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
Open the door of a car with frameless side glass and watch the top edge of the window. It may drop a fraction of an inch before the door swings out, then rise again after the door closes. The movement
Open the door of a large American sedan from the 1950s and the front seat looks less like a modern cockpit than a particularly comfortable sofa. There is no center console dividing driver and passe
Inside a modern automotive design studio, there are enormous screens, virtual-reality headsets, laser scanners, 3D printers and computers capable of rendering a car so convincingly that its paint appe
Drivers spend hours holding the steering wheel without giving much thought to what lies behind it. Remove the trim, switches and wiring, and the basic arrangement appears simple. A shaft carries th
Lower the front window in most cars and the glass disappears neatly inside the door. Try the same thing from the rear seat and several inches may remain stubbornly visible. The motor stops. The swi
Automotive fashion has produced few ideas quite as curious as taking a finished steel roof, covering it in textured plastic and charging the customer extra. For several decades, buyers did exactly tha
The usual explanation sounds perfectly logical. When a car slows down, its weight moves toward the front. The front tires carry more load, so the front brakes provide more of the stopping force. That
A dashboard without a radio now looks unfinished. Even the most basic car is expected to provide music, news and something to fill the silence when traffic has stopped moving but the clock has not.
Long before a crash-test dummy sat behind the wheel of a family sedan, one was strapped into an aircraft ejection seat. Its assignment involved rocket sleds, aviation helmets and the violent forc