Classic British Cars

The Rise of the Great British Motor.

At the end of the Second World War, there were just 1.5 million cars on Britain's roads. By 1960 that number had risen to 5.6 million; by 1970, it was 11.8 million. It was during the 1960s that owning a motor car became the rule rather than the exception. 'Classic British Cars' focuses on what happened within Britain's car industry during that decade.

British car designers in the rapidly evolving world of the 1960s produced many cars which became classics, cars which often expressed a quintessential "Britishness" of design - quality, style, but deliberate understatement. From the post-war revolution in design represented by Alec Issigonis's Mini, a car for the swinging sixties which is still admired today, the story of the British car industry in this era was one of genius and inspiration but also missed opportunity.

The book explains how the Mini principle itself was not exploited as it could have been, while European rivals copied it; and how the Rootes group was led astray by its answer to the Mini, the Imp. It also covers inspired and influential designs like the Jaguar E-type and XJ6, the Rover and Triumph 2000s and many others.

The book also shows how some companies building cars on a small scale - from Morgan's sports cars to the pure luxury products of Rolls-Royce - managed to survive little changed when so much was changing around them.