Cars Mini: Freedom, Style, Sex, Power, Motion, Colour, Everything

by Stephen Bayley

This gorgeously photographed love letter to the 86 most beautiful cars ever manufactured is now available in a smaller, more accessible format and at a great price, making it the perfect gift for Father's Day.

The story of the car is the story of how objects of industry became a medium of artistic expression. Memorials of our tastes, yearnings, and capabilities, these machines have layers of meaning and can be read like a book, if only you know how. Stephen Bayley, car columnist, design and cultural commentator knows how. This opinionated volume presents a spectacular study of achievements in car design. Bayley's 86 favorite designs range from the 1908 Ford Model T, to the 1961 Jaguar E-Type, to the 2003 BMW 5. All presented in chronological order, each automobile also makes a statement about the national character of the country of manufacture.

The 86-featured cars have been specially photographed and reproduced in a 4-color black-and-white process specifically to highlight their form and shape. The hundreds of ravishing photographs (including full-body, interior and detail shots) make this mini version of Cars the perfect gift book for all car enthusiasts and design aficionados.

Genres: Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2008

Reviews

[Anthony Aspiridis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful read. Concise overviews make it ideal bedtime reading. Photography a highlight.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the intro. The rest of it is a CarPorn coffee table book

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but needs more detail. The selection of cars the author looks at is interesting, and while I would have made a few different choices, that is just a matter of taste. But in my opinion, each car is looked at too briefly. For each car there is a paragraph explaining why that particular model was important for the history of car design and a few pictures. Too few to actually get an idea of what the car looks like if you don't know it beforehand. And it's especially infuriating as there are quite a few instances where the author talks about a particular design feature that was important on the car, and then it isn't shown anywhere. You basically need to have Google image search available to fully enjoy this book.

[Mike Boldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic. I picked up the book for reference work. The design of some of those old cars is inspiring. The short info and background on each vehicle is quite interesting and I'm not a major car enthusiast.

The only con is that most of the cars lose a lot in the gutter because the book is so thick.

I'd recommend it to almost anyone.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

"this is not a book about cars"
"this is a book about cars as purely magical objects"

well, i already believed it, but the porche 356 is one of the most beautiful things on the planet

(title comes from tom wolfes kandy-kolored tangarine-flake streamline baby)

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is a nice, v. overpriced book in a slipcase. the photos are great b&w but bleed in and out of the spine. such a waste