Pocket Rockets – Four Tiny Cars That Go Really Fast
May 21, 2014
By Rob Sass / Originally Published April 4, 2014 / Hagerty
As Americans, we’re used to our performance cars coming in relatively large packages— Tire-smoking muscle cars with big-block engines that proved there really was no substitute for cubic inches and no replacement for displacement. Or was there? The cars on this list are all diminutive, yet an off-the-chart power to weight ratio means they have performance to match far bigger supercars.
2005-? Lotus Elise: No list of great pocket rockets would be complete without a Lotus. Lotus Founder Colin Chapman’s mantra was speed through extremely light weight. The Elise’s sub-2,000-pound weight, combined with a 189 hp Toyota-sourced engine, made it good for 0-60 in about 4.7 seconds. The Elise’s super sharp handling and communicative steering make it one of the best driver’s cars on the planet, assuming you can fit in it.
1964-66 Griffith 200 and 400: American race shop owner Jack Griffith had dinner with Carroll Shelby one night and in a fit of bombast, declared that he could build a car that was faster than the Shelby Cobra. Following the same formula of squeezing a small-block Ford V-8 into a small British car, Griffith found a car much smaller and lighter than the AC Ace that the Cobra was based on in the tiny fiberglass TVR Grantura. Using the hi-po version of Ford’s 289, the Griffith 200 succeeded in its maker’s quest and may at the time have been the quickest car on the planet, with a 0-60 time of 3.9 seconds. Because of the car’s tiny 85.5-inch wheelbase, handling was said to be as nervous as a badger on PCP.
1966 Griffith 400 (photo courtesy of Profdeuce)
1983-86 Renault R5 Turbo: To the extent that Americans are familiar with this car, it is because of the car that it is based on, the underachieving little hatchback sold here as the Renault Le Car. And while that was a front-engine, front-wheel-drive economy car, the R5 turbo (the real purpose of which was to compete for the World Rally Championship) had its engine moved to the mid position driving the rear wheels. It was perhaps the only car to ever be sold in both of these configurations. With a tiny turbocharged 1.3-liter engine, the R5 turbo was capable of performance that would surprise many unwary Porsche 911 owners. They were never officially sold in the U.S. but a good number of them were privately imported and federalized.
Renault R5 Turbo (photo courtesy of Contri)
1996-99 Panoz AIV Roadster: England has a long history of a sports car cottage industry that produced cars like Morgan, Marcos, Ginetta and many more that are even more obscure. America doesn’t have quite that history, but that didn’t stop Georgian Dan Panoz from producing the tiny cycle fender AIV Roadster without a top, side windows or radio, but with a 32-valve, 4.6-liter Ford SVT Cobra V-8. AIV stood for “aluminum intensive vehicle,” and the car’s diminutive size combined with the use of that lightweight metal made for a fiercely fast but tiny car. The 176 produced are highly prized by collectors.
Panoz Roadster (photo courtesy of Nate Grigg)
This article has been reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder, Hagerty. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Click here for more classic car stories from Hagerty.
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If you want to enjoy a piece of English sportscar racing take a look at Paul Tooms racing Griffith 400’s, a FIA Shelby AC Cobra, and E-Jaguars (lightweights) with his Lotus Elan S2. Paul is quite an orator and has one of the best non-jarring cameras in the car racing business. He is also humorous and tells it like it is. The Internet site is Croft Guards Trophy August 2014, U-tube. I see it all the time as there are a few spin outs and Paul comments are quite funny.
Returning home from a British garage in Sacramento and stopped at a long red light. Had my windows down on my 1966, Griffith 400, when a man in his,probably late, 30’s and in his 2013, 750 IL, lowered his window and stated that he had never seen a real Griffith 400 sportscar in the real world. After giving me some great compliments he added that he had only seen Griffiths in films and some magazines. When he heard the roar of the Ford V/8 and I went into second gear he just smiled and made a right turn.
So, you Griffith owners have a great New Year, and enjoy your cars.
What is the cost of a Griffith 400 such as the one beating Shelbys AC Cobras at the 2011 Silverstone, Gentleman Drivers, race in the UK. Also, the lightgreen Griffith 400 of Shipman and Niguel Reuben which, at times, appears to be faster than the lightblue Griffith 400 of the Sean and Michael McInerney?
We never heard of a Griffith and all we heard about were the AC Cobras. Seeing these Griffith cars beat the lightweight Jaguars, AC Shelby Cobras, 250 Ferraris, Austim Martins, Porsche 904’s, and Corvettes at the 2013, Oldtimers Gran Prix tells me that the PR of the Cobras obscured, and for a good reason-too fast for the Cobras- fellows, such as me, not to buy a car that could beat the well publicized Shelby AC Cobra.
These Griffith 400’s of which only 59 were produced for the entire world are now selling for 100,000 British pounds which is about 200,000 dollars. And if Jack Andrew Griffith passes away they will probably go up to the millions. Jack produced these beatiful and heavy duty racing cars for the streets. They are extremely rare. We just love the rear end and the front of the car.
Take a look at the Silvestone 2011 race in the UK, or the 2013 Oldtimers Grand Prix, and the latest in the 2014 Goodwood race in the UK. Niguel Reuben is a master at rebuilding these Griffith 400’s. When one see these heavy duty racing Griffith 400’s such as the McInerney’s and Shipmans beating AC Shelby Cobras one knows that it take a special automobile to do that in the racing circuits.
Billionaire shieks look for these super production race cars and are proud to have them in their automobile collections. Millions of dollar for them are like a couple of hundres for us. “Wow, I have a car that beats Cobras,” they say. If you own an original Griffith 400 hang on to it! If a super rich corporate CEO paid 3.5 million recently for a big American Dodge or Plymouth which never raced or had any kind of reputation imagine what a Griffith 400 will be worth in the future. Oh, by the way, the big 5800 pound Dodge was one of three built. So, if a billionaire can buy a car because only three were built what will they offer for an automobile that can beat 1962-65, Shelby AC Cobras, lightweight E-Jaguars, Porshes 904’s, Corvettes, Austin Martins, Ferraris, and slick and fast Lotus Elans?