BREAD AND BUTTER

Manufacturers have always played on the glamour of their most sporting models to bring punters into showrooms, even if most of those customers left having bought cars from much lower down the model hierarchy. In the 1970s Triumph had the innovative Dolomite Sprints flinging up gravel on rally stages, while Ford still reigned supreme with their sporting Escorts.

Move down the pecking order though and you got to cars like the Toledo and the 1.1 and 1.3 Escorts; still fine motors in their own rights but somewhat lacking in the fire-breathing department. However, with the current craze for ‘everyday’ or ‘unexceptional’ cars showing no sign of abating and with price inflation pushing the hotter cars out of many people’s financial reach, we decided it was time to take a look at these more modest options.

TRIUMPH TOLEDO

Triumph had introduced the front-wheel