The Allure of the Automobile: Driving in Style, 1930-1965

A celebration of the finest designs of the Golden Age of automotive design. The Allure of the Automobile presents eighteen of the world’s rarest and most brilliantly conceived cars from 1930 to the mid-1960s, including masterpieces from Bugatti, Dusenberg, Delage, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, and Ferrari. Created for the privileged few (and in some cases previously owned by Clark Gable and Steve McQueen), these luxurious, custom-built automobiles embodied speed, style, and elegance; they influenced and were influenced by contemporary art, architecture, fashion, and design. Many of the featured automobiles are one of a kind or were built largely by hand and in small numbers. The racing motorcar is a potent symbol of twentieth-century modernity, embodying speed, style, elegance, and good design. Whether a practical tool or part of a celluloid fantasy, the automobile remains a powerful symbol embedded in our collective cultural consciousness. This book contains an illustrated text with period photographs of the cars, exploring the evolution of the automobile from the opulent and luxurious French custom coachwork models of the early 1930s to post–World War II triumphs of German engineering to the supremacy of Italian sport-car design in the second half of the century.

Ronald T. Labaco is curator of decorative arts and design at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Ken Gross is an award-winning author of six books and a contributor to many major automotive publications.