What Classic Car
The story of British classic cars: their makers, designers, owners’ clubs and museums, all in one free guide.
- 132car manufacturers
- 43designers and coachbuilders
- 57owners' clubs
- 18museums
What you will find here
What Classic Car brings together the history of British car makers with the people, places and clubs that keep their cars on the road.
British car makers
Histories of more than 130 manufacturers, from household names to one-model wonders: when and where each was built, the cars they made, photographs and sources.
Designers and coachbuilders
The designers, engineers, coachbuilders and studios behind the cars, from Alec Issigonis and William Lyons to Vanden Plas and Pininfarina.
Clubs and museums
Find an owners’ club for your car and museums to visit. Every manufacturer’s page lists the clubs and museums connected with it.
Where they were built
Every manufacturer is placed on the map by its factory town, and each town links on to then-and-now photographs on GhostViewer.
Recently added car makers
Star
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,…
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…
Clyno
Clyno began with motorcycles in 1909 and moved to Wolverhampton in 1910. Its cheap, reliable light cars made it Britain's third-largest car maker in 1926, behind only Austin…
Crossley
Crossley Motors of Manchester, an offshoot of the gas-engine makers Crossley Brothers, built about 19,000 quality cars between 1904 and 1937, thousands of staff cars for the Royal…
Napier
D. Napier & Son, a London precision engineering firm founded in 1808, built some of the fastest and finest cars of the Edwardian era between 1900 and 1924.…
Chambers
Chambers Motors of Belfast was the first car manufacturer in Ireland. Jack Chambers, who had designed the first Vauxhall, built around 500 hand-made cars and commercial vehicles in…
See where Britain's cars were built
One pin for every factory town. Click a pin to see the manufacturers built there, with links to their histories and to the town on GhostViewer.
Orange numbers show how many marques were built in a town; dark circles group nearby towns, so zoom in to open them. Click a pin for the details.
The people behind the cars
Designers, engineers, coachbuilders and studios, with their careers, notable designs and the places they worked.
Clubs, museums and specialists
Find an owners’ club for your car, a museum to visit, or a specialist for parts, servicing and restoration across the UK.
Run a club, a museum or a specialist business?
Add it to the directory so classic car owners can find you, and so it appears on the pages of the marques you cover.
About What Classic Car
What Classic Car is an independent guide to British classic cars. Each page is researched from published sources, which are listed on the page, and the photographs come from Wikimedia Commons and our own collection. Read more about the site.