AGE OF COMBUSTION

Author Stephen Bayley considers the car as the greatest cultural and design phenomenon of the 20th century and the book includes 60 of his popular monthly articles for Octane - the leading classic car magazine. They include '62 Capri, Michelotti, Vulgarity Jag, Girls Paint and Speed, DeLorean, Exhaust Pipe, Loose lock nuts, Showrooms, Functionalism, Mini, Ugly Cars, Cinquecento, Snobbery, Stirling Moss and Car Shoes among them. The automobile is the ultimate analogue machine and mankind's most ingenious, seductive and damaging invention. For over a century, cars have provided reference points for our notions of style, status and desire. In design terms, the Age of Combustion was as rich and varied as architecture's Baroque - and far more popular. And now it is coming to an end, as the internal-combustion engine is superseded by the battery and cars become wheeled computers, running on AI not oil. Together with a wide-ranging introduction, this book reproduces 60 of Stephen Bayley's popular monthly columns for Octane, the outstanding classic car magazine where, for more than 10 years, he has provided the most consistent and insightful commentary on car culture, often based on privileged access to industry insiders. With amazing and daring speedway track racing archive photos, VW Beetle production line, glamorous car shows, pop and film stars and their cars, dusty road races with spectators on the roadside, early pioneers and more rare images in colour and mono. 228 pages.