It fair to say the Brits have a rich heritage when it comes to the manufacturing of motor vehicles. The U.K being the ones who designed and built some of the most iconic cars ever driven. Sine the late 1900s innovations and technology have helped the moto industry to become the way it is to now. Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar and mini are some of the household names that came from this part of the world. To this day these brands continue to be a forefront in the motoring industry,
You might wonder what has the key moment been and which individuals’ we should thank for the development of the motor car in Britain? The timeline below guides you through the past 100 + years.
1896 –The four-wheeled petrol engine cars were first built but John Henry Knight of Farnham, Surrey. Also, Fredrick Lanchester then went on to build a similar vehicle in Birmingham.
1904 – The first car built by Henry Royce’s, the two-cylinder model. Then, later on, that year he meets C.S Rolls. He agreed to sell his car in his London showroom. Then in 1906, they became “Rolls-Royce”.
1910 – The first production car with four-wheel breaks, manufactured by Scottish manufacturer Argyll.
1919 – The first 3-litre Bentley is delivered in 1921, which is the first British car describe by the engine capacity and not horsepower. Also, W.O Bentley forms Bentley Motors limited in Cricklewood, London.
1922 - Swallow Sidecar company, who made motorcycle sidecars, went on to change their company name to Jaguar Cars in 1945.
1927 – Wolseley gets taken control of by William Morris, this is one of the British motor industries oldest names. In 1935 it then joins MG to become part of Morris Motors.
1933 – Semaphore arm direction indicators was introduced by Morris.
1946 – The 1800, the first British car with column gear change was introduced by the Triumph Motor Company.
1948 – The fastest production car ever was made with the top speed of 120mph. It was Jaguar that introduced it, it was called XK 120.
The Landrover was launched by Rover that was inspired by the wartime Jeep.
The Minor was launched and became one of the bestsellers and remained in production till 1971, it was launched by Morris.
1959 – The British Motor Corporation launch the mini.
1967 – The Leyland Motor Corporation takes over the Rove, the last large scaled independent car producers in the U.K.
1968 – The British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) is formed when Leyland Motors and British Motor Corporation merge.
1975 – British Leyland Limited came around when BLMC was nationalised.
1986 – The Rover and MG brands being the only one surviving the British Leyland becomes Rover Group.
1994 – BMW got sold British Aerospace, who acquired Rover in 1988.
1998 – The McLaren F1, which was designed by racing car engineer Gordon Murray, became the world’s fastest production car.
2008 – Ford sells the brands The Jaguar and Land Rover to the Indian company Tata Motors.
The British motor industry was in great shape in 2016 except that most of the major British brands being owned by companies that are overseas. This helped some of the biggest names in the car industry having plants in the U.K, this includes Honda, Nissan and Toyota. In 2015 was a great year in production. Around 1.6 million vehicles were built, over 75% were exported overseas. This figure was a 10-year high. This shows that Britain is still playing a major part in the car industry.