Who I am. Ok, my name isn't really Basil, it's Cy Stanton (but please refer to me as Basil in the forum or regarding forum matters). Why "Basil, "you ask? Well the main reason is because my favorite TV show of all time is Fawlty Towers. The 1970s era British sitcom (named the #1 television program of all time by the British Film Institute) starred John Cleese as Basil Fawlty, the sharp-tongued, short-tempered owner of Fawlty Towers, a fictitious hotel set in the very real town of Torquay (Pronounced "Tor-key"). While I don't think I'm nearly as sharp-tongued or short-tempered as Basil Fawlty, my wife would often call me Basil when I'd get myself all wound up about one thing or the other, and so I adopted that as my forum name. In real life I'm a retired Air Force officer (24 years) now working as a senior analyst for a major contractor firm. I'm married (to the same girl for 31+ years) with children (two grown boys). My love of British cars started at a young age when a Doctor would visit his aunt from time to time, who happened to live next door to us. The "Doc" drove a 1960 (I think) Jaguar XK 150 Coupe. He used to give all the kids rides and even taught me to drive and use a stick shift. There was something about the look, the sound and the smell of that car that remained with me my whole life and sparked a life-long appreciation for little British cars. I bought my first British car when I was still a Junior in High School (in Aurora, Colorado). It was a Tan 1967 Jaguar EType Coupe (Yes, I bought it myself - I worked two jobs part time). I sold that car when I joined the Air Force in 1972, and spent the rest of my life regretting that stupid decision. Then one day, about 30 years later, fate intervened and by a chance posting I saw in an email Jaguar Mailing List I discovered that my old Tan Jag was still alive and well and living in Devner Colorado! I had the opportunity to visit the owner a few years ago and he let me drive it again. What a thrill! My current "fleet" of British iron includes 1967 Jaguar E Roadster (under perpetual restoration), a 1978 Triumph Spitfire (ok, settle down you MGB guys), and a very slow but very cool looking 1950 Daimler Special Sport. Ok, so enough about me, let me tell you a bit about British Car Forum.

I established British Car Forum (BCF) on Christmas day, December 25th, 2000, as a way for British car lovers around the world to share in the love of their favorite marque. Why: I owned a number of different British cars and belonged to several "mailing lists" in which you receive emails from people from all over the world, right in your mail box. The only problem is that I'd get my mailbox filled up with email and much of it was stuff I didn't care about. Then I discovered an online forum for an American car I also own, and I thought "this is much better than those email lists." So I went looking for a similar forum for British cars. I found several for specific marques, but could not find any that catered to British cars in general. So, being a computer geek dating back to the time when computers occupied several rooms of vacuum tube-filled racks, I decided it might be fun to start a forum myself. I'd had similar expertise from back in the dial-up bulletin board days (yes youngsters, there was an on-line community before the internet). The first thing of course was to decide on a name. The obvious choice of course was British Car Forum, but I was certain that a domain name as cool as www.britishcarforum.com would have already been taken. To my surprise and delight, it was available! (I have had several offers over the years from people who wanted to purchase that domain name) So, I registered that URL, rented some web space, purchased my first forum software, and thus it began.

The BCF has gone through many upgrades and improvements over the years, and recently I actually decided to move to a dedicated server over which I have total control. For the first 5 ½ years I operated BCF completely out of pocket. However, with the recent move to the dedicated server, and the need for much greater bandwidth, I started offering reasonably prices advertising for vendors, and even more recently, I started offering some BCF-related items in the BCF store, and also accepting voluntary donations from members. The BCF is a free forum, and no one is obligated to pay a penny to participate here. However, if a member feels that BCF is of sufficient benefit and would like to assist in the day-to-day expense of running this place, any and all sales or donations are greatly appreciated.

The hallmark of BCF is the forum section that allows people from all over the world to actively discuss all aspects of their British automobiles. But BCF is much more than just a discussion forum. We also have: a growing technical knowledge base; a database of members' personal web sites; a database of members' British car clubs; a Live Chat capability; member-submitted art work; member-submitted articles; free classifies; a members' car picture gallery, and much more. So, while the forums are fun, please do take some time once in awhile to visit some of the other sections of the site. I hope your time here is enjoyable and that you make many new friends. If you have any questions, be sure to check the FAQ pages, or drop us a line by clicking the "Contact Us" link.