100% BRITISH BRIEF
Top Gear|June 2022
YOUR A-Z STATUS REPORT ON THE BRITISH CAR INDUSTRY
OLLIE KEW
100% BRITISH BRIEF

AC CARS

AROUND SINCE 1901

NOW OWNED BY South African-born businessman Alan Lubinsky

KNOWN FOR Going bankrupt occasionally, and collaborating with Carroll Shelby for the V8 AC Cobra

It stood for 'Auto Carriers' originally. AC didn't come to worldwide attention until the Carroll Shelby came asking for a sports car to drop a V8 into for racing. The infamous 196mph motorway test led to today's 70mph speed limit. Now it'll sell you restomods and an EV.

ARIEL MOTOR COMPANY

AROUND SINCE 2000 (though the Ariel name appeared on bicycles as far back as the 19th century)

NOW OWNED BY Still a British owned business!

KNOWN FOR Warp-speed scaffolding with nutty Honda engines

Simon Saunders' genius Hondapropelled scaffolding is genuinely the closest thing you can get to a road-going go-kart, and famously made a right mess of Clarkson's face when it starred on TopGear back in December 2004. Three generations of Atom later (including a wild 500bhp V8 edition), Ariel went off-piste with the magnificent Nomad, realising all our life-size Tamiya RC car fantasies. The little Somerset outfit now has a waiting list Ferrari would be proud of, and continues to work on a near-1,200bhp ‘HiPercar...

BAC

AROUND SINCE 2009

NOW OWNED BY Neill and lan, the Briggs brothers

KNOWN FOR Single-seater half-tonne missiles with exquisite build quality.

The Briggs Automotive Company (though it could stand for Bats**t Angry Car) will sell you a true single-seater experience for £170k. Mono R features stronger graphene-embedded carbon bodywork, less weight, and more power 343bhp pushing just 555kg. Plenty.

Denne historien er fra June 2022-utgaven av Top Gear.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra June 2022-utgaven av Top Gear.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA TOP GEARSe alt
ELECTROMECHANIC
BBC Top Gear UK

ELECTROMECHANIC

Meet the electric restomod that you can create at home it's so easy you can do the conversion in a day, apparently

time-read
5 mins  |
January 2025
ALL THE SMALL THINGS
BBC Top Gear UK

ALL THE SMALL THINGS

Word is there's no such thing as a decent, small, simple, reasonably priced car these days. Allow TopGear to investigate

time-read
5 mins  |
January 2025
VOLKSWAGEN ID.BUZZ 7-SEAT
BBC Top Gear UK

VOLKSWAGEN ID.BUZZ 7-SEAT

Volkswagen’s new seven seater ID.Buzz is now the family mover it always should have been

time-read
2 mins  |
January 2025
BMW M5
BBC Top Gear UK

BMW M5

TO THE POINT: THE NEW BMW M5 IS AN excellent car. It's very fast, confident, endlessly configurable and now offers a not inconsequential 40ish miles of electric-only running for happy tax returns.

time-read
2 mins  |
January 2025
VAUXHALL GRANDLAND vs FORD EXPLORER
BBC Top Gear UK

VAUXHALL GRANDLAND vs FORD EXPLORER

These two brands have been the 'pile it high, sell it cheap' kings of the UK market for decades, but their new core models take a very different tack...

time-read
7 mins  |
January 2025
CAR OF THE YEAR - 5 STAR
BBC Top Gear UK

CAR OF THE YEAR - 5 STAR

Yep, Renault's retro-chic new supermini with an optional wicker baguette holder Scoops the grand prix...

time-read
5 mins  |
January 2025
MEANWHILE... IN THE FUTURE
BBC Top Gear UK

MEANWHILE... IN THE FUTURE

Catching rockets with chopsticks isn't the only autonomous tech going on in Elon Musk's world...

time-read
3 mins  |
January 2025
KING OF THE HILLS
BBC Top Gear UK

KING OF THE HILLS

You wait for one 800+bhp super GT, then two rock up at once. It's the Aston/Ferrari showdown we've all been waiting for...

time-read
8 mins  |
January 2025
PACKAGE
BBC Top Gear UK

PACKAGE

What better way to test the Hyundai Santa Fe's SUV-ness than hand delivering TopGear magazine to each and every subscriber in... New Zealand?

time-read
10 mins  |
January 2025
MYTH BUSTER
BBC Top Gear UK

MYTH BUSTER

\"THE GOLF GTI WAS THE OG HOT HATCH\"

time-read
2 mins  |
January 2025