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
Atalanta
Atalanta Motors of Staines built about 20 advanced, expensive sports cars between 1937 and 1939, with tubular chassis, all-round independent suspension and a choice of twin-cam four or…
Squire
Adrian Squire, formerly of Bentley and MG, founded his car company in Henley-on-Thames while still in his early twenties. The Squire, a Grand Prix car turned road car…
Brough Superior
George Brough, maker of the Brough Superior motorcycles dubbed "the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles", also built about 85 fast Brough Superior cars in Nottingham between 1935 and 1939, using…
Leyland
Leyland Motors, the Lancashire lorry and bus maker, built one of the most ambitious British luxury cars ever, the Leyland Eight of 1920-23. Designed by J. G. Parry-Thomas…
Vulcan
Vulcan of Southport built cars from 1902 to 1928 and lorries and buses until 1953. In 1918 it bought Southport football club, renamed it Southport Vulcan, and so…
Metrocab
The Metrocab, launched by Metro-Cammell Weymann in 1987, was the first London black cab designed for wheelchair users. Built later by Reliant, Hooper and Kamkorp, it was made…
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.
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…
Hooper
Hooper & Co. was a royal coachbuilder in Westminster, London, from 1805 to 1959. It built the first royal car in 1900, luxury bodies for Daimler and Rolls-Royce,…
Harold Radford
Harold Radford was a Rolls-Royce and Bentley retailer in South Kensington that built bespoke bodies from the late 1940s. In the Swinging Sixties it became known for luxury…
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…
Ian Callum
Ian Callum designed the Aston Martin DB7 and, as director of design at Jaguar from 1999, the XK, XF, F-Type and F-Pace. Born in Dumfries, he founded his…
David Bache
David Bache was Rover's first stylist and shaped the P5, the P6 and the SD1, and had a hand in the Range Rover and the Land Rover Series…
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.