Growing up at Jaguar By Graham Robson It was a coincidence, really. I was enormously lucky, fell on my feet in one of the most famous companies in the world, and have never forgotten the great times I had while I was there. It all started at Oxford, where I was reading Engineering, and was…
Courtesy of the archives of Graham Robson The comic-strip definition of a tycoon is of someone who swishes around in a huge stretch limo, smoking huge cigars, and doing shady financial deals behind the backs of organized labor. Sir Leonard Lord was not like that, rather, by any standard he was a rough diamond. Often…
By Graham Robson Long ago, in the early 20th century, every British road car was built in the same way. First there was a chassis frame, then all the running gear was bolted to it, and finally a body shell was added. In almost every case the body was based on a hand-crafted wooden skeleton,…
By David Clark The Glory Days of the 1930s were long in the past. It had been 20 years since MG was a dominant force, owning records for absolute speed in the classes between 500 and 2,000cc. The engine in their 750cc overhead cam record breaker, EX127, ultimately made 145bhp, supercharged with 39 lbs of…
By John Schein In the past, the fabric of Mini history was thought to have been pulled asunder by the 1969 separation of John Cooper Racing from BMC. In reality it was kept intact, however, you had to travel to South Africa to find this small but important link in the Mini’s sporting legacy. When…
I have long admired Joseph Lucas and when you get done with this article maybe you will too. A hard working family man, Lucas was never an English born Diogenes who wandered the streets of Birmingham trying to plot a scheme to keep you in the dark. The fact of the matter is that old…
Little known in the United States, the MGB Costello V8 is admired as one of the most historically important variants of the car produced. A skilled engineer and talented racing driver, Ken Costello saw a need to increase the performance of the standard MGB without resorting to measures that would adversely affect reliability. Costello considered…
Before the Mini made its mark as one of the most iconic British cars ever produced, Sir Alec Issigonis had already established a sterling reputation for brilliance with the Morris Minor. The first car built in the United Kingdom to sell more than one million units, the landmark Minor has been hailed as a design…
“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.” – John Greenleaf Whittier The Swinging Sixties represented the high-water mark for the British automotive industry. The Jaguar E-Type – introduced in 1961 – was widely considered one of the best sports cars in the world and more affordable…
Long before the Austin-Healey Sprite “Mk I” entered into legend for its amicable appearance, many considered its styling to be odd – even stylist Gerry Coker was nonplussed with the fixed headlights – and plans were made to combine the many virtues of the car with more attractive styling. In 1959, Innocenti – famous for…
