1930s

The Derby Bentleys reinvented the winged B under Rolls-Royce ownership as the silent sports car, 2,422 coachbuilt 3½ and 4¼ Litres that drove like nothing else of their age and produced the miraculous Embiricos streamliner. A guide to the era, and what to check before buying one.

The small-horsepower Rolls-Royces, the 20hp, the 20/25 and the 25/30, brought the best car in the world to the professional classes and became the most successful pre-war models of all. A guide to the owner-driver Rolls, its coachwork variety, and what to check before buying.

The pre-war Phantoms carried the coachbuilt age to its summit, the Phantom II under Royce's own hand and the V12 Phantom III as his final legacy, dressed by the greatest coachbuilders for maharajahs and moguls. A guide to all three, and the buying realities.

The Morgan 4/4 stayed in production for eighty-two years, the longest run of any car nameplate anywhere, changing engines with the decades while the ash-framed car around them barely changed at all. A guide to the series, the Ford years, buying checks and values.

A 1920s Chummy tourer sells for more than double a 1930s Ruby saloon. Austin Seven prices from 533 recorded auction sales, what the Nippy, the Ulster, the Swallow and the specials make, and why the car that motorised Britain has lost half its value in real terms since 2018.

The Austin Ten was Longbridge's family car for the 1930s and quietly out-sold everything else Austin made, running from the 1932 Ten-Four through the Lichfield, Sherborne and Cambridge to the wartime Tilly and the post-war GS1. A guide to the variants, the war years, buying checks and values.

The Morris Eight was Cowley's answer to Ford's Model Y and became Britain's best-selling car of the late 1930s, running from the Series I to the post-war Series E. A guide to the series, the tourers and vans, what to check when buying, and what a Morris Eight costs today.

Riley used the Kestrel name twice, first on the streamlined fastback saloons of the 1930s with their twin-cam engines, then on the walnut-trimmed 1965 version of the BMC 1100/1300. A guide to both Kestrels, the sporting pre-war cars, the badge-engineered finale, and what each costs today.

BSA's three-wheelers took on Morgan with a weapon nobody expected from a motorcycle firm, front-wheel drive, and sold in thousands on the strength of car comfort at motorcycle tax. A guide to the v-twin and four-cylinder cars, how they differ from a Morgan, the Scout that followed, and what one costs today.

Nearly forty years of bread-and-butter family car, from the sidevalve saloons of the 1930s through the crisp Loewy-styled Audax Series cars to the last New Minx of 1970. A guide to the Minx generations, the Super Minx and the badge-engineered cousins, what to look for when buying, and what a Minx is worth today.

The Austin Seven was the small, cheap car that put middle-class Britain on four wheels, built from 1922 to 1939 in every form from the open Chummy to the Ruby saloon and the sporting Ulster. A guide to the many Sevens, the model that seeded BMW and Lotus, and what to look for when buying one.

The pre-war decade in full, from the Austin Seven that motorised the middle class and the first affordable MG sports cars to the birth of SS Jaguar, the £100 Ford, and the coachbuilt Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Lagonda, the years the car reached ordinary Britain before war stopped it in 1939.

The SS Jaguar 100 was William Lyons' pre-war sports car, a short, fast open two-seater whose name claimed a genuine 100 mph and which carried the Jaguar name from 1936. A guide to the SS 100, the SS Jaguar saloons, the replica question, and what they are worth.

The MG T-Series, from the pre-war TA and TB through the TC that opened America to the TD and TF, was the classic folded-body British sports car on an ash frame. A guide to the T-types, what separates them, what one is like to own, and what to look for when buying.