This week’s British Motor Show is packed with innovative, hi-tech, beautifully styled new cars. Many important models – the Jaguar XF and Lotus’s ‘Project Eagle’ to name two – will be carrying the fortunes of entire businesses on their shoulders. But will these promising newcomers actually have what it takes to turn the manufacturers around?

To help you decide, we’ve taken a look back at 20 pivotal ‘miracle’ models which did exactly that at one time. In very different ways, and in some extraordinary circumstances, these cars have effectively changed the world, saving their makers from oblivion.

Alfa Romeo

Model: 156

Miracle: Italian marque was scraping the barrel throughout the early Nineties, leaving owner Fiat wondering why it bothered propping up its historic but increasingly faded sports car division.