The 1960s saw the final flowering of the separate chassis luxury car. These huge, heavy, traditional, and opulent cars were gradually replaced by fighter, more efficient, modern, monocoque luxury models, with significantly higher performance and sleeker, lower lines. The decade also saw the appearance of...
Henry Ford was the first automobile manufacturer to make the most of mass-production techniques, and his Model T sold by the million. Since then, the Ford Motor Company has grown into a global giant, the only big U.S. car maker to survive the recession of...
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...
Two oil crises in the 1970s prompted US car buyers to seek more fuel-efficient alternatives to Detroit’s vast and profligate land yachts. At first, those newcomers came from Japanese car-makers, such as Honda and Toyota, and European brands, such as Volkswagen and BMW, which were...
From respected component manufacturer to car-maker, to core brand of the Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, Dodge has become a fixture in US motoring history that survives and thrives today. Merged into Chrysler as a mid-priced brand, it blossomed in the 60s muscle car boom, and was the...
At his peak, Virgil Exner’s influence over Detroit was as significant as any designer’s. A true artist endowed with an air of sophistication, he brought vision, innovation, and a much-needed sense of restraint to 1950s’ American car design. Exner’s ideas breathed new life into Chrysler’s...
By the late 1950s American car design had reached a new level of exuberance. The tailfins, two-tone paint schemes, whitewall tires, and wraparound screens that typified most US models had inspired many European car-makers, with the likes of sober Humber and sensible Simca producing cars...
The 1950s were exciting times in the USA. Jets and space rockets fired the public imagination, and car manufacturers did their utmost to link their products with these new technologies in order to capitalize on the positive mood. The less-than-subtle placement of a fighter plane...
The two founding fathers of the motor car industry came together when Daimler and Benz merged in 1926—the two companies’ founders had effectively invented the automobile. In addition to being a luxury marque, Mercedes-Benz, the company formed by the merger, has since laid a trail...
Bombastic, chintzy, overblown—these are some of the criticisms regularly levelled at the designs of Harley J. Earl. But this undoubted overlord of 1950s’ American auto styling certainly knew how to design cars that the public craved. In doing so, he created some of the most...