Author(s): Sarah Schleuning

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Dream Cars presents eighteen concept cars built between 1933 and 2001, each revealing the progress and possibility of automobile engineering. The ever-evolving world of car design is marked by innovation and style, and this book explores how visionary designs influence the automotive industry and challenge notions of what is possible, both aesthetically and technologically. The book traces the evolution of such automotive types as the minivan, whose model was based on the streamlined silhouette of the Stout Scarab concept car developed in 1936. Dream Cars considers how the concept car has been used to launch individual design achievements, such as Buckminster Fuller's three-wheeled Dymaxion car, which served as a prototype for fuel-efficient and aerodynamic car design, and Paul Arzens's electric glass bubble car designed for use in Paris in the 1940s. Stunning all-new photography of such cars as the Bugatti 1936 Type 57SC Atlantic, the 1951 Buick LeSabre, the Alfa Romeo 1954 B.A.T. 7, the Ferrari 1970 Modulo, and the Lancia 1970 Stratos Zero and lush detail shots are accompanied by comprehensive descriptions tracing their development.
Drawings and scaled models further illustrate the imaginative force of designers in automobile design. An extended essay by Sarah Schleuning addresses the work of individual draftsmen and explores the effects of aerodynamics and aeronautics on car design.