A celebration of iconic British cars
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The British motor industry is alive and well, but it is mostly devoted to building cars designed elsewhere. Three of our major factories produce Hondas, Nissans and Toyotas (in Swindon, Sunderland and Derby respectively), while Vauxhalls are essentially rebadged Opels.
Ford, often thought of here as a UK manufacturer, no longer builds complete vehicles in this country at all.
It wasn’t always like this. Before car manufacturing became an international business, mass-produced British cars really were British. Not all of them were great, but some of them achieved a status they have never since lost.
Here we present 22 predominantly British cars from almost the entire history of the industry which, in their ways, deserve the term ‘iconic’ as much as anything else does.
AC Ace
The Ace was an attractive two-seat sports car built by AC of Thames Ditton between 1953 and 1963. AC used its own six-cylinder engine for the first few years, but then replaced it with a Bristol unit and later the one used in the Ford Zephyr.
The Ace might would have been largely forgotten except by enthusiasts if it hadn’t been for Carroll Shelby’s request to fit a big Ford V8 for racing in the US. The AC Cobra which resulted from this is widely accepted as an iconic American car, but at heart it is British.
Aston Martin DB5
In its long and often troubled history, Aston Martin has created a great many desirable cars. Possibly the most famous of all is the DB5, which appeared in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger loaded with all sorts of useful gadgets including machine guns and an ejector seat.
Despite its continuing fame, the DB5 was in production for only two years in the mid 1960s. Just over 1,000 examples were built before Aston moved on to the very different-looking DB6.
Austin-Healey 3000
Last and best-known of the Big Healey models, the 3000 was a derivative of the Austin-Healey 100 fitted with an engine otherwise found only in large saloon cars. It was manufactured from 1959 until 1967, when it was replaced by the MGC, and was very popular in North America.
Healey 3000s were very successful in motorsport. The British Motor Corporation (later known as British Leyland and eventually MG Rover) used it for international rallying before switching its attention in 1965 to the Mini Cooper.
Bentley 3 Litre
The 3 Litre was a large sports car sold by Bentley throughout the 1920s. In 1927 it was joined by the 4 1/2 Litre, which was essentially the same car with a bigger engine. Both performed splendidly at Le Mans, the 3 Litre winning the 24 Hour race in 1924 and 1927 and the 4 1/2 in 1928.
Against the wishes of company founder W O Bentley, the 4 1/2 was supercharged to become the Blower Bentley. This did not win Le Mans, but in the hands of Sir Henry (‘Tim’) Birkin a single-seater version set a record average speed for Brooklands of just under 138mph which stood for two years.
Ford Escort
Although Escorts were sold in the UK right up until the introduction of the Focus in 1998, only the Mk1, launched 30 years earlier, was entirely British. The mechanically very similar Mk2 (second and last of the rear-wheel drive versions) was co-developed with Ford of Germany.
Both sold very well in their day and are still in demand several decades later, both as classics and as rally cars. Brand new Mk2s with engines producing around 300bhp are still being commissioned from specialist companies, often at a cost of well over £100,000.
FX4 taxi
The FX4 was as much a part of everyday life in London and other cities as the Checker cab was in the US. Designed by Austin and built by Carbodies (now the London Taxi Company), which acquired all rights to it in the early 1980s, the FX4 was produced from 1958 until 1997, when it was replaced by the rounder-bodied TX1.
There were several upgrades during its four-decade life, and various engines were used, but the only major facelift happened in 1968. This included moving the indicators from the roof to the front and rear, as was then expected.
Jaguar E-Type
Against considerable opposition, the E-Type is frequently hailed as one of the most beautiful sports cars ever made. It was built in three series from 1961 to 1975. Series 3 models were fitted with a 5.3-litre V12 engine rather than 3.8- or 4.2-litre versions of the famous six-cylinder XK unit used in earlier models.
Jaguar intended to build 18 Lightweight E-Types for racing but in fact stopped at 12. Half a century later, in 2014, the company’s Heritage division built the final six, which were sold for around £1 million each.
Land Rover
The Land Rover was created to keep Rover busy while the market for its large saloon cars recovered after World War II. Its tremendous off-road ability kept it in demand for far longer than its designers could possibly have expected.
Launched in 1948, it was refined over several generations while retaining most of its original style and character. It remained in production, latterly known as the Defender, until 29 January 2016.
Lotus Seven
Lotus founder Colin Chapman’s seventh car was a two-seater sports model which was quick more because of its light weight than power. The Seven proved to be very popular as both a road and a competition car from 1957 until 1973, and a great many other manufacturers built their own versions to a very similar design.
Lotus sold the rights to Caterham Cars, which is still building Sevens today. The available engines range from a tiny 660cc three-cylinder Suzuki unit in the 160 to a 310bhp supercharged two-litre Ford in the 620R.
McLaren F1
McLaren’s first purpose-built road car (as opposed to a racer made road-legal) was built between 1992 and 1998. The F1 had three seats, the one in the middle being for the driver, and a 6.1-litre V12 engine supplied by BMW. Capable of 240mph with the rev limiter disabled, it was unofficially the fastest production car in the world until the Bugatti Veyron came along more than a decade later.
McLaren did not intend to race the F1 but was persuaded to create a competition version called the GTR in 1995. Among many other successes, it won the Le Mans 24 Hour race that year.
