Classic roadster design

Let’s start with the first identifiably modern roadster, the Jaguar E-type, which is a front engined ‘cigar’ shape.

From the other side of the pond came the slightly more ‘geometric’ Corvette.

Put those together and scale them down to affordable, flatten the boot, revert to round headlights and you end up with a Triumph Spitfire.

A Mazda MX5 Mk2 is a Triumph Spitfire but more ‘cigar’ shaped and with a hint of ‘wedge’ (the boot is higher than the bonnet). The Mk1 was even wedgier.

Starting from the other end, the first affordable rear engined ‘wedge’ shaped roadster was the Fiat X19.

The Porsche Boxster is a rear engined ‘cigar’ shape.

Scale down a Boxster to Fiat X19 dimensions (basically by chopping off the front and rear boots), pitch it somewhere between ‘cigar’ and ‘wedge’ and you get a Toyota MR2 roadster.

By overlapping the outlines of all of the above in Excel as far as possible; drawing the line of best fit; scaling it down to affordable; and improvising a bit, I ended up with this. I know the quarter-glass is old fashioned, but it leaves you more room for a 9″ door speaker. The front end is a bit blunt, this is to give you space for a number plate above the air intake rather than having a more elegant line which is then ruined when you add the number plate