The five most attractive sports saloons
11/29/2014
Recently, a colleague asked me if I could quickly name what I consider to be the five most attractive sports saloons. It shouldn't be four or even six.
He had probably guessed that this was not a trivial task. But I started with a lot of conviction and named BMW M3 E30 (the most successful racing touring car of all time), Alfa Romeo Giulia (the most important Italian contribution to this category ever), Ford Cortina Lotus (England's outstanding contribution to this category with international appeal) and Mercedes Benz 190 E 2.3/2.5-16 (a big hit commercially and sportingly).
Then I began to falter. There was still one car missing to complete the quintet, but I could think of too many candidates, but none of them really stood out from the others.
From Germany, you could have named the BMW 1800 Ti/SA, the BMW M5 or the Ford Sierra XR4i/Cosworth (the one with the huge wing), but also the Ford Escort RS 2000 and the Opel Omega Lotus. Sweden could have brought in the Volvo 123 GT, the Volvo 240 Turbo or the 123 GT, but also the Saab 900 Turbo. Italy, of course, not only produced the Giulia but also the Fiat 131 Abarth, for example. The British are also rightly proud of the Rover 3500/Vitesse. With the Ford Falcon and Galaxie, the Americans produced some real hits in touring car racing and, if you think about it long enough, you could certainly name some interesting candidates from France and Japan.
But deciding between them? Difficult. What is certain is that only a few of the sports saloons (in the sense of a touring car or saloon car) have managed to significantly set themselves apart from their competitors in terms of value. These include the Evo models of the 190E, the M3, the Cortina Lotus, the Giula TI Super and perhaps a few exotics such as the Omega Lotus or the Sierra Cosworth. I'll leave the final selection to others and stick with my first four vehicles for the time being.
And I'll think about a similar question about hatchback sedans another time.
