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Posts Tagged: South Africa

The Acadian 1962-1971

by Ross Mills

Pontiac never sold the Tempest in Canada, so GM built an entirely separate nameplate to fill the gap: the Acadian, a Chevy II underneath wearing no Pontiac or Chevrolet badge at all, sold through Pontiac-Buick dealerships from 1962 to 1971. It was exported as far as Chile and South Africa, spun off its own Beaumont sub-model onto the Chevelle platform, and quietly outlasted most people’s memory of it ever existing. Read on to find out how a domestic-content law created one of GM’s strangest badge-engineering stories.

1965 Shelby AC Cobra by Backdraft Racing Stock

by Ross Mills

A genuine 1965 Shelby Cobra now trades well into seven figures, which puts it permanently out of reach for almost everyone who loves the shape. Backdraft Racing’s answer is a hand-built roadster with bodies finished in South Africa, a modern tube chassis underneath, and V8 options that make more power than Carroll Shelby ever offered from the factory. Read on to find out how close a modern recreation really gets.

Sunbeam Tiger—Need for Speed

by Ross Mills

Rootes Motors built only 7,128 Sunbeam Tigers between three distinct variants, squeezing Ford V8s into a lightweight British roadster that went on to hold the AHRA quarter-mile record for two years. Most of the Tiger’s production crossed the Atlantic to North America, though six went to London’s Metropolitan Police for highway patrol duty. The car’s ending is as strange as its badge: Chrysler bought Rootes in 1964 but had no engine that would fit the Tiger, and production simply stopped once the Ford engine supply ran out. Read on for the full story of Detroit muscle in a British body.

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