The A40 of 1947 was Austin's first mass market post-war car and marked the debut of a new 1200cc 40bhp OHV engine that was the direct ancestor of the familiar B-Series but which was very different in detail. The van version modelled here, was available from 1948 and was produced alongside it's pick-up cousin until the range was dropped in 1956 after 140,060 vans/pick-ups had been built.

The 307E was available in either 5cwt or 7cwt form and each was easily distinguishable from each other because while the cheaper model made do with body coloured bumpers, headlamp peaks and grille, the more expensive larger-payload van had all those parts chrome plated. Though originally introduced as carrying the Ford Thames name, this name was deleted in March 1965, and the 307E range was then sold as the Anglia Van.

Release date unknown.

When the Top Hat race series for historic cars was first introduced in 1999, Ed Glaister's Ford Popular 100E was one of the first cars to sign-up for the series. Many thought Glaister had chosen the wrong car and opinion was much in favour of the Ford Anglia 105E. But how much they were wrong, his countless class victories proved testament to his commitment and faultless preparation of this crowd pleasing car.

The Imp may not have been the sales or financial success that The Rootes Group had hoped for, even in it's best years only 29,000 were sold annually in the UK which was about a third of the cars originaly projected sales. But it was a real drivers car, with its high revving rear mounted light-alloy engine, while the carefully developed all-independent suspension and rack and pinnion steering provided fun but sure footed handling that was much exploited in motorsport.

This van 1054F, was one of only three vehicles produced for London Transport in 1957. In 1961 the vehicle was located at Wood Green and the Whitechapel plate suggests railway use.

Ford was detemined to avoid the enomous warranty claims generated by the MkI Lotus Cortina, which had been partially built at Lotus, so production of the MkII was undertaken at Dagenham. There were no alluminium panels, no frail A-bracket suspension and no lightweight transmission casting. Even the name evolved, launched as a Ford Lotus-Cortina it became the Cortina Lotus and finished its life as the much less glamorous sounding Cortina Twin Cam. A total of 4032 were produced in three years, commencing in March 1967.

Lancashire Constabulary used the Ford Consul 3000GT as a divisional traffic patrol car on its non-motorway roads. The livery used by the Lancashire at this time was very unusual and bore more than a passing resemblance to the American police vehicles of the time. The livery remained in use until the 1980's.

Launched in 1971, the 150bhp 3500 S was the manual high performance version of the V8 engined P6, which had initially only been available with automatic transmission since its lauch in 1968. A 0-60 time of 9.1 secs, top speed of 122 mph and a price of £1988 made the S a very appealing package. The car modelled was the last P6 Rover ever made and came off the lines on March 19th 1977.

No other light commercial vehicle has had such a wide variety of uses as the Transit, think of a task and someone has converted the ever ready Transit to do it. In fact at its launch in 1965 the Transit range contained a staggering seventy-eight different models, and the range has continued to expand.

The 90 version of the HB used the existing 1159cc engine, but was tuned to produed 60bhp, a useful increase of 13bhp over the standard car output. This was achieved by a higher compression ratio of 9:1 together with a higher lift camshaft, a Stromberg 150CD carburettor and larger exhaust manifold. Along with an altered final drive ratio of 4.125:1 the 90 HB Viva could reach 83mph and accomplish 0-60mph in 17.6 seconds. All series 90 engines were painted red.

Rover launched their new 3500 model in July 1976 to almost universal acclaim. It was fast, comfortable, extremely good looking and built in a state of the art factory in Solihull that had reportedly cost 31 million, a huge sum of money in the seventies.

The Rover CDTi Contemporary SE was the most luxuriousy equipped of the Rover 75's produced before MG/Rover's tragic demise in 2005. With a 0-60 time of 10.3 seconds but an average mpg figure of 48.8, this civilised and extremely comfortable car made a very practical everyday vehicle for anyone wanting to cover a high mileage. As one of the last cars produced at the famous Longbridge factory, its future classic status is for sad reasons assured.

BSM's Astras are either the 78bhp 1.7CDTi diesel, the 103bhp 1.6 manual or the 123bhp 1.8 automatic; together they make up fifteen percent of the company's total fleet. The Astra range was first used by BSM in June 2003 as an alternative option for taller learners or instructors and has since proved to be very popular.

