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
Turner
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.…
Elva
Frank Nichols founded Elva in 1955 at Bexhill-on-Sea, taking the name from the French elle va, "she goes". Elva built successful small sports-racing cars and the Courier road…
Ginetta
The four Walklett brothers founded Ginetta at Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1958, building kit and component sports cars such as the G4 and G15. Now owned by Lawrence Tomlinson's…
Healey
Donald Healey set up his own car company at Warwick in 1945, and his Healey Elliott was claimed as the world's fastest production saloon in 1948. The Silverstone…
Lea-Francis
Richard Lea and Graham Francis founded their Coventry cycle business in 1895 and moved into cars in 1903. A Lea-Francis Hyper, Britain's first supercharged production car, won the…
HRG
Founded in 1936 by Edward Halford, Guy Robins and Henry Godfrey, HRG built simple, rugged and fast sports cars at Tolworth, Surrey. Just 241 were made before car…
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.