather protection, cars such as the Lancia Fulvia 1.3S and Alfa Romeo 105/115 series have proven to be enduring classics, and ideal weekend cars for those who want to rekindle their lost youth – unless they have a family.
Lovely, but perhaps too small for your needs?
What if you want to share your enthusiasm for classic motoring with your family, and your kids are now between, say, 5 and 10 years old, so you need slightly bigger bags for weekend luggage (but you no longer require space for a car seat or pram)? What if you still hanker after a classic with style and – ideally – sporty performance, even if it’s only summer weekends, and the likes of a Fulvia 1.3S or GT Junior are just that bit too small to cope with you and your growing family, what are your choices? Well, they’re surprisingly numerous, ranging from the relatively inexpensive to the exotic, and I thought it might be fun to take a look at a few mid-sized classic coupés that might fit the bill.
Many of these are two-door fastback versions of their saloon siblings rather than plain two-door saloons, which is why the BMW ’02 doesn’t qualify, and their relatively modest size – for the purposes of this piece, up to 4.5m in length (a purely arbitrary limit) – pretty much excludes American cars, unless more knowledgeable ViaRETRO readers can point me in the right direction? As usual, this is not intended to be a comprehensive overview, so please feel free to suggest others in the comments section!
One other note before we start taking a look at the cars themselves – there is of course some overlap between our small and mid-size coupés insofar as some of the larger cars came with engines below 1.3-litres – and it’s also true that some of the smaller cars came with bigger engines, with both the Fulvia and especially the Alfa Romeo 105/115 series – which ended up accommodating engines up to 2-litres – being prime examples.
With all that in mind, let’s see what some of the options for the classic coupé-loving family man – or woman – are…
If the 1950’s is your era, there are not so many choices. Perhaps the Borgward Isabella, in coupé form a very elegant development of a fairly staid saloon, or if you’ve a serious budget, one of two beautiful, and now extremely expensive, Italians – the delicately styled Lancia Aurelia B20 or the exquisite Alfa Romeo 1900 Sprint Coupé? For more modest money, you could take a look at the somewhat less exotic, less beautiful, but just as uncommon, Opel Rekord P2 Coupé, launched in 1960, and it was in this decade that more and more manufacturers created coupé versions of their standard saloons for the family man who didn’t want to completely let go of his youth.
Although Sunbeam had been making the two-door Rapier since 1955, it was classed as a regular three-box saloon despite its pillarless profile, but in 1967 they replaced it with the more overtly sporting Rapier Fastback, giving it a 1725cc engine which in H120 form boosted power output from 88 to 110bhp, delivering 100mph-plus performance. More importantly, for our purposes, it fits the bill of being a family 2+2, and you won’t encounter many – only 16 H120’s are known to be on the road in the UK.
Contemporaneous with the earlier Rapier, Ford created a smart coupé version of its Consul Classic, the Consul Capri – they look especially cool in two-tone colour schemes but although they looked sleek, they were also slow, with even the GT version – of which just 2002 were built – generating a mere 78bhp from its Cosworth developed engine.
The next Ford to be called a Capri was an altogether different proposition. Effectively a Cortina coupé, but a separate model line, it not only came with smaller engines such as a 1300 and 1600, but also with 2-litre and 3-litre powerplants that really made it shift, and the Mk II 2.8i has become much sought after. Room for four and a tailgate made this a thoroughly practical car, as well as a quick one.
Out of Köln came a perhaps more conventional family 2+2 Ford – the Ford Taunus 12M coupé of the early 1960’s was more obviously visually related to its saloon sibling as was the later – and larger , in fact too large for this piece – 17M model, but neither featured the outright sporty styling of the Capri.
One of my – and ViaRETRO’s favourites – is the Opel Manta A, ideally with the more powerful 1.9-litre engine. A direct alternative to the Capri, the Manta A was rakishly styled yet with a decent-sized boot and enough leg-and-headroom even for small adults in the back, and available for between €10,000 and €20,000 if you can find one, the Manta A definitely fulfils the brief of being a family-friendly coupé, and if the Manta A is just that bit too “old school” for you, there’s always the Manta B, or it’s Vauxhall Cavalier equivalent.
One of the smoothest 2+2’s to come out of Germany, to my eyes at least, is the Audi 100S, but these are very hard to find now and you’ll need a fairly deep wallet to secure a good one. Its successor, the Audi 80-based Coupé (I owned one in the mid-1980’s) really was a four-seater with a decent boot, albeit with narrow access, and in Quattro guise was a trailblazer in combining four-wheel-drive with turbo performance to this sector. Quattro’s have been increasing steadily in price, but the very similar Coupé can be had for under £10,000, if you can find one, that is.
