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
Ford
Ford of Britain opened its first factory outside North America at Trafford Park, Manchester, in 1911, and its vast Dagenham works of 1931 built many of Britain's best-loved…
Vauxhall
Vauxhall began as a London engineering firm in 1857, built its first car in 1903 and moved to Luton in 1905. Owned by General Motors from 1925 and…
Singer
George Singer's Coventry cycle company moved into cars in the early 1900s and by the 1920s was one of Britain's biggest car makers, known for the Ten and…
Humber
Thomas Humber's cycle company began building cars in 1896 and grew into a respected maker of solid, comfortable upper-middle-class cars. As the senior brand of the Rootes Group…
Hillman
Founded in Coventry in 1907 by William Hillman with designer Louis Coatalen, Hillman became the everyday family-car brand of the Rootes Group, best known for the Minx, the…
Sunbeam
Sunbeam grew from John Marston's Wolverhampton cycle works into one of Britain's leading car makers of the early twentieth century, winning Grands Prix and setting land speed records…
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.