The fate of the cars that returned from the dead

In some cases these cars have been revived, even though they should have been consigned to the history books forever. Let’s take a look at some of the motoring makes and models that have been brought back from the dead – sometimes more than once – and in many cases only to disappear once again:

Carlo Abarth (1908-1979) built up a very successful business tuning Fiats and Simcas – so successful that Fiat bought his company in 1971 and turned it into nothing more than a badge to denote high-performance derivatives of its family cars such as the Strada and Stilo.

But in 2008 the brand was resurrected as a company in its own right, offering the 500, Punto and 124 Spider. Abarth now has an expanding EV range with cars like the 500e and larger 600e (pictured).

Briton Sydney Allard set up his own company in 1945 in London and produced around 2000 luxury and sporting cars by 1960, like this Allard K3 from 1952.

Later, Allard would offer tuning kits for the Ford Anglia and Classic Capri, but by the late 1960s it was all over. Revisiting a model name used previously, a resurrected Allard showed its J2X Group C racer in 1992, just as the series was abandoned.

In 1993, Allard returned with a reskinned Lexus LS400 called the P4, but it was much more expensive than the Japanese car. Three cars were made, of which just one survives today it seems.

August Horch set up a car company in 1899, then a decade later he fell out with his colleagues. Unable to use his own name again, he set up a rival business called Audi, which merged with DKW and Wanderer in 1932 to form Auto Union.

With DKW proving the dominant partner, the Audi brand died in 1939 only to be resurrected in 1965 when the company was bought by Volkswagen. It’s one of the few brands featured here that’s done rather well for itself since being revived. In 2021 the Horch name was revived to use on a uber-luxury version of the Audi A8L, pictured.

Here's one that nobody saw coming. In the late 1920s Carl Borgward added an ailing Hansa-Lloyd car-making business to his own, which was making three-wheelers for the commercial market. It all ticked over nicely until things went belly up in 1961, and we all thought that was the last we'd heard of Borgward.

But then Borgward's grandson Christian set up a new venture backed by Chinese automotive group Beiqi Foton Motor.

We got our first glimpse of a new Borgward production car at the 2015 Geneva motor show, the company backed by Chinese money, with the cars now made in China as well. However, the new firm went out of business in 2022.

Bugatti has had at least four comebacks. Ettore Bugatti created a company to build luxury and sporting cars between the world wars. He died in 1947, by which point the marque was already dead, but in the mid-1950s Ettore’s son Roland tried to jump-start the company.

He failed and so did car designer Virgil Exner who tried to relaunch Bugatti at the 1965 Turin motor show. Another revival in the 1990s led to the magnificent EB110 (pictured) – then failure occurred once again.

Then the Volkswagen Group bought Bugatti in 1998, relaunched with the Veyron hypercar (pictured) in 2005 and then its follow-up model the Chiron in 2016, which became the world's fastest production car, attaining 305mph.

In 2021 Bugatti merged with Rimac, and the new company launched its first car, the Bugatti Mistral (pictured), in 2022. The W16-powered car is the fastest roadster in the world, having attained a top speed of 282mph.

The original Connaught built Grand Prix cars and a handful of sports cars, the latter based on various Lea Francis models. Few cars were made in all, the company having started in 1952 with production finished by the start of the 1960s.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating what-might-have-beens, the Connaught D-Type that surfaced in 2005 was a GT that featured a front-mounted 296bhp V10, yet displaced just 2.0-litres. Priced at $100,000 at the time (around £70,000) and capable of 171mph, the car sank without trace soon after.

Datsun was born in 1931. Back then the company built a handful of cars in its first year, ramping up production after 1932. By the mid-1960s Datsun had started to sell cars in Europe, having already set up shop in the US.

With Nissan branding taking over from the early 1980s and the brand killed off altogether in 1986, it seemed that was that.

But in 2013 Nissan relaunched Datsun as a budget brand in India, Russia, Indonesia and South Africa, with cars like the Go supermini. It was primarily the idea of Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn (pictured), but he controversially left the company in 2018. The Datsun name came to an end once more in 2022.

