The best foreign cars built in Britain

Ford GT40 - Rachel Burgess

Knocking long-reigning Ferrari off the Le Mans 24 Hours top spot is enough for any car to achieve hero status. Such was the success of the Ford GT40, whose Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3 variants were built at Ford’s Slough plant. The car was based on the British Lola Mk6 and used Ford’s V8 powertrain. Having broken Ferrari’s winning streak in 1966, the GT40 won the next three Le Mans 24 Hour races. Its 1969 victory, driven by Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver, was in the iconic Gulf blue and orange livery.

Honda Civic Type R - Lawrence Allan

I’ve picked the Type R as much for the brilliance of the car itself as the disappointment that Honda’s Swindon hub, where the hot hatch is built, will shut its doors for good in 2021. The plant has been a major employer near my home town for 35 years and has produced millions of Civics over the past quarter decade. The latest – and last – Swindon-built Type R is one of our favourite hot hatches, combining giant-killing performance with a surprising amount of comfort and usability.

Nissan Leaf - Steve Cropley

It’s the Nissan Leaf for me. Not sure the company gets nearly enough credit for this excellent car, which appeared in the first instance when no one else had the bottle to make electric cars in volume. It’s now available in several different versions of a much improved model. It looks like an ordinary Nissan now but has all the best electric car features – smoothness, quietness, torque from zero and so on. But the company badly needs to improve the desirability of its products. People always look past them. Bring back the Z-car!

Nissan Micra Mk2 - Jim Holder

Beloved of old fogies and nervy youngsters, the Sunderland-built Micra Mk2 is an unlikely automotive hero but stands out for its accessible-to-all spirit and cutesy, bubble shape. Even today, it remains a Bangernomics staple, an icon of our roads as well as a first symbol of the brilliance of the workforce in Tyne and Wear. Between 1992 and 2010, more than 2.3 million Micras rolled off the line – although perhaps the less said about the Mk3, which flowed down the lines from 2002, the better.

Honda Accord Type R - Matt Prior

I’m going to say it: the Accord Type R is better than any Civic Type R. I think. Probably. Hmm. Well, anyway, I like it a lot. It’s certainly the most underrated Type R. It’s a terrific sports saloon, with a shell that feels incredibly stiff but a chassis that has untold compliance, brilliantly communicative steering and, of course, a VTEC engine. With 98bhp per litre and a 7500rpm limit, it combines the best of Honda’s revvy-ness with a dose of 2.2-litre low-end drivability. And it weighs just 1306kg. Even many hot hatches aren’t under that these days.

Ford Escort Mk1 - James Attwood

The Ford Escort feels such a key part of Britain’s motoring story that it’s easy to forget it’s the product of an American company. Developed by Ford’s European arm and at times built at both its Halewood (now owned by Jaguar Land Rover) and Dagenham factories, the first-gen Escort became a huge hit in Europe – and particularly the UK. Plenty of reasons to love the Escort Mk1, then, but for me there’s another: it’s still really popular in historic rallying, and few sights can beat a sideways Escort, BDA engine screaming, tackling a forest stage.

Peugeot 405 - Felix Page

The humble Peugeot 405 is nothing if not worldly. Designed in Turin by Pininfarina, engineered by Sochaux’s finest, elected European Car of the Year 1988 and built under licence in locations as far afield as Argentina, China and Taiwan, it’s a real globetrotter. One factory in Azerbaijan is even still building it. It was Peugeot’s less exotic Ryton plant, however, that supplied right-hand-drive 405s to Britain’s army of fax machine sales reps and frugal families, who were no doubt soon charmed by its many quirks and surprisingly tight steering.

Honda Civic Tourer (FK) - Matt Saunders