Energy conservation 1980s style

Tomorrow (August 21st) a band of enthusiasts will be making their way to the Heritage Motor Centre to celebrate the work of the late Spen King. As I noted in my last post, Spen King's influence is evident in many of the cars that grace the museum.

To coincide with their arrival, we thought we'd dust off one of the cars from the reserve collection, ECV3 (energy conservation vehicle) and add it to the museum display. For a somewhat innocuous looking, bug shaped car, it was extremely innovative for 1982, with performance that manufacturers work hard to achieve now, some thirty years later.

Coming at a time when Michael Edwardes had pared down British Leyland, the newly formed BL Technology, headed up by King, straightaway produced ground breaking concepts. ECV3, with its aluminium frame, plastic body panels and aerodynamic, if slightly ugly, shape, was an innovative little car. Its three cylinder, one litre engine and lightweight design gave an impressive 115mph and a startling average fuel economy figure of 100mpg.

It's a shame BL didn't turn this into a reality more quickly but much of the work contained in this small car would feature in car technology in decades to come.