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
- 170directory listings
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
Smith Electric
Smith Electric Vehicles of Gateshead, founded as Northern Coachbuilders in Newcastle in 1920, was once the biggest name in British milk floats. It later built electric lorries and…
Morrison-Electricar
Morrison-Electricar of Leicester was one of Britain's biggest makers of milk floats and battery-electric delivery vehicles. Its first electric van was built for a baker in 1933, and…
Bersey
The Bersey electric cab was London's first motor taxi. Designed by electrical engineer Walter Bersey, it went into service in August 1897, and its fleet of up to…
Arash
Arash Motor Company of Newmarket, Suffolk, founded by Arash Farboud in 1999, builds supercars in tiny numbers, including the AF8 and the hybrid AF10 hypercar. Its earlier Farboud…
Zenos
Zenos Cars was founded in Norfolk in 2012 by former Lotus and Caterham executives to build affordable, lightweight sports cars. About 100 of its E10 were built at…
David Brown Automotive
David Brown Automotive, founded in Coventry in 2013, built hand-made modern interpretations of classic cars: the Aston Martin DB6-inspired Speedback GT and the Mini Remastered. It moved to…
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.
Giovanni Michelotti
Giovanni Michelotti of Turin was one of the most prolific car designers of the twentieth century. From the late 1950s he styled almost every new Triumph, from the…
Keith Duckworth
Keith Duckworth of Blackburn designed the Cosworth DFV, the Formula One engine that first won at Zandvoort in 1967 and won races for years afterwards. He co-founded Cosworth…
Coventry Climax
Coventry Climax built engines for light cars, fire pumps, forklifts and Formula One. Its FW lightweight overhead-cam engine powered Cooper and Lotus to world championships, and the Lotus…
Park Royal Vehicles
Park Royal Vehicles built buses, coaches and trolleybuses at Abbey Road in west London. It was the home of the AEC Routemaster body, and closed in 1980 after…
Ricardo
Ricardo, founded by Sir Harry Ricardo in 1915 as Engine Patents Limited, is an engineering consultancy at Shoreham-by-Sea. It designed the engine for the Mark V tank and…
Gerry McGovern
Gerry McGovern, born in Coventry, led design at Land Rover and then Jaguar Land Rover, shaping the third-generation Range Rover, the Freelander and the Evoque. He was lead…
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.