ABSTRACT
There is a mystique attached to classic British sports cars, which possess an allure that defies description. The story goes that on an overseas trip William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, was introduced to a foreign businessman as the manufacturer of Morris cars. A look of incredulity appeared across the latter's face, but following the revelation that Morris also produced MG Cars a smile of instant recognition resulted (Adeney, 1988, 127). A recent survey in Japan, which has been notoriously unreceptive to Westem manufactured imports, found that motorists considered the home-bred Mazda to be the top sports car, followed by the British MG, confirming its endurance as one of the world's most famous specialist marques (Eason, 1995). When Lord Montagu, founder of the National Motor Museum Trust and head of the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, selected the 12 British models which had 'made a profound impact on motoring history' in terms of 'design, technology, or production techniques', no less than five sports cars made the list: the Bentley 4.5 litre supercharged (1930), MG TC Midget (1946), Jaguar XK120 (1950), Aston Martin Vantage (1977) and McLarenF1 (1994) (Montagu, 1995a).
