What Classic Car
Discover the histories of Britain’s car makers, find classic car clubs, and use our free UK classic car directory of specialists, services and parts suppliers.
Car manufacturers A–Z
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…
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…
Standard Motor Company
A Coventry maker of dependable family cars, the Standard Motor Company was founded in 1903 by Reginald Maudslay. It built the post-war Vanguard, bought Triumph in the mid-1940s…
Star
The Star Motor Company of Wolverhampton grew out of a bicycle business and built its first car, based on a Benz, in 1898. Known for well-engineered, long-lasting cars,…
Straker-Squire
Straker-Squire of Bristol built steam wagons, buses and fast, well-made cars. By 1909 its Fishponds works supplied 70% of London's buses. After the First World War car production…
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…
Swallow Doretti
Built by the Swallow Coachbuilding Company in Walsall in 1954 and 1955, the Swallow Doretti was a handsome two-seater on Triumph TR2 mechanicals, designed for the American market.…
Swift
Swift of Coventry grew from James Starley's Coventry Sewing Machine Company, the cradle of the city's cycle industry, and built cars from 1900 until 1931, when the little…
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.…
Thornycroft
Thornycroft, founded by the naval engineer John I. Thornycroft in 1896, built steam vans, lorries, buses and army trucks, and later specialist airport crash tenders, at Basingstoke. AEC…
Tornado
Tornado Cars of Rickmansworth made glass-fibre sports car bodies and chassis for Ford-based specials from 1957, starting with the Typhoon. Its handsome Talisman 2+2 coupé of 1962 was…
Tourette
The Tourette was a rounded three-wheeled microcar built by Carr Brothers, later the Progress Supreme Co, of Purley, south London, between 1956 and 1958. Only 26 are believed…
Trident
Trident grew out of an abandoned TVR project: Bill Last bought the rights to a Fissore-built design shown at Geneva in 1965 and built the Trident Clipper and…
Triumph
A Coventry marque with roots in Victorian bicycle manufacturing, Triumph became one of Britain's best-loved sports car makers through the TR series and Spitfire, alongside mainstream saloons like…
Trojan
Trojan built some of Britain's most eccentric cars: the solid-tyred, two-stroke Trojan Utility Car of the 1920s, sold with the slogan "Can you afford to walk?". The Croydon…
Turner
Jack Turner built small, light glass-fibre sports cars near Wolverhampton from 1951 until 1966, powered first by Austin A30 engines and later by Coventry Climax and Ford units.…
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…
Ultima
Ultima began in 1983 as a mid-engined sports car designed by Lee Noble, later of Noble Cars. Built at Hinckley in Leicestershire by the Marlow family since 1992,…
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