British Makes

britishmm ( snipped-for-privacy@krbaker.demon.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

What's a "British car manufacturer"?

One owned in this country? One building cars here?

Under C in the Red Book of 1916 there is one maker (Cameron) which you don't have and another (Crouch) which is listed as Crouch Carette. That said, your site has a great deal of useful content. Given that some early makers were little more than village blacksmiths having a dabble, listing everything ever produced is most likely nigh-on impossible.

It's quite an impressive list! However I wonder if all are british manufacturers? For example Vanden Plas was a Belgian coachbuilder and the name was only used on some luxury cars by other manufacturers including BL (Princess) and Jaguar.

I only checked one entry - Marcos - and that is somewhat inaccurate.

The company was formed by Jem Marsh and Frank Costin (not Costain) in

1959. The cars were designed by Costin and had wooden chassis as well as wooden bodies. The Adams brothers had nothing to do with these early cars. They came along later and initially produced the GRP-bodied Marcos GT and fastback before going on to create the classic Marcos Coupé shape which endured with modifications right up to the LM and Mantis in the late 1990s.

Following the company's collapse in 1971 it was taken over by Rob Walker's Corsley Garage (I wasn't aware of HMBE but they could have been involved in between). Jem Marsh subsequently regained the rights and re-established the company as Marcos (Sales) Ltd.

Crouch or Crouch Carette? I've listed under Crouch.

What information do you have on Cameron?

What is British? The building of cars here is my preferred choice, but it may not be as simple as that.

I'd argue that they were actual manufacturers for a period during the sixties at least. The 4 Litre R shared a lot with the Austin Westminster, but was a model in it's own right, less badge engineered than many other vehicles of the period.

For 1910 both a 24hp 4 cylinder and a 36hp 6 cylinder model are listed in the Motor Car Red Book of 1916, list prices were £125.00 and £335 respectively. Price for the 4 cylinder was for rolling cassis, price for the 6 cylinder is for the completed vehicle.

I have only checked makes listed on your site starting with the letter C, when I get time I will, if you wish check the complete listings in the book.

britishmm ( snipped-for-privacy@krbaker.demon.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

You're certainly missing Citroen, then.

Piper (the well-known camshaft grinders of Ashford, Kent)

They built a handful of cars in the '60s. They were basically the typical kitcars of the period, but they certainly assembled some themselves. They even took one to Le Mans!

"britishmm" realised it was 2 Feb 2006

14:55:02 -0800 and decided it was time to write:

Excellent website.

If you mention Ford, you might as well mention other foreign makers that, at one time or another, assembled cars in Britain, like Citroen, Peugeot, Nissan and Locomobile.

Also, the caption with the second picture on the Triumph page is wrong. It should not read TR3 but TR3A.

Yippee ( snipped-for-privacy@intuh.net.invalid) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

The site does state it's only up to 1960 - so that rules Peugeot (I think), Nissan, Toyota, Honda, BMW out.

Yup, definitely a 3A. The wide mouth.

Adrian realised it was 03 Feb 2006 21:54:06 GMT and decided it was time to write:

You're quite right. Still, I do believe some Locomobile steam cars were assembled in Britain.

Richard

I will certainly add Cameron.

Does the Red Book give any indication of where the factory was located?

I would certainly appreciate any further assistance you can give.

I've been running the site for some 6 or so years and started out with under 900 makes. It still amazes me how often manufacturers turn up.

britishmm ( snipped-for-privacy@krbaker.demon.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Given the size of some of the brands you've missed...

The argument of whether Citroen can be classed as a British manaufacturer crops up from time to time and as far as I am aware the consensus is that all the major components were imported from France. (Although I believe at least one model was UK specific). However I have no proof of any of this.

Vanden Plas were bought by Austin in 1946 to produce the Princess Limousine. By 1960 only two models were being made. The 3 Litre (based on a car built at Cowley) and the 4 Litre Princess which was entirley built by Vanden Plas.

Oh, does it? Missed that. He can disregard my email, then. Damn.

I've checked out Piper before and as far as I can tell they are outside by limit of 1960.

However Citroen did assemble 2CVs here in the late 50s/early 60s.