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
BAC
Brothers Neill and Ian Briggs founded Briggs Automotive Company in Liverpool in 2009 to build the Mono, a single-seat, road-legal supercar launched in 2011. Its Mono R of…
Ariel
Simon Saunders set up the company in 1991 to build the Atom, a lightweight exoskeleton sports car that began as a Coventry University student project. Based in Crewkerne,…
Noble
Lee Noble founded Noble Automotive in Leeds in 1999, and its lightweight, turbocharged M12 and M400 won a devoted following for their handling and value. Now based in…
McLaren
McLaren grew out of the Formula One team Bruce McLaren founded in 1963. Its road-car business built the record-breaking McLaren F1 of 1992, and since 2010 McLaren Automotive…
Allard
Sydney Allard built big-engined trials and sports cars in Clapham, south London, from 1945. His J2 finished third at Le Mans in 1950 and was raced by Carroll…
Vanden Plas
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…
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.