Is there anything more exciting than a good automotive mystery? No, of course there isn’t. What a silly question, I’m not even sure why you asked it. Still, I’m glad you did, because a fascinating automotive mystery has drooled out of the internet and onto my lap today, and it’s one that I think we should discuss. It’s a mystery car – well, not even that, really, a drawing of a mystery car, appearing in the background of a photograph of Jaguar’s 1999 concept car, the XK 180.
It’s not the XK 180 that’s interesting in this picture, and that’s saying a lot, since for most pictures the XK 180 is in, it’s the interesting part of that picture. But in this picture, taken in the studios of Abbey Panels, the Coventry-based coachbuilder, we see the XK 180 concept – or, more likely, a detailed and painted clay styling model of the car – it’s the wall-sized packaging and layout drawing of an unidentified four-door sedan that catches my attention.
It was in this tweet that I saw this image, and was so struck:
Boxing Day puzzle for you. I'm reading the autobiog of former Jaguar designer Keith Helfet. This pic of the XK180 styling model in the studio at Abbey Panels in Coventry caught my eye, not for the Jag but because of the mystery package drawing behind it. Anyone know what it was? pic.twitter.com/etWbbDk6zc
— Richard Porter (@sniffpetrol) December 26, 2024
Okay, so there’s the XK 180 – I’m guessing this picture was likely taken in 1997 or 1998, a bit after this photo of the XK 180 concept was taken, because in the linked photo the model isn’t painted yet, and this one is. So this has to be after that, say sometime in 1998.
But let’s look closer at that car drawing in the background:
See anything interesting there? Here, let me help:
Look at that: this fairly normally-proportioned four-door sedan is hiding a big secret! It’s a mid-rear-engine design! That silhouette looks a lot like a transverse inline- (probably) four setup, the kind of thing that could have been relocated rearward from a high-volume transverse front/FWD design, sort of like what GM did with the Fiero.
Who the hell was considering a mid-rear four-door sedan in the late 1990s? The design looks like it could be a number of things; it has a sort of cab-forward Mopar feeling to it, like a Dodge Neon, and sort of reminds me of the Neon concept car from 1991:
It’s not that, though. It just reminded me of it enough to justify putting the picture in here. The overall shape and proportions and the rear sort of feels like a Mark I Ford Mondeo:
Of course, my thinking may be clouded by the fact that Ford bought Jaguar in 1999, and, if I’m honest, there are a lot of cars around this era with taillights roughly that shape and overall proportions and design like that.
But none of those were mid-engined.
The front hood seems pretty steeply raked, and if we follow the hood line out, I think it may have tapered to a pretty dramatically sloped front end:
What was this thing? I’m dying to know. There have been vanishingly few non-sports car mid-rear (not counting vans like the Previa, which was more mid-front, anyway) designs in the (relatively) modern era of cars. I can only think of the Volkswagen prototype EA266, which never made it to production, but was a mid-rear family car:
Even that wasn’t a full four-door sedan, though! What other four-door, mid-rear-engined cars are there that were built in any real numbers? Maybe the Tatra 700 counts? It’s barely mid-rear, with that engine right over the rear axle, but I think we can count it.
I suppose if we go way, way back, the Rumpler Tropfenwagen might count, too:
But, really, that’s about it. Whatever that mid-engined four-door sedan was, it would have been incredibly unique if it made it to market.
I tried looking up other clients that Abbey Panels had, but I couldn’t really find anything that seemed to fit this. The X-Twitter feed has lots of speculation, with some people thinking the wheels feel like Lotus, and maybe Lotus was considering a bigger family car (they do have the mid-engine expertise) and some going the Mondeo route, but so far I don’t think anyone knows.
So, you know what that means! We need to speculate! Wildly! Guess! Assume things, with wanton glee! Maybe we’ll stumble onto the truth!
I immediately got that Chinese market-cheap Porsche sedan from the 90’s in my head when I saw that picture, and I have no idea why.
The C88? It’s the roof. A lot of small sedans and coupes from the era have that perfectly half elliptical roof. Cavalier, Saturn SC, Dodge Neon, Dodge Intrepid…
It was Ian Calum’s daily driver
The doors in overall shape look Fordish to me, so why not go completely bat shit and speculate that it is the T Dr. powertrain that we are looking at?
A tiny transverse straight eight, that’s the ticket!
So I will say it’s a 1990 Mercury Cyclone concept car drawing with the transverse straight eight moved to behind the back seat, and I’m sticking to that.
I looked up that 1990 Cyclone, it looks really similar to me! Best match of anything else suggested.
Pretty nice concept right?
could be a 2000’s Ford Cougar prototype?
Are we sure it’s not just a front facing child seat built into the trunk? You know, for when the kid is being particularly obnoxious.
I’m getting Geo Storm and Saturn Coupe vibes from this
I just want to say how the prototype Neon wheels remind me of abstract Ronal Teddy Bears
That’s a blast from the past! Didn’t know anyone else knew about those wheels!
Probably an early sketch idea for the X-Type. The mid-engine bit is just to throw us off…
So it is a Mondeo.
Dunno, but long long before there was a Renault Daimler to ruin Renault-Nissan and Renault-Mitsubishi (Holy Grail is coming, and it’s from Honda!); and long before DaimlerChrysler wantonly growed up die NEON; before mk1 Neon even went on sale, I rented one with 50,000 miles on the clock. Especially suspicious, as it was an inexplicable rocket – unlike any happy rentals that followed…
Naah. I’ll bet the drawing is a Contour.
