Asp

If there’s one thing I find hard to stomach from the period where Chrysler owned Rootes it’s the axing of the Asp project. The Asp was to be Rootes’ entry in the Spridget/Spitfire end of the sports car market. It was to use the overhead cam, all alloy Imp engine. Rootes hadn’t quite worked out whether the engine was to go in the front or back. In any case it looked like being huge fun.

Unfortunately when Chrysler stepped in they couldn’t understand why anybody would want to buy a funny little car like that, so they scrapped the whole idea.

It’s ironic then that Chrysler is now considering building the Dodge Slingshot, a car that seems very much like a modern interpretation of the Asp.

Ryton

The downturn in the new car market has hit Peugeot UK (the company we used to know as Rootes). After reaching record levels of production at Ryton over the last couple of years, they’ve now had to cut production and sack workers.