As an afterthought I think I can nominate some marques responsible for some
truly thoroughbred sports cars, albeit at stratospheric prices. How about
Bentley - real WO Bentley ones, not Rolls-Royce based ones - and, ahem,
Sunbeam.
The Sunbeam 3 Litre used a specially designed engine and chassis rather than
sharing them with more lowly models. A 3 litre gave Bentley a jolly good
thrashing too at Le Mans in 1925. Unfortunately they were beaten to the post
by a Lorraine-Dietrich.
Another possibility is, dare I say it, Vauxhall. Vauxhall used to build some
highly desirable cars until GM got involved. The 30/98 and Prince Henry
models come to mind, but I don't know for sure that they didn't share
anything with a run-of-the-mill model.
Russ Maddock
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Sunbeams hit the Gold Coast in June 2001 - www.qld.sunbeam.org.au/national
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