With modern versions of the likes of the Mini and VW Beetle currently on offer, modern day design and crash protection rules have had a lot to do with the appearance of the cars as we see them these days.
You can grab a modern day Ford GT40, run the tape measure over it and not find a 40" measurement anywhere. Put a Lotus 7 replica alongside an original, and the original seems very anorexic compared to the replicas.
Getting back to the problems with the current Mini, there are now so many variations of the original current day car which make no sense except for a failed styling exercise, that it is hard to take the current day car seriously.
Ahem- if you mean Caterhams you will find two versions - the fat boy SV for those significantly wider and especially longer than the Chapman template- and the S3 which is esentially a 60's Lotus with better suspension, wider wheels and more power .If ACBC were still making a Seven he sure as hell wouldn't have stuck with 84bhp of Xflow . So it's evolution,not pastiche . Parodies are available - Dax et al (fine to drive but daft looking ) . MIne is an S3 and sitting in it still makes me feel everything is still 1967 - but the scenery tends to blur more now... Snug fit - I am 5-11 and not light - becuase it is still a tiny car
Edited by john aston, 06 December 2015 - 08:27.