Driven To Distraction Trivia Quiz

Answer: Spider

The Spider was manufactured between 1966 and 1993 in four different series, but each series was a two-seater, front-engined sports car which looked beautiful. It came with an engine size ranging from 1300 cc to 2000 cc, and in 1985 Alfa Romeo paid tribute to the iconic Hoffman film by producing a Spider called "The Graduate".

Answer: Spitfire

The Spitfire was designed by renowned Italian sports car designer, Giovanni Michelotti, who was also responsible for some of the more beautiful cars ever made, such as the Bugatti Type 252, Reliant Scimitar SS1 and the Maserati Sebring, as well as designing the Leyland National bus.

The Spitfire was a two- seater sports car, with a four speed manual gearbox, that unusually for 1962 had roll down windows instead of the more common side screens. In the Monty Python sketch, "Upper Class Twit Of The Year", the twits can be seen using Spitfires to reverse over the cardboard cut-out of an old woman.

Answer: Mangusta

Oritteropo is an aardvark, criceto is hamster and struzzo, although a great name for a car, is Italian for ostrich, leaving just the mangusta or mongoose as the one famed for taking on cobras. The cobra in question here is the AC Cobra, also known as the Shelby Cobra. De Tomaso may have been slightly optimistic with their Cobra killing claim though as the Cobra had a quicker 0-60 time and a slightly faster top speed, although in my opinion, the Mangusta was the much sexier looking of the two. The movie "Kill Bill Volume 2" (2004) shows Bill (David Carradine) driving a Mangusta.

Answer: Golf

The VW Golf has been with us since 1974 and every generation of the car manages to improve on previous versions. The mark one GTI, which was a tuned version of the original model, was the original "hot hatch" beloved of boy racers across the UK, and now worth serious money to car collectors.

Answer: Versailles

When the Versailles was introduced in 1977, it was the first new model of Lincoln since 1960, as well as being the smallest Lincoln available. Although the car was only manufactured for three years, it was a groundbreaker, being the first production car in North America to have halogen headlights rather than sealed beam units and clearcoat paint as opposed to the normal solid paint.

Answer: Panda

The record for driving between Cape Town and London, in either direction had previously been held by Eric Jackson and Ken Chambers in 1963, as a publicity stunt to promote the launch of the new Ford Cortina. This stood until 2010 when their time of 13 days, eight hours and 48 minutes was broken by Chris Rawlings and brothers Mac and Steve MacKenney in a Land Rover Defender who shaved one day, 18 hours and 37 minutes off the record.

Their record didn't stand as long though as Young and Brace broke it in their intrepid Panda, although their claim to the title lasted even less time as just eight months later, Stephen Cooper and Robert Belcher drove a Land Rover Discovery over the 10,000 miles in ten days, three hours and 16 minutes.

The Fiat Panda was first produced in 1980 as a cheap, basic vehicle, lacking luxuries but high on practicality.

Answer: Compass

The Compass was introduced in 2007 primarily for Jeep owners who don't drive off road and managed to sell an impressive 20,000 units in its first year. By 2017, the second generation Compass was selling over 100,000 units, even though there was much criticism for its under powered engine.

Answer: Monarch

Before being replaced by the Comet in 1981, the Monarch was available in four engine sizes ranging from 3.3 litre to 5.8 litres with trim levels being the base model and the Ghia. There was also a luxury version of the car, called the Grand Monarch which had a host of features as standard such as power steering and reclining bucket seats.

This model eventually became the Lincoln Versailles.

Answer: Leaf

With almost half a million cars sold between 2010 and 2019, the Leaf is the world's best selling electric car, with its largest market being USA. With a range of between 117 km (73 miles) and 175 km (109 miles) and a charge time of just four to eight hours depending on the power train, the Leaf looks set to be around for many years to come.

Answer: Marina

The Morris Marina was sold all over the world, and was especially popular in Australia and New Zealand as well as UK, although build quality was never of the highest standard. South Korea's first mass-produced car, the Hyundai Pony, which first appeared in 1975 was actually based on the Morris Marina.