English cars

1969 Riley Kestrel 1300

| Chris Williams

Blog-image-Riley-Kestrel

Funny how perceptions change over time. If anybody had driven one of these to college back in the seventies they would have been laughed out of school. You can hear the conversation – ‘Take my car today son’, ‘No I’m good thanks Mum, I’ll take the bus’. Even parking down the road a bit and walking to the school gate wasn’t worth the risk. 

It was designed by Alec Issigonis who also did the Mini. In it’s design phase, they called it the BMC ADO16 which stood for British Motor Corporation Amalgamated Drawing Office project number 16. No wonder they settled for Riley … oh and Morris and Austin and MG and Wolseley and Vanden Plas and one or two other variations too I think. Change the name and the grill and nobody’ll notice it’s the same car. Wouldn’t catch us out like that now-a-days aye, we’re onto their cunning ploys. Yessirree.

Purchase your classic here

Building the biggest classic car collection on Etsy

Ford Prefect 107E

| Chris Williams

Blog-image-Prefect

This is British Ford at it’s very best (debatable I know, but let’s run with it for now). Even into the 1950s, car styling hadn’t really changed in Britain from the sit-up-and-beg look of the 1930s and 1940s (a tad distracted by the war I guess). Then, in 1953, Ford produced this ‘modern’ shape and it was a revelation. These simple, robust cars sold like hot cakes. They had features like hydraulic brakes and independent front suspensions but in true Ford spirit they were sparse inside – heaters and sun visors were extra. The windscreen wipers weren’t extra but were powered by a cheap-to-make vacuum system with one minor flaw – the faster the cars went, the slower the wipers worked. Bit of an issue in Britain I would have thought? But, despite their simplicity, the new Prefect heralded (that’s a wee Triumph joke there) in a new optimism that an austere Britain was only just starting to feel.

Purchase your classic here

Building the biggest classic car collection on Etsy