For an auto maker that built such a wide range of cars in such volumes, Triumph always had an individual streak. In many ways, of course, its products mirrored those of MG, its great British rival.

As for Chrysler, they went to great lengths to avoid the V8 fad at first, ensuring their much-beloved straight-eight engines lasted past the end of the war, even into the very early 1950s. This is the ...