1959 Shamrock

1959 Shamrock in Top Gear, Non-fiction TV, 1978-2002 Ep. 2001

Class: Cars, Convertible — Model origin: — Made for: USA

Vehicle used by a character or in a car chase

Comments about this vehicle

Author	Message
GodzillaFan54 ◊ 2024-10-29 20:01	Large fibreglass body mounted on the engine and chassis of an Austin A55 and had sluggish performance. 10 were built and 9 survive. It was intended for the US market, but only four ever made it there. The rest never left Ireland. One of the US Shamrocks has since been repainted green and given a different grille. The car was designed by Canadian Formula 3 racer Alvin 'Spike' Rhiando!
dsl ◊ 2024-10-29 20:24	This view doesn't bring out how big it was - probably similar in size to a mid-range mid-50s US convertible - bonnet and particularly boot were very long, and in side views the wheels look comically diddy. "Powered" by a boggo A55 1489cc single carb, summoming up all of 53 bhp, so despite "Rhiteglass" fibreglass body, calling it sluggish is probably being over-polite. Basing it on the A55 made some sense when development started as that had a brief popularity in US, but by time it was ready for production that star had crashed and burned, so the Shamrock was marooned. Apparently there's one example in Harrah collection in Reno, Nevada.
GodzillaFan54 ◊ 2024-11-02 18:25	Some more angles of the car from the Top Gear segment. "The Shamrock failed because the Americans didn't want an American-looking car that was made from British bits... and the British didn't want a car made from British bits that looked American, so obviously the Shamrock didn't fit in with the world... or was it that the world that didn't fit in with the Shamrock?" -Andy Wilman -- Last edit: 2024-11-02 18:29:40

Author

Message

GodzillaFan54

◊ 2024-10-29 20:01

Large fibreglass body mounted on the engine and chassis of an Austin A55 and had sluggish performance. 10 were built and 9 survive. It was intended for the US market, but only four ever made it there. The rest never left Ireland. One of the US Shamrocks has since been repainted green and given a different grille.

The car was designed by Canadian Formula 3 racer Alvin 'Spike' Rhiando!

dsl

◊ 2024-10-29 20:24

This view doesn't bring out how big it was - probably similar in size to a mid-range mid-50s US convertible - bonnet and particularly boot were very long, and in side views the wheels look comically diddy. "Powered" by a boggo A55 1489cc single carb, summoming up all of 53 bhp, so despite "Rhiteglass" fibreglass body, calling it sluggish is probably being over-polite. Basing it on the A55 made some sense when development started as that had a brief popularity in US, but by time it was ready for production that star had crashed and burned, so the Shamrock was marooned. Apparently there's one example in Harrah collection in Reno, Nevada.

GodzillaFan54

◊ 2024-11-02 18:25

Some more angles of the car from the Top Gear segment.

"The Shamrock failed because the Americans didn't want an American-looking car that was made from British bits... and the British didn't want a car made from British bits that looked American, so obviously the Shamrock didn't fit in with the world... or was it that the world that didn't fit in with the Shamrock?"
-Andy Wilman

-- Last edit: 2024-11-02 18:29:40

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1959 Shamrock

1959 Shamrock in Top Gear, Non-fiction TV, 1978-2002 Ep. 2001

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