What Classic Car
Discover the histories of Britain’s car makers, find classic car clubs, and use our free UK classic car directory of specialists, services and parts suppliers.
Car manufacturers A–Z
AC
One of Britain's oldest car makers, AC began in West Norwood, London, in 1901 and moved to Thames Ditton, Surrey, in 1911. It is best known for the…
Albion
Albion was founded in Glasgow in 1899 by two former Arrol-Johnston engineers. It built sturdy cars until 1915, but made its name with lorries and buses, built at…
Allard
Sydney Allard built big-engined trials and sports cars in Clapham, south London, from 1945. His J2 finished third at Le Mans in 1950 and was raced by Carroll…
Alvis
T. G. John founded Alvis in Coventry in 1919, and its 12/50 and Speed 20 made it one of Britain's most respected makers of quality sporting cars. Car…
Argyll
By the mid-1900s Argyll was Scotland's biggest car maker, with a vast, palatial factory at Alexandria near Loch Lomond. It never filled the works, and after two collapses…
Ariel
Simon Saunders set up the company in 1991 to build the Atom, a lightweight exoskeleton sports car that began as a Coventry University student project. Based in Crewkerne,…
Armstrong Siddeley
A Coventry maker of dignified, well-engineered luxury cars, Armstrong Siddeley grew out of the same Siddeley-Deasy business that also built aircraft engines, and its cars shared some of…
Arrol-Johnston
One of Britain's very first car makers, founded in Glasgow in 1895 by the engineer George Johnston with backing from Sir William Arrol, builder of the Forth Bridge.…
Aston Martin
Founded in London in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford, Aston Martin grew from a small maker of sporting light cars into Britain's best-known builder of luxury…
Austin
Herbert Austin left Wolseley to found the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge, south-west of Birmingham, in 1905. The little Austin Seven of 1922 put Britain on wheels, Austin…
Austin-Healey
Austin-Healey was born at the 1952 Motor Show, when Austin's Leonard Lord saw Donald Healey's Healey Hundred and agreed to build it as the Austin-Healey 100. The big…
BAC
Brothers Neill and Ian Briggs founded Briggs Automotive Company in Liverpool in 2009 to build the Mono, a single-seat, road-legal supercar launched in 2011. Its Mono R of…
Bean
Bean Cars, made by the Black Country ironfounders A. Harper Sons & Bean in Dudley and Coseley, briefly outsold Austin and Morris in the early 1920s. Car production…
Belsize
Belsize Motors of Clayton, Manchester, grew out of Marshall & Company, probably Manchester's first car maker. Before the First World War it employed 1,200 people and built cars,…
Bentley
W. O. Bentley founded Bentley Motors in Cricklewood, north London, in 1919, and his big sporting cars won Le Mans five times between 1924 and 1930. Owned by…
Berkeley
Caravan maker Charles Panter and designer Lawrie Bond created Berkeley in 1956 at Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, building small glass-fibre sports cars with motorcycle engines. About 4,100 were made, including…
Bond Cars
Bond built quirky three-wheeled Minicars in Preston, Lancashire, from 1949, followed by small sports cars, before Reliant took the company over in 1969. Its best-known model, the wedge-shaped…
Bristol
Bristol Cars began in 1945 as the car-making arm of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, building hand-made grand tourers to aircraft standards near Bristol. Famously private and selling from…
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