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
Aston Martin
Founded in London in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford, Aston Martin grew from a small maker of sporting light cars into Britain's best-known builder of luxury…
Spartan Cars
Spartan Cars built a traditionally-styled open two-seater kit car, first on Triumph Herald and Spitfire mechanicals, from Nottingham and later Derbyshire. Over 4,000 kits were exported to more…
Gilbern
Gilbern was the only Welsh car maker of note, building glassfibre-bodied GTs from a former colliery site near Pontypridd. Early cars were sold mainly as kits, and around…
TVR
TVR built raucous, lightweight sports cars in Blackpool for sixty years, from the Grantura through the Chimaera, Cerbera and Tuscan, wrapping powerful engines in featherweight glassfibre bodies. Production…
Buckler Cars
Buckler chassis and running gear were used by amateur and semi-professional racers throughout the 1950s, and the former Crowthorne and Reading factory sites both carry blue plaques marking…
Marcos
Marcos Engineering built low, elegant sports cars with an unusual plywood chassis, from its 1959 founding in Wales through decades based in Wiltshire. Best known for the Marcos…
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.