This Wolseley 18/85 was featured in our 2023 Hagerty story about the Kilbroney Vintage Show, but today, it’s time for a closer look at the car itself. Almost unknown outside of the U.K., the 18/85…
Posts tagged British Cars
Lotus Excel: Hethel’s Best Kept Secret
It seems fair to say that the Lotus Excel is Hethel’s most underrated car. Nobody ever talks much about it, the company never again built anything like it after it was gone, and it dwelled…
Lagonda 3-Litre: Last Of A Classic Line
The Lagonda make goes all the way back to 1900, though its official founding was in 1906. Today, it’s most associated with the 1976-1990 Aston Martin Lagonda, William Towns’ wonder wedge supersedan, although more recently,…
Lotus Elite Type 14: The Unbearable Lightness Of Being Fast
When the Type 14 Lotus Elite wowed the crowd at Earls Court in 1957, just nine years had passed since Colin Chapman had built his very first race car. After a meteoric rise in motorsport,…
Vauxhall Victor F-series: Tri-Five in Miniature
You don’t often see Vauxhalls in the USA, but for a little while, one member of GM’s British contingent was as transatlantic as Katherine Hepburn’s accent. What you see here is an F-type Vauxhall Victor,…
MG TC: The Archetypal British Sports Car
It was 10 years old and looked archaic on paper, but the MG TC was the right car for its place and time in a way few cars have ever been. Just 10,001 were made…
Jensen Interceptor: The Best of Bromwich
That huge glass hatch, that wide look and that V8 burble – it can only be a Jensen Interceptor. Of course, there was more than one interceptor – the name dated back to 1950. But…
Boldly Transatlantic: the “Audax” Hillman Minx
It was the MG TC that ignited American interest in imported cars, and of course, primarily sports cars. But in the export-or-die era, it wasn’t long before family fare arrived. The first two non-sporting imports…
Too Little, Too Late: Austin Marina
Like so many vehicles created in changing or troubled times for their manufacturer, the Morris Marina was intended as a stopgap model. It was meant to last only four, maybe five, years and was aimed…
Three-Wheelin’: Reliant Robin Mk1
In time all Reliant 3-wheelers, including the earlier Regal and later Rialto, came to be commonly called “Reliant Robins,” (or worse – “Robin Reliants”) so familiar were they in the fabric of U.K. life. In…
Ace Archbishop: Ford Cortina Mk1 GT
In the 1950s, English Fords had done quite well in the USA, but aside from the Anglia they had been swept aside by the Falcon. But the Falcon didn’t compete directly with the smallest cars…
Triumph TR3: Hard Core
Triumph’s legendary TR3, in fact, all post-war Triumphs, probably wouldn’t have happened if not for an argument between Sir John Black and William Lyons. Former Humber man Black had revived a nearly moribund Standard in…