Parisian Andre Citroën started business life in the gear-making industry (this is obvious in the double chevrons of the helical gears in the marque’s logo). He amassed a fortune manufacturing shells in World War I and, having studied Henry Ford’s car-making methods, decided to spend...
Low-cost motoring had been popularized in the 1920s and 1930s by the Ford Model T in the US and the Austin Seven in the UK. In the 1940s many more small economical cars arrived to provide motoring for the masses—often using tiny, two-cylinder engines....
Motor sport was too frivolous a hobby in occupied France, but at least these adults could enjoy the spectacle of children racing in pedal cars. Like toy cars, pedal cars had been around since the early days of motoring. They reached their height of popularity...
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...
US car-makers big and small kept buyers interested in the latest models by accelerating the introduction of bold, new, full-width styling and by updating designs annually as the 1940s wore on....
Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino, or the Italian Car Factory of Turin) was founded on 11 July 1899, by Giovanni Agnelli and quickly established itself in almost every automotive sector....
Produced from 1935-55, the MG T series was a popular range of small, convertible sports cars, mostly steel-bodied on a wooden frame, and capable of around 80mph (129 km/h). . ....
With the motor industry hitting its stride again after the war, thoughts could turn to sports cars once again. Jaguar introduced the XK120, the fastest production car of the era, which went on to set speed records and sire successful racing machines....
Today’s Bentleys are some of the most lavish cars available, with a decades-long reputation as the pinnacle of the British motor car. The company’s founder, Walter Owen Bentley (known as “W.O.”), was an engineer who was concerned about engine performance and reliability when he began...
Britain has always been able to make elegant, formal saloon cars that other countries simply cannot match. After World War II, the premium British car companies rebuilt and reorganized factories that had been previously turned over to war production, where they blended together the best...