Jon Branch - Automotive Historian + Contributing Editor

Jon Branch has written countless official automobile Buying Guides for eBay Motors over the years, he’s also written for Hagerty, he’s a long time contributor to Silodrome and the official SSAA Magazine, and he’s the founder and senior editor of Revivaler. Jon has done radio, television, magazine, and newspaper interviews on various issues, and has traveled extensively, having lived in Britain, Australia, China, and Hong Kong. The fastest thing he’s ever driven was a Bolwell Nagari, the slowest was a Caterpillar D9, and the most challenging was a 1950’s MAN semi-trailer with unexpected brake failure.

Lotus Esprit – The Four Cylinder Buying Guide – S1, S2, S3, S4.

Background: The Four Cylinder Lotus Esprits The Lotus Esprit was created as a car that would transform Lotus from being a kit car and enthusiasts automobile builder to being a supercar builder. It was a…

Charles B. Franklin: the Engineer with Practical Experience Charles Bayly Franklin, the engineer who was to create three of the most iconic Indian motorcycles, was born in the Irish City of Dublin on October 13,…

Above Image: A Lotus 7 battling with a Porsche 356 Speedster in 1984. Image courtesy of the San Francisco Region SCCA. In the Beginning: Motorsport in the Mud Lotus Cars, and thus the Lotus 7,…

Marcos Cars: Wooden Wonders In the wake of the Second World War, as Britain worked her way through austerity and the process of rebuilding what had been destroyed or damaged by the not at all…

A Gas Turbine or a V8? The story of the development of the Rover V8 engine begins with a dream that became a failed dream. Once upon a time in England’s green and pleasant land…

A-Brief-History-of-the-Amphicar-1-LBJ-Presidential-Library-catalog-A263-8

Above Image: President Lyndon Johnson taking guests on a tour of the lake. The Amphicar – President Lyndon Johnson’s Favourite Car The Amphicar was American President Lyndon Johnson’s favorite car. It was the car in…

The MGC – A Sports Car in Search of an Engine The story of the MGC is fraught with “what could have been…” possibilities. For all its good and not so desirable points the MGC…

Toyota’s Station Wagon Land Cruisers: From the J40 is born the Rare Toyota FJ45V The story of the Toyota J60 began with Toyota’s tentative experimentation with making a station wagon version of their existing J40…

Carroll Shelby And His Famous Nitro Glycerine Tablets Carroll Shelby was named after a Christian minister and went from being a child with a heart condition that prevented him from doing some of the things…

The Norton 16H – A Roaring Norton for the Roaring Twenties The Norton Model 16H had its beginnings back even before the Roaring Twenties, and before the outbreak of the First World War. The 490cc…

In the Beginning: Giugiaro and a Boomerang The story of the Lotus Esprit began, not just in the minds of the design team at Lotus, but in the mind of a man who has been…

The story of the Toyota Land Cruiser J Series (FJ40 / BJ40 etc) starts in the Philippines during the Second World War, the Japanese had invaded the nation, along which much of the rest of…

Jon Branch - Automotive Historian + Contributing Editor

Lotus Esprit – The Four Cylinder Buying Guide – S1, S2, S3, S4.

A Brief History of the Indian 101 Scout – Everything You Need To Know

A Brief History From The Lotus 7 to The Caterham 7

A Brief History Of The Mini Marcos – An Unusual Pint-Sized British Sports Car

A Brief History of the Rover V8 – One Of Britain’s Most Important Performance Engines

A Brief History of the Amphicar – President Lyndon Johnson’s Favorite Car

A Brief History of the MGC – Everything You Need To Know

A Brief History of the Mighty Toyota Land Cruiser J60

A Brief History of the Shelby Series 1 – Carroll Shelby’s Only Scratch-Built Car

A Brief History of the Norton 16H – The World War II Workhorse

A Brief History of the Lotus Esprit – Everything You Need To Know

A Brief History of the Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 / BJ40 + J40 Series