Someone looked at a Maserati GranTurismo and decided it needed a copper skin. Not copper-colored paint, actual copper, hammered by hand and shaped into a one-off body. The result is the Peralta D, the
What was the Mercedes braking bag? It was an experimental underbody airbag shown as part of the ESF 2009 safety programme. When sensors judged a collision unavoidable, the device would deploy a high-f
The Ford Nucleon looks as though someone moved the passengers forward to make room for a very important piece of luggage. Its cabin sits near the nose, leaving an enormous rear section between the fin
Among the cars in Citroën’s heritage collection sits something that makes even the company’s stranger experiments look quite sensible: a helicopter. Two seats, a bubble-like cabin and
At a classic car show, a Trabant can attract two kinds of attention. Some people remember one from the streets of East Germany. Others have heard that it was made of cardboard and want to know whether
Long before carmakers filled dashboards with screens, an important piece of engine information was displayed outside the windshield. Early automobiles often carried their radiator filler caps at
A bright red car, a metallic blue car and a taxi painted the color of a highlighter will normally leave the factory with exactly the same footwear. Black tires. The color seems so inevitable
Open the door of certain 1980s or early 1990s cars and a small buckle begins travelling along the roofline. Sit down, close the door and the shoulder belt glides toward the B-pillar, hopefully passi
Whitewall tires have become visual shorthand for a particular kind of motoring glamour. Put them on a long Cadillac with chrome bumpers, tailfins and enough hood to host a family picnic, and the pi
New tires arrive covered in information. Numbers identify their size, load capacity, speed rating and date of manufacture. Then, among all that serious molded lettering, someone appears to have atta