Vintage Cars

There’s a splendid collection of vintage cars at the Transport Museum, all set out so you can have a good look at them.

The majority of the more recent cars are of British manufacture.

One of the most splendid is the Rolls-Royce Phantom Landaulette of 1931. It was owned by Sir William Burrell who gifted his great art collection to Glasgow.

At the other end of the price scale is the Hillman Imp. You can see the first Imp to come off the production line at Rootes Linwood factory in 1963. It cost £508 including tax.

argyll motor car © Glasgow City Council (Museums)

Other popular models on show are the Ford Anglia, the Chrysler Avenger and Sunbeam, the Citroen 2CV and the Volkswagon Beatle.

Anyone who admires fine craftsmanship and design will be impressed by the splendid collection of Scottish-built cars of the early 20^th century, when Scotland was at the vanguard of the European motor industry.

Three main firms had workshops in the Glasgow area: Argyll and Arrol-Johnston making private cars and Albion specializing in commercial vehicles.

Alexander Govan designed the first Argyll motor car in 1899, a ‘Light Car’ inspired by Renault. By 1905 Argyll was producing 1,200 cars a year. An Argyll broke 28 Brooklands Racing Track records and 13 world records – all in a single day in 1913.

Argyll went into liquidation in 1914, Arrol-Johnston remained in production until 1931 while Albion’s last badged vehicle came down the production line in 1972 – thus ending Scotland’s proud role in the history of the motor car.