After World War II, few people in Europe could afford large, luxurious sedans. Instead, most designs were conservative, and only figures such as government ministers, ambassadors, or doctors could justify a large, powerful car for their work. Cars were mostly updated pre-war creations with heavy...
Despite the 1929 stock market crash that precipitated a worldwide recession, the 1930s saw small manufacturers continue to make large-engined sports tourers, with ever-increasing refinement as the global economy recovered. The widespread building of high-quality surfaced roads allowed wealthy drivers to cruise at hitherto unimagined...
BMW began as a maker of aircraft engines, later diversifying into motorcycles and then cars. From near-certain bankruptcy in the 1950s, BMW bounced back in the 1960s with the landmark Neue Klasse models. It has since grown into one of the most respected European marques...
The 1930s saw the ultimate flowering of the coachbuilder’s art. The most exotic chassis, often adapted from state-of-the-art racing cars into road going performance machines, were dressed in the most stylish, streamlined, luxurious, and even decadent bodywork the world had yet seen. It is no...
Traditionally associated with high-priced luxury, the Ford-owned Lincoln marque offered buyers its least-expensive model to date with the 1936 Zephyr. Featuring Lincoln’s first unibody construction-in all-steel—and powered by a new V12 engine, the Zephyr thrilled with its daring, sleek design. Launched at the 1936 New...
The vast majority of drivers in the 1930s were perfectly happy with their spacious, easily-accessed, upright, slab-fronted cars. But now that cars were capable of comfortably exceeding 80 mph (129 km/h) a small number of stylists and engineers in the United States and Europe were...
Commissioned to create a people’s car (Volks Wagen) by Adolf Hitler, Ferdinand Porsche designed an engine that was cooled by air rather than water, saving the weight and complication of a radiator, water pump, and hoses. When car production resumed after World War II, the...
In the 1930s motoring became popular for the middle classes of the United States and Europe, with discerning buyers choosing cars for reliability and power, spaciousness and price. In the United States, new marques such as Pontiac were created to cater to the mass market,...
New events such as the Mille Miglia in Italy and the Le Mans 24-hour race in France in the 1920s meant that by the following decade competitive automobile racing was thriving. It led to many manufacturers developing models that could be used on both road...
The 1930s may have been the decade of worldwide depression, but there were still enough wealthy customers to support a fine selection of luxury car makers in the United States and Europe. Elegant, comfortable, and often speedy, these cars were usually the first to receive...