Leisure
Britain By Car A life-long motoring enthusiast, who wanted to offer something a little different to car fans, has developed a new website that he hopes will entertain, guide and get people out on the road.
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ony Thorpe’s website Britain By Car provides people with a new way of referencing information on cars – not by make, model or engine, but by place. From design to build, Tony believes most places have some connection with motoring and he has collated his finds on the site. Tony has scoured the length and breadth of Britain for villages, towns and cities that have some interesting connection with cars. It was a chance to delve deep into something he has a real passion for and also relive some of the memories he has of collecting anything and everything to do with cars as a young boy. “There’s just something about cars,” says Tony, his interest in motorsport and cars in particular, began when he was just six years old, the time his father bought their first family car. “My dad had just bought his first car, a Vauxhall Wyvern, in 1955. It all started from then. I used to watch cars on Sidcup bypass as a kid. I’d do the usual thing of going to motor shows, collecting catalogues, that kind of thing. I kept all of these files and catalogues and I’ve still got them today.” Dividing his time between teaching and researching cars, Tony has spent the majority of his working life connected in some way with education. But while teaching remains at the forefront of his career, his passion for cars and driving also continues to play a major part in his life. It is this driving passion that resulted in the Britain By Car website being born. The start, the first inkling of the idea, came following visits to bookshops. “With the original website idea I was looking for a niche within existing car topic categories. If you go into a bookshop to buy a car book as a present, you might have motor racing, you might have Italian cars, German cars, or you might have cars from the Forties or Fifties – those tend to be the categories.”
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