Image from the Past

A BMW Isetta 300 Moto Coupé displays Christmas spirit
Filed under: BMW, Images From the Past | Leave a Comment
by J Kraus

Peter Franks arrives at the Port of Dover in his Saffron Yellow Triumph
Diamonds Are Forever, the seventh James Bond film, marked the return of Sean Connery as Secret Agent 007. Early in the film, operating under the cover of an assumed identity, he commandeers a Triumph Stag.
The evolution of the Stag began in the mid-sixties, around the time Goldfinger was being filmed. It was originally intended to be simply a convertible drophead version of the 1963 Triumph 2000 saloon. However, during its extended development the concept was revised to become more of a gentleman’s grand tourer and partly as a result, the Stag did not go on sale until 1970.
Filed under: Cars of James Bond, Triumph | 2 Comments
by J Kraus

VW bodies travel on overhead conveyor from paint shop to final assembly, Wolfsburg, Germany
In April of 1953, German photographer Peter Keetman (1916-2005) spent a week at the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg. Peter was a founding member of Fotoform, a group of German photographers whose work meshed abstraction with objectivity, often incorporating close-ups and repetition. The images resulting from the Volkswagen project eventually became some of his favorite and best known.
When Herr Keetman visited, VW was at a pivotal point in its history. The Beetle and the Type II Transporter/Microbus were the only two products Volkswagen produced. However, a third model, the Karmann Ghia, had been developed and was little more than a year from introduction. The Wolfsburg plant was still VW’s only automobile manufacturing facility, but their second European assembly plant (Hanover) was in the planning stage, and Volkswagen do Brazil was in the process of beginning pilot production.
Filed under: Art and the Automobile, Volkswagen | 2 Comments
Art and the Automobile

“Autumn Fuchsia” by Norman Parkinson. Rover P4 90, 1957
Filed under: Art and the Automobile, Rover | 1 Comment
by J Kraus

Bendix AM radio, Volkswagen Deluxe Sedan, 1956. In the event of imminent thermonuclear attack, simply set the dial to one of the white triangles and stand by for further instructions.
In 1951, the U.S. government initiated the CONELRAD (CONtrol of ELectromagnetic RADiation) system in an effort to prevent the possibility of incoming Russian bombers using transmitting signals from U.S. broadcast antennas as navigational aids.
Filed under: Vintage Technology | 1 Comment
by J Kraus

1956 Aston Martin DB2/4 Supersonic by Ghia
The weapons of World War II gave the public their first-ever glimpse of the power and speed of jet and rocket engines. As hostilities drew to a close, engineers labored over their drawing boards to harness these new power sources for peacetime use.
The rocket-powered Bell X-1 airplane broke the sound barrier on 14 October 1947, achieving supersonic speed for the first time. BOAC commenced commercial jet travel in May of 1952. In 1958, commercial transatlantic jet service was inaugurated, and construction began on the Pan Am World Airways tower in New York City.
A number of auto manufactures found it desirable to infuse their products with a bit of this jet age glamour and space age allure.
Filed under: Aston Martin, Chrysler, Fiat, Ford, General Motors | 3 Comments
Image from the Past

A pair of lovely ladies admire the fringed surrey top and wicker seats of the new Renault 4CV Ghia Jolly, 1962
Filed under: Images From the Past, Renault | Leave a Comment
Ahoy! Amphicar 770
by J Kraus

Amphicar 770
I can think of no other vehicle that so epitomizes the unbridled optimism of the early 1960′s that pervaded Western Europe and the United States than the Amphicar 770.
This confidence in the future, born of an unwavering belief in technology and general good feeling at having survived wartime austerity (and indeed, the war itself) produced a unencumbered embrace of anything that appeared new, advanced or modern. The Amphicar certainly qualified on all counts.
Filed under: Amphicar, Tributes | 3 Comments
by J Kraus

Lake Blue Alpine in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica
The Sunbeam Alpine featured in the film Dr. No is significant to Bond aficionados because it is the first time audiences see Bond driving his “own” (although portrayed as a hire-car) vehicle, as opposed to a car commandeered from a foe.
Bond drives the car in Jamaica in order to rendezvous with the enigmatic Miss Taro at her Magenta Drive residence in the Blue Mountains above Kingston, whereupon she becomes Bond’s first cinematic feminine conquest. On the way, Bond is pursued without success by Dr. No’s henchmen.
Later that night he drives the Sunbeam down to the shore to meet up with Quarrel and Felix for a clandestine boat trip to Crab Key.
Filed under: Cars of James Bond, Sunbeam | 2 Comments
Recent Entries
- The Heyday of Cursive Script
- Image from the Past
- The Cars of James Bond: Triumph Stag
- Eine Woche in Volkswagenwerk, 1953
- Art and the Automobile
- Forgotten American Cold War Artifact: CONELRAD
- Flights of Fancy: The Space-Focused Nomenclature of the Jet Age
- Image from the Past
- Ahoy! Amphicar 770
- The Cars of James Bond: Sunbeam Alpine
- Citroën U55 Currus Cityrama Revisited
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