Latest in British Brands

BMW Motorrad CEO Markus Flasch says the M 1000 RS, a 218-horsepower naked bike with the engine of the M 1000 RR superbike, is the world’s most powerful hyper naked, and only 1,000 will be built

BMW revealed the motorcycle on November 3 at the EICMA show in Milan. It will reach dealers from March 2027, with a retail price of €40,000 in Germany, including 19% VAT. In the UK, the price is £36,220, according to Motorcycle News and Visordown. MCN…

spearswms.com
524 words

The rise and fall of the electric supercar

In 2011, 23-year-old Mate Rimac unveiled a 1088bhp electric concept and set off a horsepower race the industry would spend a decade regretting. But buyers it turned out, wanted something else entirely The first edition of Spear’s was published in 2006. To mark…

wantedonline.co.za
694 words

A 375kW driving purist’s dream

If you see a Porsche 911 GT3 screaming past, you’ll recognise the giant rear wing that has made the car a legendary sports machine over the past few decades. What you don’t expect is to hear that wailing aggression packaged in a…

About British Brands

Britain gave the world the Mini, the Land Rover, the E-Type, the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost and more racing teams than any other country, and its car industry still punches far above its weight. The names on this page span the whole spectrum, from hand-finished Rolls-Royces and Bentleys built in the Sussex countryside and Cheshire to the McLarens and Lotuses of the supercar world, the Land Rovers that cross deserts, and the everyday Vauxhalls and MGs that fill British driveways.

The story is also one of collapse and rescue. The postwar giants merged into British Leyland, whose strikes, quality problems and nationalization became a byword for industrial decline in the 1970s. Out of that wreckage came new owners from abroad: BMW took Rolls-Royce and Mini, Volkswagen bought Bentley, India's Tata Motors acquired Jaguar and Land Rover, Chinese companies took control of MG and Lotus, and Vauxhall passed from General Motors to what is now Stellantis. Japanese makers such as Nissan and Toyota, meanwhile, built huge factories in Sunderland and Derbyshire.

Today most of these brands are British in spirit, engineering and craftsmanship but answer to boardrooms in Munich, Wolfsburg, Mumbai, Hangzhou or Shanghai. Aston Martin is the notable exception, still listed in London with Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll as its chairman and leading investor. Newcomers like Ineos, whose Grenadier off-roader was born from a pub conversation about the old Defender, prove that the British urge to build cars is far from finished, even if that particular truck is assembled in France.

The big questions now are electrification, tariffs, profits and identity. Jaguar's radical reinvention as an electric luxury brand, Aston Martin's financial struggles, the high costs of supercar development and the race to electrify Rolls-Royce and Bentley all make headlines, alongside supply-chain shocks such as the cyberattack that halted JLR's factories for weeks. The coverage gathered here follows every brand, from reveals and reviews to sales, recalls and boardroom drama. For a small island, it remains a remarkably noisy and fascinating corner of the car world.

British Brands

Rolls-Royce to Vauxhall, Aston Martin to MG: Britain's carmakers, mostly foreign-owned now, still building the world's grandest luxury cars and supercars.

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Inside British Brands

Rolls-Royce The Spirit of Ecstasy marque, built by hand at Goodwood under BMW ownership: Phantom, Ghost, Cullinan, the electric Spectre and wildly bespoke one-offs. 4 subtopics
Bentley Crewe's grand tourers, from the Bentley Boys' Le Mans wins to the Continental GT, Bentayga, Flying Spur and the electric Torcal under VW ownership. 4 subtopics
Jaguar From the XK120 and E-Type to Le Mans glory and the F-Pace, the leaping cat is staking everything on a radical rebrand as an all-electric luxury marque. 3 subtopics
Aston Martin James Bond's carmaker, seven times rescued from bankruptcy, now chasing Ferrari with the DB12, Vantage, Vanquish, the DBX and the Valhalla hypercar. 5 subtopics
McLaren Woking's carbon-tubbed supercar maker, from the F1 and P1 to the W1 and Artura, plus new owners, an SUV on the way and a manual comeback. 3 subtopics
Lotus Colin Chapman's lightweight gospel from Hethel, from the Seven and Elise to the Emira, plus the Chinese-built electric Eletre and Emeya and a revived Esprit. 3 subtopics
Land Rover From the 1948 Series I farm tool to the Range Rover in every celebrity driveway: Britain's 4x4 maker, its Tata-owned parent JLR and its electric turn. 4 subtopics
Ineos Sir Jim Ratcliffe's answer to the old Defender's demise: the boxy, ladder-frame Grenadier and Quartermaster pickup, built in France with BMW power.
MG The Abingdon sports-car badge reborn under China's SAIC: the MG4 and HS, the Cyberster roadster, and India's Hector, Windsor and Majestor. 6 subtopics
Vauxhall Britain's oldest surviving car badge, from Luton-built Vivas and Cavaliers to today's Stellantis-era Corsa, Astra and Grandland, all offered electric. 3 subtopics

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