1990sPreview — design coming soon
Design coming soon
hoodie
Keep-Fit Windows Co.
Wind-down exercise, fitted as standard.
£60.00Coming soon
1990 – 1999The decade that’s
The decade that’s
only now becoming classic.
Cosworths and Imprezas on the rally stages, an Elise reinventing lightness, and a saloon so ordinary it named a type of voter. The cars off your teenage bedroom wall — finally old enough to count.
Rally Heroes and Honest Survivors
Race-bred kit escaped into ordinary cars, and the scene is falling for them hardest right now.
1990
The Mk 5 Escort arrives — best-selling car in Britain, a rep-mobile and a rally stage regular.
1991
The catalytic converter becomes mandatory on new cars. Cleaner air, quieter exhausts.
1992
The Mondeo launches — so ordinary it names a voter. Britain’s new default saloon.
1993
The Jaguar XJ220 enters production. 217 mph, the fastest road car in the world.
1995
Colin McRae wins the World Rally Championship at twenty-seven — the youngest ever. Blue car, gold wheels.
1996
The Lotus Elise arrives. Under 700 kg, aluminium tub, and a reminder that lightness wins.
1997
The McLaren F1 clocks 240 mph — central seat, gold-lined engine bay, still the benchmark.
1998
The K-prefix plate era ends. Nineties registrations start looking period-correct.
The nineties were when race-bred kit escaped into ordinary cars. Four-wheel drive and turbocharging — the stuff that won world rally titles — turned up on the sort of car you could finance from a forecourt. Colin McRae won the championship at twenty-seven, the youngest ever, and half of Britain decided it wanted a blue car with gold wheels.
The shapes went soft — folded-paper wedges gave way to smooth “biodesign” curves, chrome gave way to body-colour bumpers, and the airbag, the catalytic converter and the CD player became standard kit.
It’s also the decade the scene is falling for hardest right now. The classic market for older cars has cooled, but nineties hot hatches and modern classics are the growth end — bought by the people who grew up with them, finally old enough and well-off enough to put one back on the drive. The honest survivors count as much as the heroes here. The scene loves both.
The Cars That Did the Work
The everyman did the commuting; the heroes did the daydreaming. Fiestas, Escorts and Mondeos kept the motorways full, while the rally reps, the featherweight roadsters and one central-seat hypercar reminded everyone what Britain could still build.
The Everyman
The superminis, saloons and reps that sold by the hundred thousand.
The Heroes
The rally specials, the lightweight roadsters and the supercars.
1990s Landmark
Kielder Forest Rally Stage
A Wet Forest at Dawn
Kielder is the biggest man-made forest in England, and once a year in the Nineties it turned into the toughest test in rallying. The RAC Rally ran through those Northumberland stages in November — freezing, pitch dark by four, the sort of cold that gets into your boots and stays there. And we went anyway. Thousands of us, stood on a forest bank in the mist, waiting twenty minutes for ten seconds of a car. Then it'd arrive — an Escort Cosworth or an Impreza, lights blazing, sideways on the gravel, gone in a shower of stones and a noise you felt in your chest. That was the Nineties for me. Not a showroom or a circuit, but a wet forest at dawn with a flask and a torch, watching the best in the world work for it. Worth every frozen toe.
Dean’s Recollections
Under the Glass
Recollections of a TVR Griffith Roadster
The metallic purple 1996 TVR Griffith Roadster is a piece of absolute British engineering theatre. No electronic driver aids, no ABS, no traction control — just a fibreglass body, a massive V8 engine, and a driving experience that demanded your full, undivided attention.
When you popped the bonnet, you were looking at a detailed engine bay that was as beautiful as it was raw. I remember wearing my blue mechanic's overalls with the 'DCC' emblem, checking the ignition leads. You had to have your glasses ON to inspect it properly. One wrong move and you’d be tracing electrical gremlins for days.
By the nineties, biodesign curves had taken over, but TVR stayed wild. It was a reminder of what British motoring could be when it stopped trying to be sensible. A bit of grease, a lot of passion, and a car that felt completely alive.
Dean & The Motor
The Whale Tail
Ford Escort RS Cosworth
The Escort RS Cosworth is the Nineties in one car — a humble family hatch with a rally car hiding underneath and a rear wing you could serve dinner off. Ford built it to win, and it did: turbocharged, four-wheel drive, that enormous spoiler everyone laughed at until they saw one disappear up a forest stage. On the road it was a wolf in a Ford suit — the badge said school run, the boost said otherwise. I always give one a proper look-over before it goes anywhere; there's a lot going on under there, and these are worth real money now to the lads who had the poster. Clipboard out, glasses on, a slow walk round. Some cars you just want to get right. This is one of them.
Wear the Decade
A few nineties pieces — for the bedroom-wall generation, grown up and still grinning. More to come.
1990sPreview — design coming soon
Design coming soon
sweater
Tin-Worm Preservation Society
Rust never sleeps.
£60.00Coming soon
1990sPreview — design coming soon
Design coming soon
hoodie
K-Reg & Proud
Prefix plate, digits invented.
£60.00Coming soon
1990sPreview — design coming soon
Design coming soon
sweater
Mind the Redline
Seven-two and holding.
£60.00Coming soon
1990sPreview — design coming soon
Design coming soon
hoodie
Rally Blue, Gold Wheels
The colourway, not the logo.
£60.00Coming soon
1990sPreview — design coming soon
Design coming soon
sweater
One Careful Owner
Full history, honest survivor.
£60.00Coming soon
Mind How You Go
That’s five decades of British motoring, kept in the best possible order. The store’s through here — find the one that was yours.