MG Midget
Since there is never going to be any agreement about which MG was best, we’re including the Midget here because we think it was the prettiest. It was introduced in 1961 as a better-equipped, though still quite basic, version of the first-generation Austin-Healey Sprite, and stayed in production until 1979.
Most Midgets had A-Series engines as used in the Mini, ranging in size from 948 to 1275cc, but for the last five years they were fitted with a 1.5-litre Triumph unit. These later cars also had large plastic bumpers to meet US safety regulations. Enthusiasts were appalled by them at the time but they have since become accepted as part of Midget history.
Mini
If you were asked to name just one iconic car, it would surely have to be this one. Remarkably roomy considering its overall size, the Mini was wildly popular in the 1960s. It was chosen by dozens of celebrities, hundreds of race and rally drivers and thousands upon thousands of people who simply wanted a cheap and practical car for everyday use.
Sold as an Austin, a Morris, a Riley, a Rover and a Wolseley in the UK, and as an Authi and an Innocenti in some foreign markets, the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th century, behind the Model T Ford but ahead of the Citroen DS and Volkswagen Beetle.
Morgan Plus 4
The original Plus 4 was produced between 1950 and 1969. A 1954 facelift gave the car what is now regarded as the classic Morgan look, even though the company’s history dates back to 1910. It wasn’t until the Aero 8 came along in 2000 that Morgan built a car that looked significantly different.
The Plus 4 has been revived twice since the original model was dropped. It’s still on sale now, looking very similar to the way it did half a century ago.
Peel P50
The 1960s P50 is reckoned to be the smallest production car ever made, and one of only two built on the Isle of Man (the other being the slightly larger Peel Trident). Largely forgotten for many years, it became famous in 2007 when it was featured in an episode of the BBC’s Top Gear programme.
In March 2016, a P50 was sold at an auction in Florida for $176,000, or about £120,000. The original list price had been £199.
Radical SR3
Radical was formed in 1999 to design and build relatively inexpensive but very fast motorcycle-engined sports cars which could be used both on the road and, without modification, on race circuits.
Its second model was the SR3, which has been in production for almost the whole of Radical’s history and is easily the company’s most successful car, accounting for more than half the 2,000 cars Radical has sold.
Range Rover
In the late 1960s, Rover decided to enlarge its Land Rover brand by introducing a more powerful and refined model which went on sale in 1970 as the Range Rover.
The first version remained in production for over a quarter of a century. The ones that followed have been marketed more as luxury cars than as off-roaders, though they still perform extremely well on difficult terrain.
Reliant Robin
This was the last and most successful of several fibreglass-bodied three-wheelers built by Tamworth-based Reliant, whose other speciality was creating powerful sports cars. The Robin was produced from 1973 until 1982, then revived in 1989. The final example, which left the factory in 2001, was given away as a competition prize by the Sun newspaper.
Two things to sort out before we move on: the name of the car is not and never has been ‘Robin Reliant’, and Del Boy’s van in Only Fools And Horses was a Reliant Regal, not a Robin.
Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
Rolls-Royce produced its 40/50hp model for 20 years starting in 1906. It is often referred to as the Silver Ghost, but this name was at first given only to a demonstrator with the now famous registration number AX 201.
It was very refined for its time, and unusually reliable. From 1 July to 8 August 1907 it covered a record 14,371 miles without an ‘involuntary stop’, repeating a route between Glasgow and Edinburgh nearly 30 times.
Rover SD1
After decades of building cars of such conventional design that the company became known as ‘Auntie’, Rover came up with a shape for the SD1 that seemed almost futuristic in 1976. It was always available with Rover’s famous 3.5-litre V8 engine, but smaller petrol units and one diesel were also offered.
Often criticised for poor build quality, the SD1 was the last fully British Rover. Its replacement, the 800, was closely related to the Honda Legend.
Talbot Sunbeam Lotus
Originally marketed as a Chrysler, the Sunbeam was a medium-sized three-door hatchback derived from the Hillman Avenger saloon. The Lotus was a special version developed with motorsport in mind and fitted with a 2.2-litre engine much larger and more powerful than those used in other Sunbeams.
It was an exciting road car and a very effective rally one. Sunbeam Lotus drivers won a round of the 1981 World Rally Championship and were on the podium in six others, earning Talbot that year’s Manufacturers’ title. It was the second last time that the maker of a two-wheel drive car ever achieved this.
Triumph Stag
The Stag was a not particularly quick but an undoubtedly elegant four-seat sports convertible introduced in 1970. By the time it went out of production eight years later it had become almost the poster child for unreliable British cars of that period.
The problem was the 3.0-litre V8 engine, which was very likely to go wrong and very expensive to repair if it did. The Stag’s reputation never recovered, but enthusiasts today insist that it is acceptably reliable when maintained correctly.
Vauxhall 30/98
The Vauxhall Prince Henry of 1911 has been described as the world’s first sports car. The 30/98, designed before the first World War but not put into full-scale production until 1919, was even faster.
With its later and more powerful engine, known as the OE, it was capable of 100mph as long as you removed the windscreen and headlights to reduce aerodynamic drag. The UK national speed limit at the time was just 20mph, though it was widely ignored.