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
Jowett
Brothers Benjamin and William Jowett began making cars in Bradford in 1901, and their durable flat-twin engines powered cars and the Bradford van for half a century. After…
Talbot
Clément-Talbot was founded in London in 1903 by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot, and its Georges Roesch-designed cars of the 1920s and '30s were among Britain's finest.…
Lagonda
American-born former opera singer Wilbur Gunn founded Lagonda at Staines in 1906, naming it after the Shawnee settlement of Lagonda near his home town of Springfield, Ohio. Lagonda…
Lanchester
The three Lanchester brothers built one of Britain's first petrol cars in Birmingham in 1895 and founded their company in 1899, becoming famous for inventive engineering, including the…
Alvis
T. G. John founded Alvis in Coventry in 1919, and its 12/50 and Speed 20 made it one of Britain's most respected makers of quality sporting cars. Car…
Mini
Alec Issigonis's Mini was launched by BMC in 1959, badged as the Austin Seven and the Morris Mini-Minor, and became a marque in its own right under British…
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.