British made wonders

Ford Motor Company exists because of motorsport. In 1901, Henry Ford took part in his only race, a 10-mile contest against Alexander Winton in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, in a self-built 26hp car called

It is nothing new to turn a large private collection of classics into a museum, though it is less common in the UK and Europe than the USA (where the tax benefits can be considerable). Even so, to do

£254,200 OTR/£282,000 as tested/£5,077 pcm WHY IT’S HERE: What has a hybrid makeover – and Mulliner buffing – added to the world’s best grand tourer? DRIVER: Ollie Kew TOPGEAR’S BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT

Bugatti’s official story is that the seed of the Veyron was planted in 1997. VW Group boss Ferdinand Piëch and his powertrain chief Karl-Heinz Neumann were on a Japanese train brewing up engine ideas.

It’s a petrolhead’s dream: wrestling a rusty old padlock and prising open a creaky door to unearth a classic car ripe for a loving restoration. It’s called a barn find, and there are YouTube channels

I’m on the edge of a seaside town, confronting sand. Fine sand, suitable for making sandcastles with very precise detailing. The sand, though, has come not from a beach near Hastings (the Sussex town