5 awesome cars celebrating their 50th birthdays in 2017

Looking back half a century later it’s easy to view all the new models from ’67 as classics, but in reality it was an interesting rather than vintage year. We have still managed to find five ’67 debutantes – each with, we hope, entertaining video clips – that did go on to great things. Cars like the…

Alfa Romeo Montreal

Made: 1970-1977

How many: 3,900

How fast: 137mph and 0-60 in 7.4 seconds

How to recognise one: those B-pillar vents and retractable headlight grilles

Price new: £5,077

Value now: In 2014 a Montreal was sold at auction in Arizona for a world record price of $176,000 (about £140,000)

From the man who a year before had designed the Lamborghini Miura, Alfa’s new 2+2 front engine/rear drive coupe was first shown at Expo 67 in Montreal. It didn’t have a name before it went to Canada but by the time it reached production in 1970 everyone knew it simply as Montreal. While Marcello Gandini’s design survived productionisation, the engineering didn’t, and the concept’s 1.6 motor from the Giulia made way for a dry-sumped V8 based on the engine in Alfa’s Tipo 33 Stradale sports prototype – complete with 7000rpm red line. It still didn’t make over 200bhp and the Montreal was never quite as fast as its looks – and E-type-beating price – suggested. And they never did sell it in Canada…

Chevrolet Camaro

Made: 1967-1969 (first-gen)

How many: 220,906 in first year

How fast: 0-60 6.9 seconds, 140mph (SS 350)

How to recognise one: think Bumblebee in Transformers

Price new: $2,588

Value now: a 1967 Yenko-conversion sold at auction in 2008 for US$480,000; average price in the US today for all ’67 models is $37,000

What would the Gerry Marshall Trophy at Members’ Meeting be without the Chevy Camaro? With its sheer grunt and bass growl the latter-day dices with Rover SD1s and Minis at Goodwood are the stuff of legend. And it all started 50 years ago. There have been five generations of the General’s muscle car since it literally erupted (watch the video…) on to the scene in 1966, ready to take on the world, but mostly the Ford Mustang, for the 1967 model year. In a Chev PR joke at the time, the car was said to have been named after a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs. The car came with sixes and V8s up to a big block 427 (7.0-litre) and at one stage there were 12 different engine options for it. The first-gen 2+2 body, in coupe or convertible form, established a style that endures to this day in the reborn 2009 version. 

NSU Ro80

Made: 1967-1977

How many: 37,406

How fast: 112mph

How to recognise one: still looks like it was launched yesterday

Price new: £1,900

Value now: £5,000-15,000

The Ro80 was Car of the Year in ’68 and for all the right reasons: it was blindingly modern, innovative, efficient, aerodynamic, spacious and yes beautiful too. Everything was set for a soaraway success… but NSU instead spent the next few years trying to stop it destroying its engine. By the time they had made the Wankel rotary reliable there was no way back for the Ro80, even though aspects of it (but not the engine!) would go on to be hugely influential, not least with the first aero design Audi 100 of the 1980s. Such a forward-looking car in so many ways – front drive, inboard all-round disc brakes, independent semi-trailing rear suspension, semi-automatic gearbox, aerodynamic wedge design – deserves a better epitaph. 

Toyota 2000GT

Made: 1967-1970

How many: 351

How fast: 135mph

How to recognise one: those big round plexiglass-covered driving lights

Price new: In the US, $6,800 – $2,000 more than an E-type!

Value now: Around a million bucks

Motor show star (Tokyo, 1965), film star (You Only Live Twice) and now star of the classic car auction room – in 2013 one of these exquisite Japanese sports coupe jewels sold for US$1.2 million. Far rarer than an E-type or Porsche 911 which, in its day, it sought to emulate, the 2000GT was as fine to drive as it was to look at. As long as you could fit in, that is. Sean Connery couldn’t which is why they lopped the top off the car for the Bond movie (it was the only convertible they made). The 2000GT started life as a Yamaha concept with the intention that it provide a supercar image boost for one of the newly-successful Japanese carmakers. Toyota took the bait and gave the car the E-type-inspired looks and inline six that Yamaha endowed with a twin cam head for 150hp. Result: image well and truly boosted. 

Aston Martin DBS

Made: 1967-1972

How many: 787

How fast: 140mph, 0-60 7.1 seconds (six-cylinder)

How to recognise one: fastback profiles came no faster in ’67

Price new: £4,473

Value now: The immaculately restored For the Love of Cars DBS Vantage from the telly sold at auction in 2015 for £150,000. Prices start at about £75,000

The last David Brown era Aston Martin, the DBS had a hard act to follow so for a couple of years after its unveiling in 1967 it didn’t try, being produced alongside the DB6 instead of replacing it. We think of the DB6 and its predecessors as the great classic Astons today but in ’67 the DBS was very much the in-vogue choice. The William Towns design of squared-off nose and fastback rear made a complete break with its progenitors, even though it shared the same 4.0-litre straight-six engine. The DBS was larger and roomier and by the time the V8 engine arrived in ’69 (tell it by its alloys rather than wire wheels) the DBS could claim to be the world’s fastest four-seater. The DBS has some James Bond history but many may remember the car more as the Bahama Yellow steed of Lord Brett Sinclair in the ‘70s TV action adventure serial The Persuaders. Despite its alloy wheels his lordship’s car was only ever a six-cylinder!