Audi’s parent company VW also entered the 2+2 market, coming up with the Scirocco for those for whom the Golf was just too staid and ubiquitous. Personally I prefer the first version to the later one, especially with either the larger engines providing perky performance but its successor, the Corrado, is a very appealing update and a certain future classic; wouldn’t mind one myself, actually, especially a VR6, which is a properly fast car.
Alfa Romeo’s Alfetta GT and GTV – both very popular among the ViaRETRO team and readership – continued where the 105 and 115 series left off, while being slightly bigger – handsome, sporty, 4 seats and a boot, and can be found for very reasonable money – what’s not to like?
Not as good-looking as the Alfetta and with more humble underpinnings from the FIAT 124 saloon, but still a stylish 2+2-seater is the 124 Coupé, and moving further upmarket, a car every bit as gorgeous as the Alfetta – perhaps even more so, and also designed by Giugiaro – is FIAT’s Dino Coupé. Now this is an altogether more exotic beast, largely due to being powered by a Ferrari engine, and these superbly elegant cars are no longer inexpensive to buy, regularly fetching £50k-plus – I want one.
Still in Italy, while Lancia’s exceptionally pretty Fulvia 1.3S made waves in the small coupé sector, the company also produced a couple of larger 2+2’s in the very attractive forms of the Flavia 2000 Coupé and its successor, the Fulvia 2000 Coupé but these come in just beyond my 4.5m limit. The Beta Coupé, spiritual successor to the Fulvia and produced between 1972 and 1984, doesn’t even break 4m, but still has just enough room for four. These are nowadays very thin on the ground following the disintegration of so many back in Lancia’s rust belt days, but it is nevertheless a proper 2+2 with a boot, and not expensive to buy if you can find one; I’ve seen more than one for under £10,000.
For the family man looking for something a little different there’s the Volvo P1800, given added glamour and sex-appeal by its association with the British TV series “The Saint” and Roger Moore’s eyebrows, and still the coolest car to come out of Sweden. Good ones are not cheap, though.
For something more uncompromisingly sporting, the Lotus Elan +2 is as uncompromising as a compromise can be. Sharply styled and two feet longer than a regular Elan, it can seat two small children (as long as the driver and front seat passenger are not too tall) and take the luggage for a few days. While substantially heavier than the regular Elan, this is still a sports car, with a top speed back in the day of over 120mph, and the +2 is generally available for less than the two-seater.
The French didn’t ignore this market sector either, with Peugeot’s offerings, the Pininfarina-designed 404 and 504 Coupés, with the latter widely regarded as one of the most stylish cars of this type – something with which I would agree – and Renault offered the R12-derived 15 and 17 models, with the 17 being basically a larger-engined R15, and in the 1980’s, the Fuego and Renault Alpine 310 and 610 comprised their 2+2 alternatives, with the latter competing with the Porsche 911 for the accolade of the ultimate performance 2+2, especially in GTA form.
From further afield, the Japanese added some Far Eastern flavour into this sector. Perhaps the best-known examples are the Toyota Celica ST and Celica Liftback, with several generations of this model fitting our bill, but let’s not forget the Mitsubishi Colt Sapporo and from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, the two-door version of Mazda’s 626 (known as the Mazda Montrose in the UK). At the same time, Honda joined the 2+2 party when it introduced the Prelude, although to be honest its rear seats were really just seats in name only; rear legroom did improve slightly in later iterations – I once managed to squeeze four adults into the 3rd generation model I ran briefly back in 1990, although they were grateful that it was for a short distance only. Last – but definitely not least – the coupé that arguably transformed the image of Japanese cars, the Datsun 240Z and 260Z. Introduced in 1970, the 240Z was a worldwide success and Datsun’s Z-cars command a strong classic following today.
Despite the presence of the Renault Alpine GTA, for me the ultimate sporting mid-sized 2+2 is the Porsche 911. No other 2+2 displays the all-round ability of the 911. I used to fit a five-shell drumkit complete with hardware in mine, although that admittedly meant the passenger had to hold a tom-tom on their lap… Nevertheless, you could easily fit two small kids in the back and bags for the weekend in the front luggage compartment; I know, I’ve done it. It also goes like a scalded cat, but can potter around town like a small hatchback. While the long-hood early 1970’s models are fetching serious money, it is still quite possible to pick up a decent “harmonica-bumpered” car for under £40k, but probably not for much longer. The GTA, it has to be said, can generally be acquired for much less, but if budget is not your problem, the 911 takes it all day long for me.
If you were looking for a classic, practical 2+2 coupé, dear ViaRETRO reader, what would you choose – one of the above, or something entirely different? Perhaps you’ve already chosen one? Let us know!