Cars -- 3 days ago
Words: Rory FH Smith
Words: Rory FH Smith
While many nations pride themselves on their motoring heritage, few match up to Great Britain's admirable automotive pedigree. With roots dating back to the late 1800s, Britain has gone on to design, develop and manufacture some of the greatest automotive icons, from the mighty McLaren F1 to the compact Mini.
When it comes to narrowing it down to the top picks for any discerning car collector, we're spoilt for choice, but here's our selection for the ultimate British-made dream garage...
Few cars match up to the all-round brilliance of the Bentley Continental GT. Fast, refined, comfortable and — if required — quiet, the Continental has been the dream daily driver for countless car connoisseurs since it arrived on the scene more than two decades ago. Available in both coupe and convertible guises, as well as its longer sibling the Flying Spur, the Continental GT is handmade at Bentley's home in Crewe in Cheshire.
Before every other car became an SUV, there was the Range Rover. Created in the late 1960s as an off-roader that could cruise the nation's newly paved highways with ease, the Range Rover invented the idea of a more refined, high-riding family car. Since then, it's become a byword for luxury in the motoring world, inspiring countless competitors. Still retaining its position at the top of the Land Rover tree, the latest iteration is one of the most refined road cars on the market and — with the longer wheel base selected — can carry seven as a practical, albeit expensive, family car.
Put the telephone number price tag aside for now and admire the engineering behind the ultimate supercar. The work of Formula 1 car designer Gordon Murray in the late 1980s, the British-South African teamed up with McLaren and BMW to bring it to life. Low weight and high power was the brief and, despite harbouring BMW's mighty 6.1-litre V12 at its heart, the F1 still only weighed just over a tonne. The car could touch 240mph and cost more than £500,000 when it was new in the early 1990s. With only 106 cars made, the British-made McLaren F1 now fetches over tens of millions at auction.
As far as icons are concerned, the original Land Rover is hard to surpass. From 1948 until 2016, the Land Rover remained in production in the UK, with only relatively minor changes to the original blueprint. Created in the wake of WWII as a go-anywhere, do-it-all workhorse for farmers and the military, it was engineered by Maurice Wilks to thrive both on and off road. It shared the same mechanical layout as the U.S. military Jeep, only it sported a Rover saloon engine and a charmingly simple flat-panel alloy bodywork to save on rationed steel. By the time production of the original Defender ended in 2016, the Solihull factory had made over two million Land Rovers and Defenders since 1948. Now fetching hefty sums at auction, the original Series 1 cars are the ones to have, while the entire back catalogue continues find a place in people's hearts all around the world.
When it comes to city cars, there is only one: the Mini. Like the lovable Land Rover, the Mini had already reached icon status within the first few years of its life, finding fame as a four-wheeled fashion accessory of the swinging sixties celebrity elite. Designed by Alec Issigonis, he penned a sub-10-feet (3m) car that could carry a family and launched it to a surprised public in 1959. Few were prepared for such a radical car but after the Mini found success in motorsport, largely thanks to John Cooper, it took off as a sales success. A total of 5.3 million Minis had been built in the UK between 1959 and 2000 before BMW reinvented the icon in 2001, where it's still built in Oxford to this day.
Aside from the fame the world's best-loved spy brought to the Aston Martin DB5, it is without question one of the most beautiful sportscars ever made. Equipped with a 4.0-litre straight-six producing 282bhp — or 315bhp in the more sporting Vantage model — the DB5 was one of the fastest cars when it arrived in 1963, with a top speed of 145mph. Despite finding fame on the silver screen, production lasted only two years — during which 1,059 cars were made — before the less-loved DB6 arrived to replace it.
Can't get enough car content? Check out our short history of the royal cars...
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