Alejandro de Tomaso set up shop in 1959 to build sports and racing cars in the same vein as Ferrari and Maserati. However, he didn't produce his own engines (they generally came from Ford) and his cars were always overshadowed by more glamorous rivals.

His biggest hit was the Pantera (pictured), produced in collaboration with Ford, which owned a controlling stake in the company for a while. De Tomaso closed down in 2004, the man himself having died in 2003.

A De Tomaso SUV concept called the Deauville (pictured) was shown at the Geneva motor show in 2011. The plan was to build 3000 of them, but production never started. The company chairman was sent to prison for fraud in 2018.

If ever there was an unlikely revival it’s this one. Frazer-Nash built its first car in 1922 and focused on building sporting cars for the connoisseur for the next 35 years, with various changes of ownership along the way.

In the early 21st century Frazer-Nash sprang back to life as a consultancy to develop clean vehicles and transport networks. While much of what it does goes on in the background, in 2009 we saw the first all-new Frazer-Nash in more than 50 years – a hybrid supercar concept called Namir, designed and built by Giugiaro (pictured). Today the consultancy company is owned by US giant KBR.

The first Hispano-Suizas were built in 1904. This Spanish company produced luxury cars like this H6C Targa model from 1924.  In 1938 it shifted to aircraft and munitions before evolving into SIAT – which in turn would become SEAT, today part of Volkswagen. In theory Hispano-Suiza never went away as it's still part of the SAFRAN aerospace group.

However, the Hispano-Suiza name was brought back from the dead in 2002 with the HS21 GTS supercar concept that was unveiled at the Geneva motor show. That disappeared without trace, only for Hispano-Suiza to reappear once more at the 2010 Geneva show. This time it was with an Audi R8-based supercar (pictured), ambitiously priced at a cool €700k (around £500,000 at the time).

Few car brands are as obscure as Iso, yet the marque has been revived for the second time. It was Iso that developed the Isetta which then sustained BMW throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s.

This Italian refrigerator manufacturer moved into microcars before trying its hand at GTs such as the Fidia, Lele, Rivolta and – most notably – the Grifo (pictured).

By 1974 Iso had died, only to return in 1990 with a non-running prototype that would later be turned into a one-off fully driveable car. In 2017 Iso returned with the Rivolta GTZ, created for Sony’s Gran Turismo Sport with Zagato set to build up to 19 examples of the Corvette-based supercar (pictured).

As well as building bodies for other brands (such as Austin and Volvo), Jensen built its own range of sporting and luxury cars from 1934. Best known for the Interceptor (pictured) and its four-wheel drive derivative the FF (the world's first car with anti-lock brakes), Jensen had gone out of business by 1976.

At the 1998 British motor show Jensen made a comeback but it would be another three years before its S-V8 would go into production (pictured). After just 20 cars were completed the company died again, although another dozen examples were completed in 2003 by yet another iteration of the company: Jensen International Automotive.

Founded by Wilbur Gunn (1860-1920) and named after his hometown in Ohio, Lagonda built sporting cars for the wealthy enthusiast, like this LG6 from 1938. Swallowed up by Aston Martin in 1947, the final model from the marque was the Rapide, production of which finished in 1965.

Lagonda was used as a model name for the crazy William Towns-designed saloon that appeared in 1976, then it all went quiet until the 2009 Geneva motor show when a striking SUV concept was unveiled, based on a Mercedes GL-Class (pictured). It all went quiet again until the very expensive Taraf saloon emerged in 2015; just 120 or so were built.

The Lagonda name was revived as an autonomous electric luxury saloon concept car unveiled by Aston Martin at the 2018 Geneva motor show. Styled as a 'private jet for the road' we might have seen it in production form as early as 2023.  However, new management arrived and decided the Lagonda was a distraction, and has dropped the idea, for now at least.

In the early days it was a race car builder, set up by Brian Lister who built 50 cars up to 1959. The brand was then largely mothballed but it was acquired in 1986 by Lawrence Pearce who tuned Jaguar XJSs before creating the formidable V12-powered Storm, which proved successful in GT racing.

