"Forget casinos. The fastest way – literally – to make a small fortune out of a large one is to try to create your own British sports car. History is littered with sports car firms that have gone spectacularly bust, yet every "
Loveable English Hooligans
Arash AF10
Few of Arash Farboud’s creations have yet to trouble the DVLA, but we hope his latest, £320,000 Vette V8-powered creation makes it to production
FBS Census
This odd-looking roadster rather boldly named itself the ‘Future of British Sportscars’. It stank of glue, broke down, and then sank without trace.
Panther 6
Panther lurched from crisis to crisis for twenty years before succumbing to the inevitable. The Solo was quite good, the Panther 6 quite mad.
TVR Cerbera Speed 12
The maddest product of TVR’s nineties heyday under Peter Wheeler: 1000bhp, but only one made it to the road. Less than a decade later TVR was dead, but there are rumours of reincarnation
Morgan Roadster
They’ve been making cars from wattle and daub at a glacial rate in Pickersleigh Road, Malvern for a century now, so must be doing something right.
Caterham Seven
The design might be more than half a century old but it’s simple to build and still a performance and handling benchmark; that’s why Caterham is still in business.
Noble M12
Rave reviews weren’t enough to guarantee a stable business. Despite the departure of the brillant but difficult Lee Noble, the firm is still around and working on a £200,000 supercar.
Ariel Atom
Brilliant design, stellar performance and long queues of buyers; this is how low-volume sports cars should be done
Bristol Fighter
The anomaly of small British sports car firms: this bizarre, secretive, blue-blooded company makes outrageous cars at outrageous prices in tiny numbers with no publicity yet seems immune to the downturn
Midas Gold
“I couldn’t do better than a Midas”, said Gordon Murray of this Metro-based, plastic-bodied ‘sports’ car. That was before he created the McLaren F1. Wonder if he’s changed his mind?
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No mention of the Lotus Carlton..? I know it seems relatively tame now thanks to the 500bhp+ supersaloons that frequent the streets… but way back when, it was pretty special. MG SV..? Maybe another 5 or so should be tacked on!