Classic 60s sports cars
For many people, the first choice as a classic car today is a classic sports car from the sixties. The 60s sports car evokes an age of carefree, open top motoring down narrow, country lanes, or on motorways free of traffic. Sixties’ classic sports cars with gleaming chrome and vintage style wire wheels draw admiring glances from passers by and comments of ‘I used to have one of those’. A sixties’ classic sports car seems the ideal way to travel: fast enough to keep up with modern traffic; yet quaint and charming enough to be different from today’s cars.
Sports cars in the sixties offered a different style of motoring to contemporary saloons. They had performance and handling characteristics that made them a pleasure to drive, rather than just a way of getting from A to B. In an era of no speed limits, a sports car happy to cruise at 90 or 100mph made a huge difference to journey times compared to a family saloon of a similar price. However, sports cars offered more cramped dimensions and less luggage space compared to their contemporary saloons.
From the early sixties, the traditional image of the draughty and uncomfortable sports car was fading. Even cheaper models were improving in terms of comfort and convenience. However, by modern standards they might seem primitive. There were really three types of sports car for sale in the sixties: small, cheap sports cars such as the Austin-Healey Sprite, MG Midget or Triumph Spitfire; medium-sized cars, still small by today’s standards: the MGB, Triumph TR4/5 and Sunbeam Alpine; and fast, powerful and expensive machinery, starting with the Austin-Healey 3000 and E-Type Jaguar. Anyone choosing a classic car today would need to choose one of these three groups and pick a car from them.
This guide is based on reports from the motoring press in the sixties about the various different sports cars on offer. We invite readers to add their own comments about driving these cars today, or in the sixties if your memory goes that far back.
Small sports cars
At the cheaper end of the market, you could either buy an older second-hand sports car, such as a classic MG TF, or TD from the early fifties. They still held their price quite well in the early to mid sixties. MG TFs were selling for around 300 in 1964 and TDs were going for upwards of 200. If you wanted something more modern, there was a choice between the MG Midget, or the virtually identical Austin-Healey Sprite or a Triumph Spitfire. The Japanese competitor, the Honda S800, joined the fray in the mid sixties.