The great granddaughter of one of the first car manufacturers has seen one of the century-old vehicles pass its first-ever MOT.

Josephine Lisle, 67, has been living in Portugal for the last 20 years but moved to Sussex two years ago to investigate the vintage cars made by her great grandfather Edward Lisle in the 1890s.

She wanted to track down any of the cars still in existence.

Ms Lisle's great grandfather began his career bicycle-making in a factory in Wolverhampton before moving on to designing and building high-end cars for the upper classes of Britain.

The first Star car was built in 1897. It took ten weeks to get the engine started and when it finally did in the middle of the night there was a street celebration in Wolverhampton to mark the event.

Star Engineering was one of just six car manufacturers at the time.

It is believed that Mr Lisle's son Joseph bought a top-of-the-range car in Holland that inspired his father's new design. Six were made by the end of 1898, and by 1903 the Star was an original design.

Retired Ms Lisle, from Five Ashes, near Mayfield, has now started the difficult project of finding the cars and their often famous owners.

She said: "I knew there were around 100 still in existence in one form or another. I began searching the internet for anyone claiming to know where they are.

"I heard one had been found in rusty pieces in a shed in New Zealand by a Jeremy Collins who now lives in Oxfordshire.

"I gave him a call and he said he'd had the parts, all original, flown back to the UK and the car, which is a racing car, was being rebuilt by a specialist in Horam near Heathfield, ten minutes away from me."

Ms Lisle tracked the car down at specialist car restorer Nigel Parrott's workshop on Marle Green, Heathfield. It had been rebuilt using exactly the same parts it had when it was first created in 1907 and was being prepared to pass a modern-day MOT. Ms Lisle was given her first ever ride in the car on the day it passed.

The company was sold in 1934 before Josephine was born and she has only ever seen the vehicles at vintage car rallies when she was a child.

Ms Lisle added: "It was so exciting. Cold but exciting. This is my retirement project. I'd like to find the rest of the cars and make a documentary about them."

Anyone with any information about the Star Engineering Company should contact The Argus newsdesk on 01273 544516 or leave comments below.

news@theargus.co.uk