Burrell Lionel

After a spell as art editor of Autocar, Lionel Burrell was the originator, in 1973, of Classic Car, which went on to become the world’s best-selling classic car magazine under the title Thoroughbred & Classic Cars.

Later he became managing editor of the The Automobile magazine, and now he works freelance. He was instrumental, together with Roy Berry, in starting the first full-time diploma course in classic car restoration in the UK, at the Colchester Institute. His first car was an Austin Seven, which he bought in 1955. Since then he has owned and restored Jaguars, Aston Martins, Triumphs and MGs, including an MGB that was his first restoration project at the Colchester Institute. Currently, he still has his 3-litre Bentley, which he has owned for nearly 50 years, and he has just finished a two-and-a-half-year rebuild of a 1926 Talbot 10/23.