Designer: Dennis and Peter Adams
Builder: Adams Brothers
Based on: n/a
Stanley Kubrick’s portrayal of a near-future Britain, described in Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange, required the construction of a nightmarish reality that was both familiar, yet strangely distant. Seen through the eyes of the sociopathic antihero Alex (Michael McDowell) and his band of “droogs,” the story follows their various acts of “ultra-violence.” While committing their crimes, the gang employs the “Durango ‘95,” known in the real world as the Probe 16, a dramatic car that fits seamlessly into this exaggerated world.
The Adams Probe 16 was created by Dennis and Peter Adams in 1969 as “an investigation into extremes of styling.” The same year, the Adams Brothers exhibited the Probe 16 at the London Motor Show where it won a design award for the “Best British Styling Exercise.” As an example of extreme and definitively “British” styling, the rare Probe 16 reflects the uncanny world of an ultra-violent Britain established in the film’s dystopian vision of the future.
Brothers Dennis and Peter Adams were responsible for the futuristic design of Marcos sports cars in the 1960s, and by the end of the decade had begun creating their own cars. The Probe 16 was their second independent design. The 34-inch high car featured a fiberglass body mated to a wooden monocoque, making the car extremely light, which was convenient given its low-powered, transversely-mounted, inline-4 Austin engine. The follow-on to the Probe 16 was the Probe 2001, which offered upgraded features such as seats that would move up and back to ease entry, which was still through the roof.