England

Discontinued 1973 – 1995 Sports & Specialist Kit Car

Spartan Cars built a traditionally-styled open two-seater kit car, first on Triumph Herald and Spitfire mechanicals, from Nottingham and later Derbyshire. Over 4,000 kits were exported to more…

Discontinued 1935 – 1936 Sports & Specialist

Adrian Squire, formerly of Bentley and MG, founded his car company in Henley-on-Thames while still in his early twenties. The Squire, a Grand Prix car turned road car…

Discontinued 1903 – 1963 Mainstream & Utility

A Coventry maker of dependable family cars, the Standard Motor Company was founded in 1903 by Reginald Maudslay. It built the post-war Vanguard, bought Triumph in the mid-1940s…

Discontinued 1898 – 1932 Mainstream & Utility

The Star Motor Company of Wolverhampton grew out of a bicycle business and built its first car, based on a Benz, in 1898. Known for well-engineered, long-lasting cars,…

Discontinued 1906 – 1926 Luxury / Prestige Sports & Specialist

Straker-Squire of Bristol built steam wagons, buses and fast, well-made cars. By 1909 its Fishponds works supplied 70% of London's buses. After the First World War car production…

Discontinued 1901 – 1976 Sports & Specialist

Sunbeam grew from John Marston's Wolverhampton cycle works into one of Britain's leading car makers of the early twentieth century, winning Grands Prix and setting land speed records…

Discontinued 1954 – 1955 Sports & Specialist

Built by the Swallow Coachbuilding Company in Walsall in 1954 and 1955, the Swallow Doretti was a handsome two-seater on Triumph TR2 mechanicals, designed for the American market.…

Discontinued 1900 – 1931 Mainstream & Utility

Swift of Coventry grew from James Starley's Coventry Sewing Machine Company, the cradle of the city's cycle industry, and built cars from 1900 until 1931, when the little…

Discontinued 1903 – 1994 Mainstream & Utility Sports & Specialist

Clément-Talbot was founded in London in 1903 by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot, and its Georges Roesch-designed cars of the 1920s and '30s were among Britain's finest.…

Discontinued 1896 – 1977 Mainstream & Utility

Thornycroft, founded by the naval engineer John I. Thornycroft in 1896, built steam vans, lorries, buses and army trucks, and later specialist airport crash tenders, at Basingstoke. AEC…

Discontinued 1957 – 1964 Kit Car Sports & Specialist

Tornado Cars of Rickmansworth made glass-fibre sports car bodies and chassis for Ford-based specials from 1957, starting with the Typhoon. Its handsome Talisman 2+2 coupé of 1962 was…

Discontinued 1956 – 1958 Mainstream & Utility

The Tourette was a rounded three-wheeled microcar built by Carr Brothers, later the Progress Supreme Co, of Purley, south London, between 1956 and 1958. Only 26 are believed…

Discontinued 1965 – 1977 Sports & Specialist

Trident grew out of an abandoned TVR project: Bill Last bought the rights to a Fissore-built design shown at Geneva in 1965 and built the Trident Clipper and…

Discontinued 1923 – 1984 Sports & Specialist Mainstream & Utility

A Coventry marque with roots in Victorian bicycle manufacturing, Triumph became one of Britain's best-loved sports car makers through the TR series and Spitfire, alongside mainstream saloons like…

Discontinued 1914 – 1965 Mainstream & Utility

Trojan built some of Britain's most eccentric cars: the solid-tyred, two-stroke Trojan Utility Car of the 1920s, sold with the slogan "Can you afford to walk?". The Croydon…

Discontinued 1951 – 1966 Sports & Specialist

Jack Turner built small, light glass-fibre sports cars near Wolverhampton from 1951 until 1966, powered first by Austin A30 engines and later by Coventry Climax and Ford units.…

Discontinued 1946 – 2006 Sports & Specialist

TVR built raucous, lightweight sports cars in Blackpool for sixty years, from the Grantura through the Chimaera, Cerbera and Tuscan, wrapping powerful engines in featherweight glassfibre bodies. Production…

Active 1983 – present Kit Car Sports & Specialist

Ultima began in 1983 as a mid-engined sports car designed by Lee Noble, later of Noble Cars. Built at Hinckley in Leicestershire by the Marlow family since 1992,…

Discontinued 1923 – 1979 Luxury / Prestige

Vanden Plas began as a Belgian coachbuilder, and its English company, formed in 1923 in Kingsbury, north London, built bodies for more than 700 vintage Bentleys. Austin bought…

Active 1857 – present Mainstream & Utility

Vauxhall began as a London engineering firm in 1857, built its first car in 1903 and moved to Luton in 1905. Owned by General Motors from 1925 and…