Between them, Glen Kyle and Beese Wendt won won 5 National Hillclimbing Championships aboard the heavily customised Vincent Rapide Series B Hillclimber you see pictured above and below. The Glen Kyle Era The bike started out as a stock 1948 Vincent Rapide Series B, but it was acquired by Glen Kyle in the late 1950s and…
A Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost pickup truck might seem like an unusual thing on the surface of it, but it’s actually a very well-suited vehicle for industrial use – as it’s powered by a famously reliable 7.5 litre straight-6.
The Rag and Bone Man is a small company run by friendly Londoners Paul and Lizzie. Traditional rag and bone men have plied the streets, junkyards, and workshops of England for centuries – collecting scrap and junk before repurposing it or recycling it. This conrod bottle opener is one of Paul and Lizzie’s more recent…
In 1967 each member of The Beatles was gifted a Mini wby their manager Brian Epstein, a larger than life character who had seen the band performing a lunchtime gig at The Cavern Club and decided on the spot to become their manager. He became an integral part of The Beatles, and many years later…
The Sunbeam Tiger is one of Carroll Shelby’s most harmless looking creations, being based on the borderline-adorable Sunbeam Alpine that had styling reminiscent of the much larger Ford Thunderbird.
The SU Carburettor was developed by brothers Herbert and Carl Skinner in the early 1900s – the name is an abbreviation of Skinner Union. The unusual-looking carburettors would go on to become almost ubiquitous in the British motor industry, and would be fitted to engines in cars built by Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Rover, Riley, Turner, Austin,…
The 24 hour endurance race in 1953 at the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France was a comeback year for Jaguar, after a disastrous performance the year before. The early overheating issues that had plagued the still-new Jaguar C-Type had largely been rectified, and 1953 would see the addition of disc brakes to…
East Coast Defender is one of the pre-eminent Land Rover customizers in the United States, the company has 29 full-time employees and is made up of a mixture of Brits and Americans. They’re based in Kissimmee, Florida, and they’ve built a significant number of bespoke Defenders – all of which are quicker and more luxurious…
The Jaguar XK120 was first shown to the public in 1948, it was just 3 years since the end of the Second World War and this new, sleek Jaguar was exactly what the British public needed. Even though the price tag was far beyond reach for most working class Brits, the fact that it was the fastest production car in the world was a source of great pride – Jaguar further capitalised on this by setting multiple world speed and endurance records with the XK120 over the course of its 1948 to 1954 production run.
Moto-Lita is a British company with a fascinating history, it was founded by Simon Green, who had started working at the iconic Cooper Car Company at the age of just 14. His attention to detail was immediately apparent, as was his ability to work with wood and metal – so they set him the task of…
The Jaguar Mark II is commonly referred to as the Gentleman’s Express, particularly the 3.8 litre version fitted with the twin cam XK straight-6, capable of 220bhp in stock trim and a top speed of over 125 mph and 0 to 60 mph in 8.5 seconds. These are genuinely remarkable figures for a 4-door saloon car first offered for sale in the 1950s.
The mid-engined Cooper-Climax Bobtail was an early part of a major global motorsport revolution. Its mid-engined layout combined with a space frame chassis and lightweight alloy body would form a template that would be copied far and wide – eventually becoming the de facto structure for almost all sports racing cars.
