On the western edge of Upperville, tucked into the Upperville Village Business Center, sits what can only be described as a little slice of British automotive heaven.

British and Classic Car Doctors, easily found at 9183 John Mosby Highway or online at http://www.britishandclassics.com/, is the nearly two year-old brainchild of Paul Warren, a gear head yet to hit 30 with more experience working on cars and bikes than most people decades older. "I started at Ferrari of Washington when I was 18, in 1998, and stayed there, working and learning for four years. After that, I was at Capitol Motorcars in Purcellville for two years. Cars, unique, rare, truly special cars, are just in my blood, I guess. I love the work, and that's one of the main things I look for in the people that work here."

Included in that training was a 10-day factory training session at the Morgan Motor Company in Malvern, England. Car Doctors has four fulltime employees in addition to Paul, and combined they bring over 100 years of hands-on shop experience to bear on the cars they service and restore.

The shop itself sits in a few thousand square feet of warehouse space, most of it dedicated to actual work space, but a not-unimpressive amount dedicated to storage of vehicles waiting for a turn or looking to offer up a valuable part or two. "When we moved in, there was nothing here, no lifts, no nothing. It had been a storage space for old medical and military surplus that was sold online. It wasn't in great shape, put it that way" remembers Warren with a rueful smile.

"We spent the first two-and-half months just getting the place cleaned up and pulled together. We spent the next couple months getting the business off the ground." Mission accomplished. Car Doctors currently has a one-month backlog for service and a nearly six-month backlog for restoration work.

"There's a wonderful group of car owners in the region, ranging from collectors in the most classic sense of the word, to people who just love a certain, unique car that holds a special place in their hearts.

"We love to work on special cars, and we see a lot of beautiful roadsters from the 50's and 60's out here. We can work on just about anything, but we especially love the special ones: Austin-Healeys, Morgans, Triumphs, Aston Martins, Jaguars, Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and older Minis and MG's." A beautiful 1952 MG TD that once belonged to Angie Dickinson is raised off the floor, gleaming in the light over Warren's shoulder as we talk. Only the chassis and body are in evidence, the rest of the car safely stored out of the way. A gorgeous, lustrous paint job, recently applied offsite over a period of several weeks, looks deep enough to dive into.

Owners send cars come from as far west as Michigan, as far north as Connecticut and as far south as Florida to receive the expert care available only at specialty shops dotting the countryside like British and Classic Car Doctors.

Locally, Warren and his team regularly see cars from Ashburn, D.C., Gaithersburg, Quantico, Winchester and the Hunt Country. "We all came into this with some really dedicated clients, people we'd known and done work for for years. Since then, we've built a very dedicated clientele, people who know they can trust us to take excellent care of them and their cars.

"This is a word of mouth, referral type business. I'm very aware, and make sure everybody that works here is aware, that we have to treat every one of our customers as if they're the most important customer we have."

Judging by the sheer number and variety of the cars on hand, those referrals have done the trick.

Car Doctors does a nice business on newer British cars as well, typically newer Rovers and Jaguars.

Service rates are a reasonable $89.50/hour, typically 30-40% less than dealership rates; restoration rates, anything needing over 500 hours of work, run $64.50/hour.

"I'm incredibly lucky to have a hobby I've been able to turn into a living. The work is so rewarding, and you get to develop remarkable relationships with the owners. I love it."