Over the past couple of years, various storied manufacturers have announced that they will be creating “continuation” cars. This is an interesting idea, but what are they? There are a couple of schools of thought about what constitutes a continuation car. One school suggests that the car uses an allocated chassis number and is built using the same components albeit many … [Read more...]
Park Ward
I have always been fascinated by the work of coachbuilders the world over. Park Ward were a British creator of bodies for luxury cars who ended up inside the most famous of them all: Rolls-Royce. William Park and Charles Ward worked together at a small manufacturer called F.W. Berwick and Company who were the British arm of an Anglo-French manufacturer called … [Read more...]
Alvis Car and Engineering Company
This article is about a low volume car manufacturer that survived by manufacturing military vehicles and aircraft engines. T.G. John founded a company in his name in 1919 as a supplier of engines and scooter style motorised bikes. He set up his company in Coventry in the UK, which was at the heart of the British industry. The following year John used a new four cylinder engine … [Read more...]
Sir Alec Issigonis
Sir Alec Issigonis is best remembered for the Austin Mini - a car that revolutionised the small car package and probably saved the British Motor Corporation at the same time. However, there was more to his life than just one car. He was born in 1906 in a city that is now known as Izmir, in Turkey which itself can trace its history back before Alexander the Great. He was born … [Read more...]