The Allure of the Automobile: Driving in Style 1930-1965

About this book

A celebration of the finest designs of the Golden Age of automotive design. The Allure of the Automobile presents eighteen of the worlds rarest and most brilliantly conceived cars from 1930 to the mid-1960s including masterpieces from Bugatti Dusenberg Delage Porsche Mercedes-Benz Jaguar and Ferrari. Created for the privileged few (and in some cases previously owned by Clark Gable and Steve McQueen) these luxurious custom-built automobiles embodied speed style and elegance; they influenced and were influenced by contemporary art architecture fashion and design. Many of the featured automobiles are one of a kind or were built largely by hand and in small numbers. The racing motorcar is a potent symbol of twentieth-century modernity embodying speed style elegance and good design. Whether a practical tool or part of a celluloid fantasy the automobile remains a powerful symbol embedded in our collective cultural consciousness. This book contains an illustrated text with period photographs of the cars exploring the evolution of the automobile from the opulent and luxurious French custom coachwork models of the early 1930s to postWorld War II triumphs of German engineering to the supremacy of Italian sport-car design in the second half of the century.