Designers
William Lyons
Sir William Lyons, "Mr Jaguar", co-founded the Swallow Sidecar Company in Blackpool in 1922 and led it to become Jaguar. He personally styled every new Jaguar from the…
Harris Mann
Harris Mann took over as chief stylist at British Leyland in 1970 and designed the wedge-shaped Triumph TR7, the Austin Allegro, the Princess and the Metro. The rectangular…
Gerry McGovern
Gerry McGovern, born in Coventry, led design at Land Rover and then Jaguar Land Rover, shaping the third-generation Range Rover, the Freelander and the Evoque. He was lead…
Giovanni Michelotti
Giovanni Michelotti of Turin was one of the most prolific car designers of the twentieth century. From the late 1950s he styled almost every new Triumph, from the…
Gordon Murray
Gordon Murray, born in Durban to Scottish parents, designed Brabham and McLaren Formula One cars, then the McLaren F1 road car, and in 2017 founded Gordon Murray Automotive,…
Ogle Design
Ogle Design was founded in 1954 by David Ogle at Letchworth, Hertfordshire. After Ogle died in a crash in 1962, Tom Karen led it, and it styled the…
Park Royal Vehicles
Park Royal Vehicles built buses, coaches and trolleybuses at Abbey Road in west London. It was the home of the AEC Routemaster body, and closed in 1980 after…
Park Ward
Park Ward was a coachbuilder at Willesden in north London, founded in 1919. Closely tied to Bentley and then Rolls-Royce, it built all-steel bodies from 1936, was bought…
Pininfarina
Pininfarina, founded in Turin by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930, styled cars for Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Peugeot. In Britain its best-known link is the Nash-Healey, whose…
Ricardo
Ricardo, founded by Sir Harry Ricardo in 1915 as Engine Patents Limited, is an engineering consultancy at Shoreham-by-Sea. It designed the engine for the Mark V tank and…
Malcolm Sayer
Malcolm Sayer was the aerodynamicist behind the Jaguar C-type, D-type and E-type. A former aircraft engineer, he refused to be called a stylist, and shaped his cars with…
Peter Stevens
Peter Stevens designed the McLaren F1, the Lotus Elan M100 and the Jaguar XJR-15. He was chief designer at Lotus in the 1980s and at McLaren from 1990,…
Thrupp & Maberly
Thrupp & Maberly, coachmakers to Queen Victoria, began near Worcester about 1740 and worked in the West End of London. It built bodies for Rolls-Royce, Daimler and Bentley…
Tickford
Tickford, the Newport Pagnell coachbuilder, grew from Salmons & Sons, founded in the 1820s. It made drophead bodies for BSA, Daimler, MG, Rover and others, was bought by…
Touring Superleggera
Carrozzeria Touring of Milan patented the Superleggera lightweight construction in 1936. Its design for the Aston Martin DB4 was built under licence at Newport Pagnell, and carried on…
Vanden Plas
Vanden Plas began as a Belgian coachbuilder in 1870. Its English company built bodies for Bentley in the 1920s, made the Austin Princess limousine, and lent its name…
Vignale
Carrozzeria Vignale was a Turin coachbuilder founded in 1948 by Alfredo Vignale. It worked closely with Giovanni Michelotti, built the early Jensen Interceptor and the Triumph Italia, and…
Harry Weslake
Harry Weslake of Exeter was described as England's greatest expert on cylinder-head design. His firm, Weslake & Co at Rye, tuned heads for Bentley, Jaguar and the BMC…
Zagato
Zagato of Milan, founded by Ugo Zagato in 1919, built lightweight aluminium bodies based on aircraft methods. British marques with Zagato bodies include Aston Martin, AC, Bristol, Frazer…
