HAWTHORNE MOTORS®
[
British Sports Cars
]
THE LONG STRAIGHT
A DIGITAL HOME FOR A BRITISH MARQUE'S RACING HERITAGE, BUILT TO SIT BESIDE THE CURRENT LINE-UP.
[
Project data
]
HAWTHORNE MOTORS®
British Sports Cars
Title
THE LONG STRAIGHT
Client
HAWTHORNE MOTORS®
Released
Timeframe
14 weeks
Project type
Branding
Technology
Framer WebGL Configurator Cloudinary Sanity
[
01 — Overview
]
Hawthorne has raced and won across six decades of British motorsport, and almost none of it lived anywhere public. Each new model launch replaced the last microsite, and the heritage went with it. We built a digital home where the racing archive sits beside the current line-up instead of behind it — one disciplined photographic format, reused across every era, organised by decade rather than by press release.
[
02 — The challenge
]
THE HERITAGE WITHOUT ACCESS
Six decades of Hawthorne racing history existed only in print and private collections — nowhere a visitor could actually see it.
Hawthorne has raced and won across six decades of British motorsport, and almost none of that history lived anywhere public. Each new model launch replaced the last microsite, so the marque's own heritage disappeared every time a new car arrived — which meant the depth behind the badge was invisible to anyone encountering it for the first time. The marque needed a digital structure built to hold its racing history rather than discard it, without turning the current line-up into just one more entry in a long list.
[
03 — The solution
]
THE ARCHIVE MADE TO DRIVE
A heritage system built around one recurring photographic format, reused across six decades of models instead of redesigned each launch.
We built the flagship around a single, disciplined photographic format — tight, high-contrast studio portraiture of each car, one dominant frame per model — that could hold every era without a visual overhaul each time. The current line-up sits at the front of the site; the racing archive runs behind it, organised by decade rather than buried in a press-only archive. Campaign direction followed the same discipline: fewer cars shown, photographed with more intention, built to still read as strong a decade from now as the day they were released. A configurator lets a visitor move between heritage models and the current range without leaving the same visual language behind.
A photographic format disciplined enough to hold six decades of models without a redesign.
An archive structure that puts racing heritage next to the current line-up, not behind it.
[
04 — Performance results
]
SIX DECADES, ONE ADDRESS
The archive launched with the new model and became the marque's most-visited section within a month — ahead of the car it launched alongside.
Archive visits
58%
Share of all sessions in the first month
Configurator starts
2.1×
Against the previous model launch
Redesigns needed
0
Two model launches later, the format still holds
Dealers now use the archive on the showroom floor, which is the clearest sign the heritage finally has somewhere to live.
[
05 — Final thoughts
]
Sixty years on the same straight. The badge always had depth — it just needed a place where the depth was visible.
[
Credits
]
Cole Zélie Enzo Nigel
Project Lead Creative Direction Technology Development