The fifth generation Vauxhall Astra has brought some design imagination back into GM's mid-size range. This has shown to be a good move on Vauxhall's part as the car has certainly taken sales from the Golf and Focus owners drawn into Vauxhall dealers by it's styling. The 1.6SXi five door modelled here, backs those looks up with perfomance offering a 0-60 time of 11.5 seconds and a top speed of 115mph.

The Vauxhall Cavilier was the UK market's version of the first car ever to be designed wholly on computer, the GM J-car programme. The main floorpan and structure of this virtually designed General Motors world car lasted from its launch in 1981 until as recently as 2005.

With a major facelift of the Sierra planned in 1987, Ford spent £228 million developing a boot and a more conservative frontal style and introduced it as the Sierra Sapphire.

Originally chosen for the Cosworth treatment because its 4 door saloon was both the lightest and stiffest in the range and with its 0-60 time of 6.4 seconds and fantastic traction. The Cosworth is one of the few cars, pehaps the only one to be threatened with extinction early in its life because it was just too good. Theft of Cossies became an epedemic in the early nineties, and the insurance industry pushed premiums sky high, making ownership untenable. Ford countered by fitting a sophisticated alarm as standard, giving the car a stay of execution.

A fast stylish comfortable well appointed GT, the Stag never quite managed to shake off its early reputation for unreliability and suffered in sales terms as a result, especially in the export markets it had originally been designed for.

In 1978 the Princess Two was launched and the biggest change was the announcement of the two new engines, a 1.7 and 2.0 litre. Both were four cylinder units from the |New O-Series family, which in essence was an OHC development of the venerable B-Series. With the engine change came a range of styling tweaks, which made the car more efficent to build, byt somewhat reduced its showroom appeal.

The GXL was the MkIII Cortina everyone wanted but could not afford when the new MkIII range was launched in 1970. With it's 10.3 second 0-60 time, four headlight grille, vinyl roof, Rostyle wheels, cloth trimmed interior, 98bhp 2.0 litre OHC engine and rather translantic dashboard. The GXL was well worth its £1338 pric tag, which was £425 more than a base model 1300 two door.

The Avenger Tiger was announced in March 1972 and was a limited production model featuring a modified 1599cc 100bhp version of the standard cars engine, which gave a 0-60 time of 8.4 seconds. The initial batch of around two hundred four door cars were built at Chrysler's competition centre, under Des O'Dell's leadership and were paraded around dealers and the media as a PR exercise. These cars featured distinctive side striping, a rear wing, a matt black bonnet bulge and Restall reclining seats. A second run of around four hundred production Tiger's was built from October 1972 using the four headlight Avenger GL bodyshell.

Launched in 1970 the Avenger was really the last car developed by the The Rootes Group and proved very successful, surving a myriad of name changes before finally been discontinued in 1981 after nearly 800,00 examples had been produced in the UK. The car modelled is the 1972 "Top Hat Special Edition" which was based on the 1500 Super and featured a white vinyl roof.

Release date unknown.

The 127mph 2.8i really was the ultimate standard Capri. The Cologne 2.8 litre V6 replaced the Essex 3 litre in March 1981 and gave much more to the package than the 22bhp power increase that appeared on the specification sheets, for it was both freer revving and smoother. The first fruit of Rod Mansfield's new Dunton based Special Value Engineering (SVE), the 2.8 also had a much improved ride and handling that kept the Capri competitive in both production based motorsport and the sales chart long after its natural pension date had been reached.

Greater Manchester Police loved the Ford Capri, particulary in its later 2.8i form. It was seen as an ideal urban traffic car and was used as a pursuit vehicle at a time when car theft was at an all time high. This particular car was based at Hazel Grove Police Station and still exists, having been restored back to full police specification by its current owner.

Although launched in 1949 well before BMC was created, the Morris J Type 10cwt forward control van was obviously pre war in its design origins. The 1476cc, 36bhp side valve engine drove a 3 speed gearbox and although it was larger than its car derived Morris MCV cousin, it carried no greater a payload and sales sufffered because of this.