The company changed hands once again in 2013, to focus on continuation 1950s-style racers and – once again – tuned Jaguars.

In 2020 Lister unveiled the 666bhp Lister Stealth (pictured), based on the Jaguar F-Type. At the time it was claimed to be Britain’s fastest and most powerful SUV, with a top speed of 195mph.

First set up by Wilhelm Maybach in 1909 to build engines for airships, his company also manufactured luxury cars from 1921 until 1940 like the magnificent Zeppelin (pictured). Maybach built tank engines throughout the war - including those for the infamous Tiger - then it all went quiet until Daimler-Benz bought the company in 1960.

But it would be another 37 years before the brand reappeared with a luxurious concept car unveiled at the 1997 Tokyo motor show. A production car followed in 2002 (pictured) but sales proved sluggish and in December 2012 production ended, after 3321 of the cars had been produced.

Maybach was revived again in 2014 as a badge for ultra-posh models in the Mercedes range. It’s being used by Mercedes to compete with models from Rolls-Royce and Bentley - both companies owned by its primary German rivals BMW and Volkswagen, respectively. Maybach versions are now available for the GLS-Class, S-Class, SL-Class (pictured) and the EQS SUV EV.

Between 1899 and 1959 Packard built some of the most luxurious and advanced cars in the US, but when it merged with the ailing Studebaker company in 1954 it started to go wrong. The company’s factory in Detroit closed in 1956, and the name was discontinued in 1958.

Then, in 1993 entrepreneur Roy Gullickson decided to bring the Packard marque back from the dead.

In 1998 the Packard Twelve was first shown. A 573bhp 8.6-litre V12 powered the four-door four-wheel drive saloon but it seems nobody wanted to buy one.

The only prototype built (pictured) was sold by RM Auctions in 2014, for $143,000 (£108,325 then).

Originally a coachbuilder in the true sense (of carriages), Dutch company Spyker started trading in 1880. By 1903 it had built the world's first four-wheel drive car with brakes on all four wheels and a six-cylinder engine (pictured). After around 2000 cars had been made Spyker closed down in 1926.

In 1999 the name was adopted for a new company which produced the C8 supercar with an Audi 4.2-litre V8. Since then the company has built around 300 cars, but it seems to have gone out of business in 2021.

British firm Trident was always low-profile, with just 130 or so cars made between 1966 and 1978. Fitted with either six- or eight-cylinder engines, the Clipper, Venturer and Tycoon (pictured) were intriguing sports cars that are still largely unknown. 

So bringing the Trident marque back from the dead was an odd decision, but that's what happened when a new car appeared in 1998, only to disappear then reappear in 2000 as the Iceni (pictured), which first featured a 3.2-litre V6, and then in 2007 a concept car featured a 6.6-litre GM turbodiesel. But nothing has made it to production as yet.

TVR built its first car in 1949 and over the next 57 years it changed hands several times and created some incredible sports cars, like this Sagaris, but it couldn't last. The final cars were built in 2006 and it looked like that was it.

But in 2013 the brand was sold to Les Edgar and John Chasey. The new Griffith was unveiled in 2017 but series production has been repeatedly delayed.

When Lotus unveiled a front-wheel drive Elan (known as the M100) in 1989 there were many who reckoned the company had lost the plot. After all, a decent sports car has to be rear-wheel drive, right? Not so - Lotus did a magnificent job in creating a landmark sportster.

Lotus produced the Elan M100 until 1995 - a year later it was revived as a Kia, which built it for the Korean market. Outwardly identical to the Lotus edition, aside from new rear lights, the Kia Elan featured a 1.8-litre engine in place of the Lotus's 1.6-litre unit.

Reliant launched a two-door Scimitar coupé in 1964, but it was the three-door shooting brake of 1968 that would put the Scimitar on the map - later there would also be a cabriolet with a T-bar, just like the Triumph Stag's. In 1986 Reliant ended Scimitar production to focus on making three-wheelers.

Recognising that there was still demand for the Scimitar, Middlebridge acquired the rights to continue production with a revamped car going on sale in 1988. This incorporated 450 improvements over the Reliant edition, but just 78 cars were made before Middlebridge went out of business.

