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
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…
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…
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.…
Gordon-Keeble
John Gordon and Jim Keeble combined a Chevrolet V8 with a spaceframe chassis and a Giugiaro-designed body to create the Gordon-Keeble, a fast, well-equipped four-seat grand tourer. About…
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…
Fairthorpe
Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett, the wartime leader of the RAF's Pathfinder Force, founded Fairthorpe in Buckinghamshire in 1954 to build small, light sports cars, many sold as kits.…
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.