Echoes of British influence around the world include teatime, stiff upper lips, ‘I want to hold your hand’ and Sunday roasts, but the UK also has a beloved and enduring car culture, having produced some of the most desirable and collectible cars in four-wheeled history. While some of the automakers involved have since sold to foreign interests or faded out of active business altogether, multiple generations of gearheads will continue to honor the legends their workers left behind.
There’s no way to propel a car into hallowed history faster than movies, and 007 deserves credit for making the Aston Martin DB5 world-famous (RM Sotheby’s described it as “the most iconic and recognizable Aston Martin ever built”). The DB5 was produced between 1963 and 1965. Not all DB5s rolled off the production line with machine guns and rotating number plates, but James Bond’s gorgeous coupe graced many of his films, starting in 1964. Goldfinger To the last entry, No time to die. The most popular versions still in circulation recreate the built-in Q Branch improvements for the big screen, but any DB5 is precious. An original example designed to promote Thunder– complete with special effects modifications by Ken Adam and John Steers – sold at RM Sotheby’s for $6,385,000 in 2019, setting a new record for the most valuable DB5 at auction.
Ian Fleming’s literary Bond was a Bentley man and drove another period classic as he moved around Whitehall. A Cold War MI6 agent chose racing pedigree for his ‘Blower Bentley’, a ‘4.5-litre supercharged’ model built for racing duty between 1927 and 1931.
The DB5’s only real rival in terms of cultural footprint is the Jaguar E-Type. Enzo Ferrari admitted he thought it was the most beautiful car ever made, and owners from Steve McQueen to George Harrison agreed. Earning its place on any Mount Rushmore, the E-Type enjoyed a longer production life than the DB5 (from 1961 to 1974) before Jaguar unveiled a short-lived electric car revival in 2017. With its long wheelbase, sleek hood and cockpit pushed back towards the rear wheels, the E-Type’s lines remain forever unmistakable.
However, despite the E-Type receiving countless awards, it cannot be called the most sought-after Jaguar. A 1955 Jaguar D-Type, which won the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans, fetched a record $21,780,000 at the 2016 Pebble Beach Sotheby’s auction to become the most expensive British car ever sold at auction. It remains the only intact Type D car to have won the annual marathon.
Because central London built its streets for horse-drawn Hansom cabs, and because country towns had roads wide enough for bullock carts, the British automobile industry was the world leader in small car design. From 1962 to 1980, British Motor Corporation and British Leyland produced a small sports car that became the globally recognized symbol of its compact class. It’s never sold nearly as many units as the Mazda MX-5 Miata or captured the price of a Ferrari Scaglietti, but even to the casual motoring eye, the classic MG MGB is the ultimate roadster.
(MG Tradition is now owned by a Chinese company that produces electric cars, because life is tough and the economic realities of the business world don’t care about automotive tradition.)
When living with small cars in the UK, there is only one car that has size in its name. Like the MGB, the Mini rolled out of the British Motor Corporation and British Leyland from 1959 to 1986, with the Rover range continuing production until BMW bought the model in 2000 and kept it on the road to this day. Essentially a small box with wheels at its corners, Mini has placed its engine all the way forward next to the driver’s knees, leaving most of the car’s surface area to passengers and their modest cargo.
Today’s German-made Minis are so much larger than their predecessors, you could almost drop an original Mini into a BMW version. However, the original hatchback remains one of the most influential cars in the history of design engineering. Without a Mini popping into the garage door, the endless proliferation of hatchbacks and crossovers today would be nonexistent.
To avoid lingering in the hazy, nostalgic and slightly damp 1950s, 1960s and 1970s: British motoring innovation did not end with the arrival of color television. While global economic and manufacturing pressures drove the UK out of the mass car production business, smaller operations capable of producing elite cars in limited quantities began to dominate the scene. The model that set the global pace most forcefully was the McLaren F1.
Built from 1993 to 1998 at Woking in Surrey, the Formula 1 immediately set the world record for fastest consumer production car at 240mph and held that title until dethroned by Bugatti. The McLaren F1 still holds the record as the world’s fastest naturally aspirated production car, a claim it is likely to hold indefinitely as engine technology moves towards electrification.
Breaking down auction sales by total price, the 1995 version sold by Gooding and Company in 2021 attracted $20,465,000, breaking the record for the most expensive McLaren ever sold at auction previously held by a McLaren-spec F1 LM that fetched $19,805,000 at Sotheby’s in 2019. Before that, it quoted Bonhams sold a 1995 unit in 2017 to RM Auctions selling a 1998 LM spec for $15,620,000 at $13,750,000. More recently, a 1994 McLaren F1 restored with an iridescent white livery and high downforce kit and signed by former McLaren driver Sir Lewis Hamilton, generated $25.3 million in Sotheby’s inaugural Collector’s Week sales in Abu Dhabi. No post-war British car has consistently enjoyed prices like these.
While the US, Germany, Japan and Korea continue to mass produce cars in the hundreds of thousands, the UK has settled comfortably into its current identity as a niche, sophisticated automotive powerhouse with brands too numerous to mention here. From the ultra-advanced models that keep popping up from Lotus to the crazy speed machines creeping out of Ariel, it may seem a world away from his daily commute – but thoughts return to the green hills of England when it’s time to show a little more style.
Car Reviews Monitor