About Us
TAYLOR MADE
Autotune was established in 1969 by husband and wife Anthony and Carolyn Taylor. Anthony Taylor’s background came from working on all manner of road and race cars at Westune, Sports Motors and Mangoletsi during the 1960s. Alongside cars Anthony also maintained offshore powerboats and regularly competed in the legendary Cowes Torquay Races. With Carolyn running the administration and sales and Anthony manning the workshop, Autotune soon established an excellent reputation for the tuning and maintenance of high-performance road cars, specialising in Jaguar and Aston Martin.
Alongside the roadgoing work, race car preparation was regularly undertaken and models from all the famous marques were serviced and maintained. From BRM to Brabham, Chevron to Crossle, Lola to Lotus, and March to McLaren; they have all been through the door at Autotune.
RACING SINCE 1960
Anthony Taylor was a regular race himself, competing since 1960 and enjoying Championship wins in Formula Atlantic single seaters in the 1970s before moving into Historic Motor Sport in the 1980s, winning class championships with the Historic Sports Car Club and beginning a lifetime of driving Historic McLaren race cars when he raced his first Can-Am McLaren in the early 1980s.
KIT DESIGN
In 1983 Autotune decided to come up with an alternative to the expensive classic car market and drawing on their wealth of experience and knowledge of Jaguars, the Aristocat was born. Autotune designed and produced an easy to build, classically shaped, Jaguar XJ6 based kit. The car was designed to give enthusiasts the opportunity to build themselves a classically styled car but using modern mechanical components. Following the tremendous success of the Aristocat, further kit designs were added to the Autotune range with the Gemini in 1987 and the Can-Am in 1992.
EXPANDING THE TEAM
Son, Richard Taylor joined the company in 2002, having graduated with a First-Class Honours Degree in Motor Sport Engineering, and since his arrival, the Historic Racing side of Autotune has flourished. Having helped his father restore and race the family McLaren race cars, Richard had developed a real passion for the marque which has translated into a workshop full of McLarens being restored and prepared for customers worldwide. To help keep the McLarens on track, Autotune also now manufactures and stocks many spare parts for these special machines.
