Italian marque Alfa Romeo is a fully paid-up member of the classic car establishment. For enthusiasts, it stands for relatively affordable sports cars and roadsters with, in the classic period, exceptional mechanical sophistication and driving pleasure. But Alfa's portfolio also includes sports saloons and historic...
Between 1946 and 1976 Chevrolet was the bestselling brand of car in the US. After it adopted V8 engines in the 1950s, Chevrolets, like the Bel Air, Corvette, and Camaro, became synonymous with speed and power, although the range would always be enormous and all-encompassing....
Mini is now a fully fledged car brand encompassing estates, coupes, sports, and racing models, but at its heart lies a revolutionary small car, based on a design conceived by Sir Alec Issigonis in the mid-1950s. Now owned by BMW, the firm continues to build...
The classic car period of 1940-1990 is the era when the Cadillac name stood for luxury, style, and power in imposingly large packages. Henry M. Leland started the company in 1902, and Cadillac became notable for its ability to manufacture high-quality cars on a large...
In 1922 motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and William Walmsley, went into partnership to build sidecars. Five years later, Lyons designed a stylish body for the Austin Seven, and just one year on from then his firm moved to Coventry; from these humble origins the Jaguar...
The Morgan Motor Company, based in the English county of Worcestershire, has turned old-fashioned quirkiness into an art form. Still independently owned, the firm continues to build sports cars with a heritage dating back to the 1930s, in a factory complex that opened in 1914....
The prancing horse of Ferrari has become a fixture at the very summit of automotive achievement. Enzo Ferrari’s steadfast approach to speed ensured that his team became the most successful of them all in Formula 1 racing, and his company has created some of the...
Now reduced to a subsidiary of Fiat-Chrysler, Lancia’s long history blended engineering innovation with style in a manner that few companies could rival. Since its creation in 1906 the Turin-based company, its cars, and drivers have enjoyed a glittering career in motor sport, particularly in...
The two founding fathers of the motor car industry came together when Daimler and Benz merged in 1926—the two companies’ founders had effectively invented the automobile. In addition to being a luxury marque, Mercedes-Benz, the company formed by the merger, has since laid a trail...
Parisian Andre Citroën started business life in the gear-making industry (this is obvious in the double chevrons of the helical gears in the marque’s logo). He amassed a fortune manufacturing shells in World War I and, having studied Henry Ford’s car-making methods, decided to spend...