The most beautiful British cars
When tasked with finding the most beautiful cars on the planet, naturally, you should head to Italy, where the police drive Alfa Romeos and wear Giorgio Armani. But that would be too easy. Today, we'll find hot metal in the UK, where the police drive Volvos and wear Hi-Viz. We joke, of course; the UK's got plenty of good-looking cars to choose from, ranging from the functionally stylish to just plain looking. These are the most beautiful British cars.
Jaguar F-Type
Faced with the terrifying question every sports car builder has to answer – how exactly do you beat the Porsche 911? Well, Jaguar stuck to what it does best by building a stunningly beautiful GT. Jaguar already had form in such matters; the XK looked like a cut-price Aston Martin (in an excellent way), and the XK8 was a solid looker, too, but the F-Type had loftier plans. It wanted to rekindle the magic of the legendary Jaguar E-Type.
It did that with ease. The long bonnet hinted that you could have your Jaguar with supercharged V8 power, and the teardrop rear end, with its feline tail lights, was perfection personified. For a long time, the F-Type was the hottest property in town – I used to drool over a red F-Type S on my old London commute – but, sadly, dynamically it was never a true 911 beater.
Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
We could easily make this a list of the best-looking Aston Martins in the world because the company has been hammering together gorgeous metal for as long as we can remember, building stunning-looking machines that match perfectly current trends. Be it the elegance of the 1960s DB5 or the brutish good looks of the 1980s V8 Vantage.
The DBS manages to be a mixture of the two. Its huge front grille looks like it could swallow a bus stop's worth of pedestrians before snorting out their remains through the massive vents on its bonnet, but the rest of the car is, like a seaside French Bistro, all about the muscles. The Aston's dual personality comes through in the way it drives, effortlessly switching from a long-legged GT to an engaging sports car.
Series 1 Lotus Elise
To fully appreciate the looks of the original Lotus Elise, you must see it in person. Parked on the street with other cars, the Lotus looks like a supercar that's been through a 90-degree wash cycle, low to the ground, with a body shaped by someone who knows a fair bit about aerodynamics. Substantial bonnet vents prevent lift at speeds, the car has an entirely flat floor, and the rear diffuser is functional. It looks like it. The result is a genuine sports car rather than a pastiche of what someone thinks a sports car should look like.
And as any visitor to these fine pages knows, the Elise is about as genuine as sports cars get. Its sub-800kg weight brings performance from all angles, helping the Elise stop, go and corner better than anything you'll get for the price.
Mini Hatchback
BMW was struck down by the 'new Land Rover Defender' factor when it launched its Mini back in 2001, immediately putting the backs up of people who loved tiny dimensions and faithful handling of the original Mini.
As with the Defender, though, this resistance shed away pretty quickly when people realised what a good job BMW had done. The Mini set a trend for retro styling that carried the nostalgia of the old car to a new platform with safety and technology fit for the modern age – it's a formula matched by the resurrected Fiat 500 and soon-to-launched electric Renault 5. The way the Mini drive sealed its character. Fitting independent rear suspension was expensive and bad for packaging, but it meant the Mini handled just as well as its predecessor for authenticity beyond its looks.
Jaguar XJ220
The Jaguar XJ220 was a car that fell victim to circumstance. Thanks to the financial crash, the four-wheel drive V12 supercar Jaguar originally planned was too expensive to build and was replaced with a rear-wheel-drive turbocharged V6. Customers soon started returning their deposits. Those who kept their orders got a cumbersome car to drive, and although very fast, the XJ220 was only briefly the fastest car in the world before the McLaren F1 launched a few years later.
But that was long enough to ensure the Jaguar took pride of place on the bedroom wall of many a young car fan – mine included. It looks like a car built for speed; its long body needed to smooth out the air travelling along flanks with the purpose of a Jaguar on the prowl. The Jaguar's dedication to top speed, and not the downforce of a modern supercar, explains why its 217mph top speed remains impressive more than 30 years since it went on sale.
McLaren P1
The McLaren P1's body looks like it has been shrink-wrapped around its internals, hinting at the car's uncompromising approach to weight saving. If the bodywork doesn't need to be there, it isn't, as you can see from the rear panel (or lack of one), which allows cooling air to gush through the engine bay. While the P1 isn't as aggressively aerodynamic as some of the latest supercars – the McLaren Senna being an obvious example – there is still plenty going on, the car's colossal air brake rear wing being the most obvious example.
The P1 was one of the first new generations of hypercars. It mixed an EV-only running mode with performance that would humble any car before it – a combination of electric motors and a twin-turbocharged V8 producing 916PS (674kW).
Lotus Emira
The Emira is Lotus' last throw of the conventionally fuelled dice, and it's fair to say the company left one of its best designs until the end. Much like the Elise, the Emira manages to squeeze supercar looks into a junior supercar package with a body you can imagine shaping the air as it passes across it. Yet the Lotus is big enough to accommodate tall drivers and has a decent boot.
Sadly, like most other Lotus cars, the Emira never quite lived up to its 'Porsche 911 beater' billing. The Covid pandemic massively hampered deliveries – something the company wasn't entirely transparent about – and sent prices skyrocketing, cancelling the car's bargain-supercar status. Either way, it's still one of the best-looking cars that’s ever emerged from Hethel.
Aston Martin DB9
Yes, it's another Aston, but it would be impossible to write a guide to the best-looking British cars without including the DB9. A subtler affair than the new DBS, the DB9 is all about restrained elegance that makes a Ferrari look about as subtle as a multi-coloured shell suit that's on fire. The Aston is a flashy, expensive car you can enjoy without worrying about the envy faced by Italian alternatives.
However, as a driver's car, the Aston wasn't such a safe bet. It felt like a big, heavy GT in corners in a way that cars like the Ferrari 575 didn't, understeering long before Ferrari's GT threw in the towel. However, the Aston excelled at covering considerable distances quickly and comfortably. If you can find a manual car, it represents one of the performance bargains of the century.
Jaguar D-Type
Asked for the name of a pretty classic Jaguar many will inevitably think of the E-Type, but to our eyes the older D-Type pips it to the post. The D-Type wasn't designed to look good but to win races – something it did very well, triumphing at Le Mans in 1955, '56 and '57 – against far more powerful opposition.
The secret was the shape of the D-Type's aluminium and magnesium body, which gave the Jaguar a top speed of 173mph, meaning the six-cylinder Jaguar could outrun a V12 Ferrari down the Mulsanne straight. The Jaguar's streamlined body took many lessons from aerospace and was designed by Malcolm Sayer, formerly of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Sadly, that beautiful shape doesn't come cheap, and nowadays, you'll need millions of pounds to get your hands on a genuine example.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage
Unlike the DB9, which manages to stir some style and grace into its GT recipe, the V12 Vantage was all about thuggish charm. It's the kind of car that someone like TT motorbike racer Guy Martin, at the humble age of 27, splurges all his winnings on before he's even bought a house (although he'd soon sell it after suffering a litany of problems).
Nevertheless, you can’t fail to see the Aston's appeal. The massive vents on the long bonnet hint at the cooling requirements of the V12 nestled underneath, and behind the wheels you'll spot the carbon-ceramic disc brakes needed to keep the car's performance in check. Even without turbos, the Vantage served up the kind of performance that would appeal to TT motorcycle riders, which is to say – terrifying. Ultimately, it was a flawed machine that weighed barely any less than the larger DB9, but as a piece of automotive sculpture, it's one of the best cars here.
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