WANDERING around a classic car show some time ago I was stopped in my tracks by something I just did not recognise.
There are not many cars produced in the 1960s and 70s that keep me guessing, but this was one of them.
Rather than spoil it and walk up immediately and look at the badge I tried to work it out. There was a bit of everything there – an Audi-like fastback rear, a front that was worthy of Lotus and I had seen those doors on something else.
In the end I gave up and wandered over to discover that the car was a Vignale Samantha from the great creator of automobile beauty Alfredo Vignale who had a factory and design shop in Grugliasco, Italy.
Vignale's zenith was in the late 1950s when he made bespoke bodies for many exotic sports car makers but in the 1960s he turned his attention to create imaginative bodies on Fiat platforms.
The Samantha was based on the Fiat 125 and was without doubt the prettiest of all the Fiat based Vignales of the late 60s and 70s.
And the reason the doors looked familiar was that their skins were shared with the Vignale-designed Jensen Interceptor, giving a classy British connection.
Another British link was that several hundred examples of Vignale car designs were brought into the UK, mainly by a London based importer and these included at least 20 Samanthas.
The car found a few sales here, despite being nearly double the price of its donor 125 at around £2,000 and more expensive than an E-Type Jaguar. It featured flip-up headlights – like the Lotus Elan Sprint – and certainly looked very smart for its era.
But performance left a lot to be desired with the Fiat 1,608cc four-cylinder engine delivering 90bhp with a top speed of 103mph and a surprisingly leisurely 0-60mph sprint of 12 seconds.
If I had been in the market for such a car at the time I think it would have been hello E-Type and goodbye Samantha.