Classic car enthusiasts will now be able to get a rare insight into life on the road during motoring’s golden era, when legendary drivers like Sir Stirling Moss made racing history and Jaguar gave us the iconic E-type.

Universal Motoring History have opened up their archive of over 500 clips of classic car footage, which can now be accessed for free online. 

The clips, which date from the 1890s onwards, feature motoring events from around the world including world land speed record runs, car commercials, flying cars, road system demonstrations, famous drivers, stunt driving, novelty items and unusual mili­tary machines.

The archive is also home to a catalogue of footage from historic races at famous circuts like Le Mans, Brands Hatch, Daytona Beach and Monte Carlo, as well as films featuring bygone hill climbs and stock car racing.

Many of the films have largely remained unseen for more than 50 years and were previously thought to have been lost or destroyed.

The archive has been accumulated over many years from numerous sources, including motor manufacturers, government departments, military organizations, film and TV pro­duction companies and elsewhere.

We’ve selected a few of our favourite clips below, but to see the full archive visit www.auto-history.tv/media