Paul Hardiman

Sir William Lyons’ leadership allowed Jaguar to flourish. He had appointed the gifted engineer, pilot and racing technical wizard Frank RW “Lofty” England to lead the company’s racing department. Applying his experience working with Tim Birkin’s team and the Blower Bentley cars, as well as Prince Bira’s White Mouse Stable, in preparing his ERA race…

Jaguar had withdrawn from racing following the 1956 season and was left with a number of D-types remaining unsold in their factory stock. An idea was had that the cars could be converted to roadgoing specification and sold into the American market. The conversion, as it were, involved removing the large headrest fairing and tailfin…

One of the British motor industry’s more fascinating “might-have-beens,” this beautiful open roadster is an indication of what might have replaced the AC Ace had the company not been occupied building Carroll Shelby’s Cobra. The car’s curious “MA” chassis number prefix is assumed to refer to AC’s Polish engineer Zdzislaw Marczewski, a former RAF bomber…

The original Ford Sierra RS Cosworth was the first Ford to wear the Cosworth badge and was presented to the public at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1985. Launched for sale in July 1986, and based on the 3-door Sierra body shell, it was designed by Ford’s Special Vehicle Engineering (SVE) and was powered…

First seen at the 1959 London Motor Show, the four-seater AC Greyhound was the second coupe based on the Ace roadster, the first being the two-seater Aceca, whose lines were successfully adapted to suit the larger car. Like the Aceca’s, the Greyhound’s extremely shapely and attractive body was constructed in hand-formed aluminium over a tubular…

By the 1950s, MG had come a long way from its roots as an offshoot of Morris Motors and had cemented a place as an innovative builder of sporting road and competition cars. Released in 1945, the TC provided a marginally wider body than its pre-war TB predecessor, and now featured a part-synchromesh gearbox. More…

This 2 Litre Sports is a fine example of the model that ushered in the David Brown era at Aston Martin. Successful industrialist Brown had bought the struggling Aston Martin concern in 1946, and the following year added Lagonda to his expanding motor-manufacturing empire. When Brown bought Aston Martin he acquired the Atom — a…

This early single-cylinder Swift was purchased by the vendor’s grandfather in 1931 from a farmer in Eversley, Berkshire. Since then, the car has completed no fewer than 57 London to Brighton Runs plus numerous other events and rallies. It has only failed to finish on four occasions, and in 1968 successfully completed the Run despite…

After creating some lightweight bodies on the Bentley Mark VI chassis, coachbuilding firm H.J. Mulliner was contracted to design and construct the R-type Continental prototype, affectionately named “Olga.” Exhaustive road testing resulted in modification of the gearbox to a direct-ratio top gear and a lowered rear-axle ratio for enhanced performance. These modifications provided high-speed touring…