The BMW E1 was a purpose-built electric prototype unveiled at the 1991 Frankfurt Motor Show. Designed for urban driving, it combined four-seat accommodation with lightweight construction. It remained
Imagine being told to destroy a car, only to discover decades later that keeping it could make automotive history. That’s essentially what happened to a remarkable 1956 Cadillac concept that Gen
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
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
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
A third brake light is remarkably easy to ignore. It sits in the rear window or above the tailgate, performs one job and receives considerably less attention than the lamps surrounding it. That ano
Climb into a traditional Porsche and the ignition appears on the left side of the steering wheel. Most cars place it on the right, close to the driver’s dominant hand and safely within the
Start certain cars in front of a garage wall and the headlights put on a brief performance. The beams drop, rise and settle. Some sweep sideways too, giving the impression that the car has opened i