When World War II ended, the British car industry encountered very different trading conditions from those which it had enjoyed in 1930s. In the harsher climate of the late 1940s it found that it could longer build solely for its home market and for captive and protected market in the British Commonwealth. Instead, it was obliged to compete head-to-head with foreign manufacturers for new export markets, in order to earn the revenue to rebuild Britain's War-torn economy. Inevitably, these new conditions had their effect on the cars which came from Britain.
Even so, it took several years for the traditional British way of doing to die out. One reason for this was that the austere British roadster (as exemplified by the MG T-series) found a ready market in the United states, and is not until the late 1950s that the American preference for such creature comfort as winding windows, leak-proof soft tops, and heaters which worked, fundamentally changed the British two-seater.
Britain also continued to build 1930s-style tourers until well into the 1950s. There were two main reasons for their demise: the first being dwindling ales and the second being associated with the practicalities of their manufacture. In the first half of the 1950s there were still many cars – mainly the more expensive types – which had separate-chassis construction, and for these the great British coachbuilders could construct open bodywork relatively easily. However, the mass manufacturers were increasingly turning to unitary construction. This was much more difficult to use as the basis of open bodywork , not least because removing a stressed roof panel left the rest of the bodyshell in need of careful and potentially very expensive structural reinforcement. The coachbuilders, in the main, were not prepared to undertake this kind of work, which was outside the scope of their traditional skills
As a result, the mass manufacturers increasingly engineered and build their own open versions of unitary-construction cars. Or, when the costs would have been too high, they simply deleted such models from their ranges. Short of work, the traditional coachbuilders closed down one by one, or were bought out by the car manufacturers themselves. The majority had suffered one or other of these fates by the end of the 1950s, and the last major independent coachbuilder – James Young – closed in 1967. Long before then, however, its customers had been reduced to just two: Rolls Royce and Bentley.
There have been three major type of British convertible since 1945. The smallest (in term of passenger space, at least) are the sports convertibles, essentially civilized descendants of the traditional open roadster. Above them are those cars based on family sedans wich, until the end of the 1960s, were the inheritors of the old tourer tradition, but which have recently had both a more youthful appeal and a more overtly sporting flavor. Then right at the top of the tree are the expensive coachbuild luxury convertibles, of with some have sporting pretensions while other are closer to to the tourer tradition.
THE SPORT CONVERTIBLE
Jaguarwas offering both sidescreen-roadster and sport-convertible versions of its XK120 model as early as 1948,but its example was not generally followed until the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s. During this period the traditionally austere British roadster was almost universally replaced by the sports convertible. These car did not look radically different from their predecessors, but the changes were there nonetheless. The new breed was exemplified in 1961 by the jaguar E-type and Triumph TR-4, in 1962 by the Triumph Spitfire, MGB and Austin- Healey 3000 Mark II; from 1964 the cheaper models, in the shape of the Austin-Healey Sprite and MG Midget, also gained winding windows. From then on few two- seater sports-car built in Britain retained the old style of sidescreens and frugal interior appointments, and those which did-such as the Morgan and the Lotus 7 – were sold only in limited numbers and were widely considered among non enthusiasts to be eccentric throwbacks.
The major British manufacturers had become heavily dependent upon sales in the United States and, when it began to look as if new safety legislation in America would ban the sale of open cars in that market altogether during the 1970s, they stopped developing new sports convertibles. Old designs were allowed to die out and were not replaced, although the open MGB, MG Miget and Triumph Spitfire remained in production right through the 1970s. By the end of the decade it was clear that the anticipated new legislation would not be introduced, and new spots convertibles therefore began to appear. Triumph redeveloped its fixed-head TR7 into an attractive open model, but the market for such cars had shrunk considerably, and the TR7 convertible lasted only until 1981.
Today the market for sports convertibles is still uncertain, and the major British manufacturers have fhough shy of committing themselves to it. Small manufacturers like Reliant, Marcos and Panther are still making such cars, but a brave attempt by Lotus with the Elan SE in 1989 quickly foundered. The Rover Group, Which now owns the traditional names of Triumph, Austin-Healey and MG, introduced an updated, limited-edition revival of the MGB in 1992, and there are rumors that a full-production open two-seater is on the way. As for Jaguar, it has deserted the two-seater market for the more lucrative one of the luxury convertible.