Just 19 DB4 GT Zagatos were built in the 1960s. They went on to become the most collectible Aston Martins ever made.

In 1988 Aston Martin put the Zagato back into production – kind of. It built four new cars known as Sanction II models with previously unused chassis numbers. In 2000 another two DB4 GT Zagatos were made, known as Sanction IIIs.

Now largely forgotten and overshadowed by the 16, the Renault 12 made its debut in 1969 with a 1.3-litre engine; later would come a 1.6-litre Gordini edition. Renault built the car until 1980.

With Renault having killed off the 12 it was up to Dacia to keep production going, which it did until 2004, a cool 35 years after the car had first gone on sale.

Taking over where the 80 left off, the first Audi A4 landed in 1994. A second take on the formula was released in 2000, known internally as the B6 and this was facelifted in 2004 to become the B7. By 2008 the B7 had been replaced by an all-new A4.

The B7 might not have been up to date enough for Audi, but SEAT was quite happy to add the car to its range in saloon and estate forms, as the Exeo. In the end the B7 was in SEAT's range for longer than it was in Audi's (five years vs four).

Founded in 1852, Studebaker built its first car in 1902. By 1954 Studebaker had merged with Packard, then in 1963 the company closed its South Bend factory in Indiana, just a year after its Avanti had been introduced. With a production run of just a year, fewer than 6000 Avantis were made.

When the company folded, Studebaker dealers Nate and Arnold Altman and Leo Newman took over production before selling everything on. The Avanti would end up being made by five different companies after Studebaker went bust, with convertible and four-door editions introduced along the way.

The SD1 was the first project undertaken by British Leyland's new central development team. Production ran for a decade from 1976, with 300,000 or so examples (badly) made, few of which survive today.

Just as Austin Rover was giving up on the SD1, India's Standard was putting it into production, in 1985. Whereas most SD1s featured a six- or eight-cylinder engine (although it was offered with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder), the 2000 came only with an ancient 88bhp 1991cc four-cylinder engine based on the unit seen in the Standard Vanguard in the late 1940s.

The car didn’t sell very well, and production ended in 1988 after around 1700 examples were produced.

Overshadowed by the later Farina Oxford, that car's predecessor was the Series II which arrived in 1954, which was facelifted two years later to become the Series III. This went out of production in 1959 when the all-new Farina-bodied Oxford came along, also offered in Austin Cambridge form.

The Morris Oxford Series III went into production in 1958 in India, as the Hindustan Ambassador. Incredibly it remained in production until 2014 and in the 1990s an attempt was made to import the Ambassador to the UK but British buyers weren’t interested in this obsolete car.

One of the most controversial cars ever made, the DeLorean was built in Northern Ireland but just 8583 were made before the company closed down amid various scandals.

Having gained such a cult following, US DeLorean specialist DMC announced in January 2016 that it was going to build a small number of new DeLoreans, bringing the car back from the dead. In 2022 it announced a new series of DeLorean electric vehicles.

Launched in 1962, the MGB went on to become the world's best-selling sports car. Apart from a few thousand V8-powered GT (coupe) examples, all MGBs came with a 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine. The final MGB was built in 1980, and its factory near Oxford died with it.

British Leyland never offered a V8-powered MGB roadster, but more than two decades after the final MGB had been built the car was revived by Austin Rover in the form of the RV8. Just under 2000 examples were made, each with a 3.9-litre Rover V8.

One of the most copied cars ever created, the Cobra started out as the AC Ace, into which Carroll Shelby placed a Ford V8. At first it was a 4.7 litre engine, but later came the legendary 7.0-litre edition.

The original AC Cobra went out of production in 1969, in Mk3 form. But the car was revived in 1982 by Autokraft, which licensed the AC name and came up with the MkIV, still powered by a Ford V8. Since then the Cobra has remained in production, made by a series of companies and carrying a series of different names.

