Best of British

UK's top trumps

Founded: 1984
Based: Belper, Derbyshire
Owner: Drew Bowler, founder and now managing director
Builds: Nemesis
Type: An off-roader designed for ‘Rally Raid’ motorsport, but also usable on tarmac. Based loosely on Range Rover Sport Powertrain: The engines are from Jaguar, and include 4.4-litre and 4.2-litre supercharged V8 petrol units and a V6 turbodiesel. They drive all four wheels in a bespoke tubular spaceframe chassis featuring many Land Rover components
Price: £120,000 for the basic car
Top speed: 150mph-plus (first prototypes recently completed)
Production: Aiming for 60 cars a year
Fact: Bowler made its name with the Land Rover Defender-derived Tomcat and Wildcat. Road-legal, these were mostly left-hand drive. Replaced by the more refined Nemesis

Founded: 1946
Based: Filton, Bristol
Owners: Anthony Crook (since 1960) and Toby Silverton (since 1997)
Builds: Blenheim, Blenheim Speedster and Fighter (pictured)
Type: The Blenheim is a traditional four-seater, two-door saloon; the Blenheim Speedster is an update of a Fifties prototype; the Fighter is a gullwing-door two-seater supercar
Powertrain: The Blenheims use 5.9-litre Chrysler V8s; Fighter has an 8.0-litre V10, again sourced from Chrysler
Prices: Blenheim starts at £127,500, Fighter at £229,125
Top speeds: Figures are not quoted for the Blenheim, while the Fighter is capable of reaching 210mph
Production: No more than 50 cars annually
Fact: One version of the Fighter, the 1,012bhp Fighter T, is the most powerful production car in Europe

Founded: 1953
Based: Bolton, Lancashire
Owner: Geoff Hudson, Neil Crowther and Paul Thompson
Builds: Dorchester limousine, as well as a large range of other stretched limousines and hearses
Type: The Dorchester is a six-door stretch limo, seating eight
Powertrain: Based on an Australian-built Ford Fairlane, the Dorchester has a 4.0-litre straight-six engine driving the rear wheels in an extended monocoque with a perimeter frame
Price: Starts at £63,000
Top speed: 125mph (approx)
Production: 60-70 cars annually
Fact: Part of Coleman Milne’s deal with Ford Motor Co of Australia means that the company also sells the standard Ford Fairlane estate car in the UK. This is claimed to be the largest new load-lugger currently on sale

Founded: 1957
Based: Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Owner: Lawrence Tomlinson’s LNT Group
Builds: G20r, as a roadster and coupé; G50, G20, G20 GTR and GT4 models are also offered, but as race cars only
Type: The G20r is a two-seater sports car. However, Dare UK, based in Colchester, Essex, owns exclusive rights to make the original Ginetta G4 (pictured) – which the G20r superficially resembles – and G12 cars, which it mostly sells in Japan
Powertrain: The G20r has a tubular aluminium chassis and a 1.4-litre four-cylinder Ford Zetec unit driving the rear wheels
Price: Starts at £15,995
Top speed: 125mph
Production: Two in 2006
Fact: Ginetta has survived 50 years, and its cars, often also available in kit form, are popular with amateur racing drivers

Founded: 1925
Based: Chippenham, Wiltshire
Owner: Michael Bristow
Builds: S1
Type: The company’s sole car is a luxuriously finished two-seater coupé. It also claim to be the first vehicle to feature a one-piece carbon fibre bodyshell
Powertrain: Power comes from 4.6 or 5.0-litre Ford V8 engines, delivering between 320bhp and 600bhp, and driving the rear wheels in a steel-tube spaceframe chassis
Price: Starts at £106,000
Top speed: 170mph-200mph, depending on engine
Production: One per month
Fact: This historic British marque was revived by Invicta devotee Bristow in 2005 – its original golden age was from 1924-33, when its powerful sports cars rivalled Bentley

Founded: 1954 (re-established 1986)
Based: Dorking, Surrey
Owner: Laurence and Fiona Pearce, husband and wife
Builds: Storm
Type: It’s a bespoke 2+2 supercar with a carbon fibre body, and it also doubles as an endurance racer
Powertrain: A 7.0-litre V12 Jaguar engine, giving 546bhp, drives the rear wheels in an aluminium honeycomb chassis.  This is the largest V12 fitted to any post-1945 British car
Price: Starts at £350,000
Top speed: 208mph
Production: Less than 25 have been made since 1993, with only four of that number road models
Fact: The Storm is Lister’s first, and only, complete road car. Until the Mercedes CLS-based Brabus Rocket arrived, it was the world’s fastest four-seater. Now made only to order

Founded: 1919 (as Carbodies; London Taxis International was formed in 1985)
Based: Coventry, West Midlands
Owner: Manganese Bronze Holdings PLC
Builds: TX4
Type: It’s the world’s only purpose-built taxi, with up to seven seats. Bodywork is in steel panels
Powertrain: A 2.5-litre four-cylinder VM Motori turbodiesel powers the rear wheels in a box-section ladderframe chassis
Price: Starts at £26,995
Top speed: LTI doesn’t provide one
Production: 2,987 cabs were made in 2006, comprising the latest TX4 and the previous TX2 models
Fact: An export boom has followed the launch of the TX4, including a fleet of six white versions going into service in Italy. Plans are also afoot to make the cabs in China

Founded: 1968
Based: St Leonard’s-on-Sea, East Sussex
Owner: John Mayston-Taylor and family
Builds: D-type/XKSS, C-type, Lightweight E-type (pictured)
Type: These are replicas of classic Jaguars, reproduced both in design and construction, with hand-beaten bodywork
Powertrain: Jaguar straight-sixes with 3.4-litre to 3.6-litre capacities, driving rear wheels in steel or aluminium chassis
Prices: Around £200,000-£220,000, depending on model
Top speeds: XKSS and C-type hit 140mph, D-type reaches 150mph, while the Lightweight E-type tops out at 170mph
Production: In the past 39 years, Lynx has made 53 D-types, 10 XKSSs, five Lightweight E-types and five C-types
Fact: The company usually builds replicas of cars that only millionaires could afford. But in the Eighties, it also offered spyder and shooting brake conversions of the Jaguar XJ-S

Founded: 1983
Based: Hinckley, Leicestershire
Owner: Ted and Richard Marlow
Builds: GTR coupé and Can-Am spyder (pictured)
Type: These two-seater sports cars are inspired by endurance racers. You can order a fully road-legal one, which is ready to go, or else build it yourself from a kit
Powertrain: A 5.7-litre V8 Chevrolet engine, driving the rear wheels in an aluminium-panelled tubular spaceframe chassis
Price: £55,000
Top speed: 213mph
Production: 50-70 a year
Fact: An Ultima GTR road car, driven by company owner Richard Marlow, holds the world record for acceleration from 0-100mph and then back to a standstill, at 9.4 seconds. It completed the 0-60mph sprint in 2.6 seconds