A new book details the best, worst and wackiest designs from the likes of BMW, Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz and more.
-- It’s easy to feel bored with new cars today. Designs driven by safety and emissions standards have reduced many of them to looking like lozenges or home appliances at best. Half the time, if you remove the brand badging, it’s difficult to tell them apart. That’s if you can remember them at all.
Despite their large, elegant appearance, early Duesenberg cars were racers. In 1920, one won the French Grand Prix; subsequently, they won the Indy 500 four times. The Model J arrived in 1929 with a V-8 engine and an allure that appealed to Hollywood: Gary Cooper and Clark Gable were early owners, so was Greta Garbo. In 2018, Cooper’s 1935 Duesenberg SSJ sold for $22 million at a Gooding & Co. auction during Monterey Car Week. The sale set a record for an American car sold at public auction.
The tiny Isetta was a tactic by BMW after World War II to create inexpensive vehicles that didn’t require too many components. At just over seven feet long, it had a literal front door, with the steering wheel attached. BMW called it a “motocoupe” and charged the equivalent of just $1,400 in today’s money. More than 160,000 were made.
Volvo’s 140 series was the start of its boxy design phase, a project that started in 1960 and can still be seen in the marque today. The series came in two- and four-door versions, with multiple body shapes, including a five-door estate version. The layout is informed by safety more than aesthetics or sex appeal, with such notable details as the steering wheel repositioning far away from the windshield and roof-bar reinforcements leading the charge.
The Mercedes SL came with a soft or hard top and a special windscreen strong enough to support the car’s weight in the event of a rollover. It started the prime era of Mercedes’ SL line, which was beloved by stylish businesspeople, artists and, most famously, Richard Gere in American Gigolo . The line continues to this day with the Mercedes-AMG SL 55 and -AMG SL 63.
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