Great British Car Journey secures merchandise deal on Autocar archive

Published: 16/11/2022

Great British Car Journey has completed an agreement with Haymarket Media Group to reproduce images and articles from the Autocar archive, which spans more than 125 years of automotive history.

The deal, secured by the Derbyshire-based classic car visitor attraction, follows the digitisation of more than a million pages of Autocar magazine, which has been published since November 1895. 

Great British Car Journey is the first organisation to be licensed to reproduce and sell images from the Autocar archive. 

Autocar is one of the world’s oldest car magazines, and the weekly’s archive is made up of around 6000 magazines.

The images from the newly digitised archive will be reproduced on a range of on-demand wall art, including framed and unframed canvases and prints as well as metal plaques.

The images are all available to order through Great British Car Journey’s new online store.

Great British Car Journey founder, Richard Usher has selected an initial 75 front covers, dating from 1925 to the mid-1960s. They feature a range of British marques and models that have either disappeared from, or are rarely seen on, UK roads, including the Austin Seven, Morris Minor and the classic Mini. 

The selected front pages feature early hand drawn colour illustrations and photography. “They are stunning images and evocative of a bygone era,” said Richard.

The images are available in four different sizes and prices start from just £16.99.

Great British Car Journey was opened to the public in May 2021. Its new online store and partnership with Haymarket represents an exciting new development for the business.

Richard said: “This is a tremendously exciting development for Great British Car Journey. We are excited by the opportunity to present the Autocar archive and to share it with other car enthusiasts."

Rachael Prasher, Managing Director of Haymarket Automotive, added: “Day-to-day we inevitably tend to focus on our future, but we are incredibly proud of our past, and it makes perfect sense for us to partner with a company that understands the history of the brand and the industry so well."

“Autocar front cover is famous as the billboard for car manufacturers who want to show their latest model to the motoring public. Many of the marques that appeared on the Autocar front covers can now be found within the visitor attraction.”

More Autocar covers will be offered for sale soon.

Richard explained: “We will be adding more Autocar covers to our online store in the future, however we were keen to get the store launched ahead of Christmas.”

The Autocar prints can be purchased online at https://greatbritishcarjourney.com/buy-merchandise/ or ordered within the giftshop at the Great British Car Journey classic car visitor attraction based in Ambergate, Derbyshire.