The Vauxhall Equus was a two-door

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

first presented by

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

in spring, 1978. The word equus is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

for horse. It was the last concept car from Vauxhall for 25 years until August 2003, when the ''VX Lightning'' was unveiled at the 2004 Sunday Times Motorshow as part of the centrepiece to the company's centenary celebrations.

Specifications

The Equus was based on the chassis of the

Panther Lima The Panther Lima was a retro-styled roadster of the 1970s built by Panther Westwinds. It used Vauxhall Viva The Vauxhall Viva is a small family car that was produced by Vauxhall in a succession of three versions between 1963 and 1979. Th ...

, which itself was based on mechanicals of the

Vauxhall Magnum The Vauxhall Magnum is a car which was manufactured by Vauxhall from 1973 to 1978. First seen at the London Motor Show in October 1973, the Magnum was an HC Viva with a larger engine, more luxurious interior, higher trim level and four rather ...

Panther Panther may refer to: Large cats * Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **'' Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. *** Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in S ...

built the prototype.

Design

The Equus was styled by a team led by Wayne Cherry, along with his chief designer John Taylor. Work started in 1977 and the car was unveiled at the 1978 Birmingham NEC Motor Show. The design brief emphasised the use of parts by Vauxhall whenever possible. It featured an angular wedge design with Vauxhall's signature "droopsnout" front end, which was initially made popular by the

Vauxhall Firenza The Firenza is a model of car offered by Vauxhall from May 1971 until 1975. It was a development of the Viva, but had a distinctive coupé body style (fastback) and only two doors. In South Africa, it was sold as the Chevrolet Firenza until it ...

References

Equus Cars introduced in 1978 {{automobile-stub