and mass production ref1
motorization of rail and streetcar lines ref1
munitions production during Second World War ref1
pioneers ref1
road network ref1, ref2
Valletta, Dr Vittorio ref1, ref2
Van Braeckl, Dirk ref1
Vauxhall ref1, ref2
Cavalier ref1
losses ref1
problems ref1
reduction of British operations ref1
Victor ref1
VAZ-2101 (Lada) ref1
VEB (People-Owned Enterprise) ref1, ref2
Vermont ref1
Vickers ref1
Voisin ref1, ref2
Volanis, Antonis ref1
Volkswagen ref1, ref2
and Auto Union ref1
Beetle ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
collaboration with Chinese ref1
destruction of KdF-Wagens works by Allied bombing ref1
E-Up ref1
and electric cars ref1
Golf ref1, ref2, ref3
merger with Porsche ref1, ref2
Nazi Germany and production of people’s car ref1, ref2
New Beetle ref1, ref2
partnership with Toyota ref1
postwar rehabilitation ref1
purchase ofŠkoda ref1
and Seat ref1, ref2
takeover of NSU ref1
Volkswagen Foundation ref1
Volvo ref1, ref2
P1800 model ref1
purchase of by Renault ref1
sale of to Zhejiang Geely Automobile by Ford ref1
Wainwright, Martin ref1
Walker, George ref1, ref2
Walton, Leslie ref1
Wanderer ref1
Wankel engine ref1
Wartburg ref1, ref2
water radiator ref1
Whalen, Geoffrey ref1
Wienermobiles ref1
Wilks, Maurice ref1
Willow Run plant (Detroit) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Willys-Overland ref1, ref2
Wilson, Charles ref1
Wilson, President Woodrow ref1, ref2, ref3
Wolfsburg (was Stadt des KdF-Wagens) ref1, ref2
Wolseley, Frederick ref1
Wolseley Motors ref1, ref2
Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company (WSSMC) ref1
women
absence of in car industry Ford ref1
liberation of by car ref1
and SUVs ref1
Wood, Jonathan ref1
York, Joseph ref1
Z-Cars ref1
zebra pedestrian crossing ref1
Zetsche, Dieter ref1
A Note on the Author
Dr Steven Parissien is an internationally-renowned author who has written extensively on architectural and cultural history. He is the director of Compton Verney museum and gallery in Warwickshire.
Karl Benz driving his 1885 Motorwagen.
Gottlieb Daimler riding in the world’s first four-wheeled automobile, 1886. His son Wilhelm is driving.
A 1910 poster by Henri Thiriet for one of the most successful of the early auto makers: De Dion-Bouton. The car is the Model K; the figure of the (somewhat unamused) black chauffeur was modelled on the Marquis de Dion’s Abyssinian man-servant.
Henry and Clara Ford in 1946, riding in Henry’s 1896 Quadricycle.
René Panhard (in the back, with Mme Levassor) and Emile Levassor (with his hand on the tiller) in their licensed Daimler, 1886.
The tiny Austin Seven of 1922.
Woolf Barnato and his Speed-Six Bentley at Brooklands in 1930.
One of the first cars to be produced by Rolls-Royce: their 20 hp model of 1905. The Hon. C. S. Rolls himself is seated at the back, to our left.
GM’s President, Alfred P. Sloan, peers uncertainly into the engine of a 1911 Cadillac Model 30 in 1936, flanked by GM’s Head of Research, Charles F. Kettering, and Nicholas Dreystadt, then boss of GM’s Cadillac division. They are posed to commemorate Kettering’s invention of the self-starter twenty-five years earlier.
The epitome of elegance: a Bugatti Type 41 Royale, pictured in 1930.
Lord Nuffield and Leonard Lord flank a distracted Prince of Wales (evidently unimpressed with the new Morris Eight) at the Olympia Motor Show of 1935.
Springtime for Hitler, 1938: Ferdinand Porsche (left) shows a delighted Führer where to find the engine in his new Kraft durch Freude people’s car.
Wolfsburg’s busy Volkswagenwerk in May 1949.
Production of André Citroën’s groundbreaking and ground-hugging Traction Avant of 1934 continued until 1957. Three years later this oft-filmed model was showcased in the successful BBC TV series adapted from Georges Simenon’s Maigret novels – this particular car being subsequently bought by the series’ star, Rupert Davies.
Could this have been Britain’s Volkswagen? Morris Motors attempts to sell the Minor to the world in 1949.
Harley Earl and a scale model of his stunning Buick Le Sabre concept car of 1950.
The sporty Ford Thunderbird of 1955, cheerfully endorsed by Frank Sinatra – who also lent his name and his voice to promote the disastrous Edsel two years later.
The most beautiful car in the world? The Citroen DS mobbed at the 1955 Paris Motor Show.
The Jaguar XK120 proved to the world that ‘Britain Could Make It’, and won the nation valuable dollar income in the postwar years of austerity. Here British racing driver Stirling Moss drives an export model down the ramp.
Ferdinand Porsche with an early Porsche 356.
The notorious Ford Edsel of 1957, with its ungainly ‘horse-collar’ grille. The late Edsel Ford’s three sons perch inside: from left to right, William Clay Ford, Benson Ford and company president Henry Ford II.
One of Virgil Exner’s ‘New Look’ Chryslers for 1957: a Dodge Custom Royal.
The zenith of Baroque car design: the taillights of a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado.
This 1959 promotion optimistically suggested that all of this could be packed into a Mini. A revolutionary car, the Mini was initially handicapped by the timid BMC’s insistence on recycling inappropriate, pre-war brand names.
Stylishly confident: an Aston Martin DB5 of 1963, entirely at home in the English Cotswolds.
The Ford Mustang of 1964. Its exciting and innovative styling belied the old Ford mechanics under the hood.
The languid Jaguar E-Type of 1961.
False dawn: the Ford Pinto, originally of 1971.
New dawn: the VW Golf of 1974.
Epitome of the Eighties: the BMW E30 of 1983–6.
Built on the sand: John DeLorean, his third wife Christina Ferrare, and the disastrous DMC-12.
Retro rides: new BMW-made Minis in 2001
The stylish new Fiat 500 with a potential customer at its 2007 launch.
The way ahead? The plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt, sold in Europe as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera, at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.
Life of Automobile, The Page 50