Founded by Jem Marsh and Frank Costin, Marcos arrived in 1959 and five years later the GT was introduced with a choice of Volvo, Ford and Triumph engines. But by 1972 it was all over, with Marcos going out of business thanks to changes in the market and taxation regimes.

Jem Marsh brought Marcos back from the dead in 1982, and having bought the moulds to the GT in 1976 he put the car back into production. At first there were various Ford and Triumph engines offered but in 1983 a Rover V8 option was added to the range.

At first the cars were sold as kits only but from 1990 the cars came only fully assembled.

Reliant had been offering three-wheeled vehicles since 1935 but it wasn't until 1973 that its most iconic model was launched - the Robin. Styled by Scimitar GTE designer Tom Karen (1926-2022), the car was facelifted numerous times before Reliant finally gave up on the Robin in 2000, to focus on selling other companies' three-wheelers including the Piaggio Ape.

Realising that there was still a significant demand for cars missing a wheel, B&N Plastics bought the rights to produce the Robin and production resumed in 2001. The company was allowed to produce 250 Robins per year under the licence but just 40 were made before it all came to an end in 2002.

The original Vauxhall Victor was the F-Type of 1957; the fifth and final iteration was the FE which made its debut in 1972. Production ended in 1978 with the arrival of the Vauxhall Carlton.

Knowing a tasty design when one came along, Indian car maker Hindustan spotted that Vauxhall had finished with the Victor FE, so it scooped up the tooling to put the car back into production as a luxury model. Sold as the Hindustan Contessa in its home market, sales were slow as there wasn't really much demand for luxury cars.

The BMC Mini spawned a huge variety of low-volume cars throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including the Mini Marcos. This glassfibre-bodied mini-GT was a great success for Marcos with one example notching up a 15th place at Le Mans in 1966.

The demise of Marcos in the early 1970s meant the end of the Mini Marcos. But in 2005 the car was revived by Marcos Heritage Spares as the Heritage MkVI.

A mid-engined sports car based on the Lancia Beta was always going to add some spice to a range with an image that lacked sparkle. Unfortunately, the Monte Carlo (sold as the Lancia Scorpion in the US) suffered a litany of problems, including the over-servoed brakes locking the front wheels with just the slightest provocation. Lancia gave up on the Montecarlo in 1978.

After two years of development Lancia brought the Montecarlo back from the dead. The brake servo had been removed and some of the many build quality issues had been addressed. But in 1982 time was called on the Montecarlo for good.

Lamborghini launched its V8-powered Urraco junior supercar in 1973. Three years later a two-seater version of this car was offered, known as the Silhouette and powered by a 3.0-litre mid-mounted V8. Just 52 were made before production was wound up in 1979.

The 1970s were incredibly turbulent for Lamborghini so it attempted to get on an even keel in the 1980s by launching a new V8 junior supercar as a more affordable alternative to its V12-powered Countach.

Except it wasn't a new car at all - it was the Silhouette dusted down and relaunched under a different name, with just a light cosmetic refresh, a 3.5-litre version of the Silhouette's V8 and now called the Jalpa.

When Lotus launched the Seven in 1957 it turned the sports car market upside down. Never before had such a focused, lightweight and affordable sports car been offered. Buyers could choose between a wide variety of engines over the years, but by 1970 the unloved Series 4 had been launched, with ugly glassfibre bodywork. In 1973 Lotus built its final Seven.

Lotus had offered the Seven in kit form but it wanted to abandon that market to focus instead on selling completed cars. Thankfully it realised there was still a market for the self-build Seven so it sold the rights to Lotus dealer Caterham Cars, which has continued production right up to the present day.

The Morris Marina appeared in 1971, taking over where the Morris Minor left off. In 1980 a heavily revised version was revealed, called the Ital. It was still terrible to drive and appallingly badly made which is why nobody missed it when it went out of production in 1984, taking the Morris brand with it.

Sometime in the late 1990s the Ital reappeared in China, now made by the First Auto Works and sold as the catchily named Huandu CAC6430.

Saloon and estate versions were offered and the car proved reasonably popular, but by summer 1999 the factory had closed down and the Ital was no more; the Marina had somehow lived to nearly 30 years of age.

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