I have no idea what the drawing may be.
However: “ What other four-door, mid-rear-engined cars are there that were built in any real numbers?”
The third generation Renault Twingo and related Smart Forfour.
Mid-engined Dodge Neon? Sign me the hell up for that alternate timeline.
I can’t un-see how much that rear end looks like the Vauxhall (Opel) Tigra, even though that was a Corsa-based FF-layout coupé. The basic shape of the nose is very similar too.
https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/gallery/OPEL-Tigra-1010_15.jpg
Range extender !!
Plot twist: it’s a design put in to confuse Autopians 25 years later
Alternative reality X-type? Some sort of excercise inspired by the MB A-class mk1 and Mini Spiritual concepts – different ways to package a smallish car?
But not anything real, why would you set it up on the wall for everybody to see? So, possibly a PR stunt recycling past concept drawings? Jaguar is innovating, Jaguar is cool!
Since BL owned Jaguar at the time I believe it is an idea for an MG F based sedan.
Iirc 1994 is the year ford bought jag. So by 1998 it’s a ford project in the foreground not that it matters to a separate company.
98 is definitely ford as I owned a 98 jag with its weirdly cheap parts for some things.
You’re right. Ford bought Jag in 1990. I was off buy a decade. LR was bought in 1999/2000.
Looks like a 1996ish Geo Metro sedan.
Really reminds me of the Ford Contour concept (NOT the production car) of 1991, though why it would turn up in a Jag design studio 8 years later is beyond me. https://www.story-cars.com/1991-ford-contour
The curve of the rear door doesn’t use the standard sedan method of following the lines of the rear wheel arch. That might help narrow it down, but I’m not well versed in small European sedans of the late 90s.
Another mystery, in the image of the 1991 Dodge Neon concept car they mention a “manual on-board trash compactor” but a quick & cursory search on DDG & Google turns up virtually nothing beyond an interior shot of the concept car on a Russian website which doesn’t seem to show such a feature?
https://carstyling.ru/en/car/1991_dodge_neon/
The trash compactor is in the center armrest. This YouTube video shows it in operation!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ziNlREZxaI
When it runs the car should play Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewy screaming.
OMG, glorious. And it’s turned off by a little R2 unit plugged into the dash.
Doesn’t our favourite goth uncle have connections to JLR? Maybe he can offer some insight?
Maybe it was one of Adrian’s designs…
I would support the Lotus conjecture. The tail is reminiscent of the Lotus Elan M100, as is the nose as drawn by JT. Lotus did periodically have these ideas of expanding their product line and a mid engine saloon would be on brand. Though cooling in such a tight installation might be an issue.
The wheels are also very reminiscent of the Lotus Elan M100, although not the same number of spokes
I’d agree with this. I’ve been looking a lot at the M100, and based on the images here:
https://www.gglotus.org/ggtech/m100-lcu-manual/m100lcu.htm
The engine is even inclined at roughly the same angle as the engine in the mystery car, albeit in the wrong direction (although flipping the diff upside down would sort that out). I guess if someone was photoshop capable you could put an M100 over the top of it, match the wheel sizes, and see whether the top of the engine on the drawing just barely clears the hood.
MG did something similar with the MGF, which used the Rover Metro’s front subframe as its rear subframe.
The sharp rake of the front end is also very similar but the taillights are complete departure from the Elan.
Maybe a hybrid Neon concept? kind of looks close to the 2nd gen, could’ve been thinking about competing with Prius’s but putting battery/motor up front and generator engine in the back by the fuel tank? Especially with the rake of that hood.
So THAT’s where Winnie The Pooh ended up.
I’m pretty sure he lives in Beijing…
I always saw the Janitor In A Drum appended down in Tesla’s skateboard chassis.
I’m scratching my head. It did also remind me of the Neon concept and I remember Chrysler also did a sort of third-world car concept around the time but that was the 2CV (?) and totally different. There is something else that this reminds me of from the era and it will be very difficult to think of it. I do not think this car is Mondeo-sized. It looks more like a C package or maybe a B. Nose is shorter than Jason’s sketch. Look at the rear seat packaging – legroom is quite tight with the driver in the rearmost of the two positions shown, which I’m guessing is like a 90th percentile male with the short one being a short female. Styling has Chrysler vibes but is also kind of generic late 90s. Wheel design shouldn’t be taken as anything other than a placeholder.
CCV, two piece molded plastic body, air cooled engine, Chrysler’s idea was that it could be made with minimal tooling and small scale assembly plants could be set up all over the place. I believe they trialed the molding techniques with Jeep Wrangler hardtops at the time
They also did molded plastic with actual Neon bumpers, you could get molded bumpers in Red, White and Lapis Blue, no paint and color all the way through so scratches didn’t show as bad.
That was on the Highline and Sport trim levels; the base model had gray bumpers. My mother had a white Neon Highline with the molded bumpers.
The gray bumpers on base neon was a 1995 model year thing. Beginning with the 1996 model year, all base neons had the grained, mold-in-color bumpers. The Highline 1996-99 had grained, mold-in-color bumpers if the body was painted one of the colors available on the base model. The Highlines with metallic paint had smooth, painted bumpers. All of the 1995-99 Sport, R/T and ACR neons had smooth, painted bumpers.
4dr 2+2 existed at this time. Mondeo and it’s us versions were a thing.