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Only those with a strong sense of the ironic could entertain the idea of an Excalibur. Dubbed a 'neo classic' by its makers, the first examples were built in the early '60s, and they soon became the required transport for flamboyant Hollywood film producers and other showbiz types bored with the usual European status-symbol cars.
The Excalibur, designed by Brook Stevens, was no cheap kit car: based on a massive separate chassis (originally a Studebaker design) it had a high quality GRP body shaped in the image of a twenties Mercedes SSK roadster, complete with functional exhaust headers.
Both 5.3 and, later, 7.0 litre Corvette engines were used, usually with automatic transmission. The 1965 and '66 models were Roadsters, but the four-seater Phaeton became optional from 1967. They still make Excaliburs today: Arnie has recently bought one and our own Tommy Steele was an Excalibur owner until recently. The Excalibur was the transport of America's answer to James Bond, Derek Flint, as played (with tongue firmly in cheek) by James Coburn in "Our Man Flint" and "In Like Flint".
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