A ROYAL RUMBLE

Never mind the United States, British V8s have long been a source of refined, charismatic performance, as 10 of the finest demonstrate

- SIMON HUCKNALL/MARTIN BUCKLEY

The V8 came of age in the USA, but historically America has by no means been its only home, nor the source of some of its greatest exponents. British car makers also saw the layout’s appeal, and while theirs tended to be marginal players at the upper end of the market, the draw to motorists of an abundance of torque, effortless power and, of course, a slightly rebellious timbre struck a chord that would lead to multiple classes of homegrown cars firing on eight cylinders.

A handful of British manufacturers developed V8 engines before WW2 - Standard, for example, with its Flying V8, plus the short-lived Autovia with its conjoined Riley engines. Here, though, we have gathered 10 of the best post-war cars, each powered by its own, British-built V8 lump. From this group we have created five pairings, some to celebrate the evolution of V8s from this island, others to illustrate the wildly different approaches to designing this most charismatic of layouts. What you won't see are the likes of Jensen's C-V8 or the AC 428, both of which, along with so many others, used engines from across the Atlantic.

That said, some here may still court debate due to the origins of their powerplants. We've chosen a Morgan Plus 8 as our sole representative of the Buick-derived, and now ubiquitous, Rover V8. Its roots in General Motors are well known, but it was a British company that bought the tooling and manufacturing rights, and successfully adapted the unit for a very different market and myriad applications. At the other end of the scale we have McLaren's MP4-12C, whose engine had its basis in a late-’90s Nissan Le Mans racer. And yet in both cases it was British engineering expertise that realised the full potential of these V8 heroes.

DAIMLER SP250 & MORGAN PLUS 8