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Between 1932 and 1955 the United Kingdom was the largest producer of motor cars in the world. We had taken over from the French in 1932 and were overtaken by Germany in 1955. I have uploaded a picture montage of cars made in the United Kingdom between 1955 and 1965. Each of these cars was made by a different British company which is why there are no Fords and no Vauxhalls. Their cars were made in the UK but they were owned by two United States of America companies, Ford and General Motors.
Oh, OK, there is a Ford Anglia on your left and a Vauxhall Victor on your right.
Of the manufacturers, nearly all of them produced at least three different models. Think of the number of jobs there were in the motor industry.
I'm going to leave you a challenge now and one for your grandparents if they are old enough. Firstly for you. Try to find out how many UK owned companies now make cars in the UK for the mass market. I'll be surprised if you find more than two.
Then for the grandparents, ask them to guess the make and model of each car in the photos. I've put the answers, just for you,
here
and perhaps the most British car of all
Let Owlbut know if anyone gets them all correct.
As well as producing cars, Britain had always been pretty good at setting speed records both on land and on water. The first land speed record was set in 1896 by, wait for it, an electric car at 39.24 mph (63.15 kph). Other electric cars beat this and then in 1902 a steam car went at 75.06 mph (120.80 kph).
From then on, until the 1960s, it was more normal engined cars that set the record. Britain held the record from 1924 until 1964, apart from a brief period of 11 months when an American held it in 1928/29. By 1964 the record, averaged over two runs, in different directions along a measured kilometre, was held by Donald Campbell at 403.10 mph (648.73 kph)
In 1963 people started using jet engines instead of engines which actually drove the wheels. The current record is back with Britain again, having been set by Andy Green in Thurst SCC in October 1997 at 760.343 mph (1,223.657 kph). Britain is now trying again with a car called Bloodhound although they are now having problems raising the money to attack the record. Their aim is go past 1,000 mph.
Meanwhile on water the record went up from 70.86 mph (114.04 kph) in 1919 to the present record of 317.596 mph (511.121 kph) set by an Australian called Ken Warby in 1978.
In 1964 the Briton Donald Campbell set the world land speed record and the world water speed record in the same year, a feat no one else has ever done. He set the water speed record on 31 December 1964, so it was mighty close. You can see his boat, Bluebird K7, and his car, Bluebird CN7, above.
Sadly, Campbell was killed in 1967 when making another attempt on the water speed record on Coniston Water in the Lake District. His boat flipped up, possibly when he hit the waves on the lake he had made when making his first run. His body was eventually found in 2001. He and his father, Sir Malcolm Cambell, had set eleven speed records on water and ten on land.
Forward to 1956AD
