Veteran cars are those made not later than 1918 and were thus the earliest motor cars to appear on the roads of Britain. The first models basically comprised the frame and bodywork of a horse-drawn carriage fitted with a petrol engine, but during the period up to the First World War they became much more comfortable and efficient vehicles. This book describes how the motor car developed from its unpromising origins in the 1880s and 1890s, when motoring was mainly a hobby for wealthy eccentrics, until it came to be seen as a serious means of transport.