Car History

Jet Style Cars

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With the birth of jets flying became all the rage. While none of the cars below are propelled by a jet engine—and such things do exist—they are definitely inspired by jets.

Rear of Ghia Streamline X Coupe

There are a number of plane designers which moved into car production, such as Saab and Spyder. Sometimes there seemed little design here at all, just put four wheels on a fighter jet, but some designers showed a bit of innovation.

As you might expect, these were products of an age when everyone thought we might have flying cars in thirty or forty years’ time. Remember that airplanes were only about fifty years old or so, givn another 30 or 40 years anything could happen. They might be a little sad to know we still don’t have flying cars.

Interior:

Many car designers had the idea of getting the dashboard to look slightly like a plane’s cockpit. I say slightly because a plane’s cockpit must be the most confusing thing to base a dashboard on, but that’s fashions for you. Although we are used the steering wheel they also had designs on that too, a more D-shaped design.

A number of vehicles had cockpit dials, such as a Morgan 3 wheeler, if you require a smaller example of these type of car. Or you can go all-out and go for Lamaghorni ‘s Reventon. Inspired by a US fighter jet, these has more complicated dials and details for a cool 1.6 million dollars.

Exterior:

Ghia Streamline X Coupe

What makes a “jet inspired” car? Maybe having rear lights which are pointier than normal. This was the idea of Ghia Streamline X Coupé from 1955, and its front is noticeably prominent and, er, streamlined. The wheels are rather similar to discs.

T-Rex

There’s also the names like Vapor which conjure up the idea of flying through the air. Why they decided to call a car that looks like a plane “T-Rex” is maybe more of a mystery, but again there is a observable prominence of the hood. Maybe their son just happened to like T-Rexes, but it may make it hard to sell to adults.

From 1950 the Studebaker Woodie seems a weird combination of style, the pointy hood (again evoking the jet) but also a veneer design to both the doors and the trunk. To continue the aeroplane feel it also has a fur lining.

Chrysler Turbine

The Chrysler Turbine seems to be named after its turbine style headlight and has a brass metallic coloration. It was only built by Chrysler for less than two years, from 1963 to 64. As with the Ghia above it has a coupé style, which is defined as “having two doors, a sloping roof and has a roof which can’t be removed.” So definitely branded to those who have yet to start a family.

The Fad is Not Dead:

It seems as if the Mustang wants to continue the jet analogy in its marketing. The latest version of the Mustang has the word “Groundspeed” imprinted on its speedometer, just for those fans of the air.

There seems a number of people out there ready to renovate these vintage cars, hardly a revelation given the prices that these tend to go for. Why go for a common car when you can go for “jet” car?

Notes on Speed and Acceleration

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People aren’t clear on the exact difference between speed and acceleration. Speed is the amount of miles per hour (or similar) while acceleration is changing the speed over time.

The first example of speeding was in Dayton Ohio with a speed of 12mph. This was in 1904.

To open up a car means to open up the throttle. It is also known as driving full throttle. This device, also known as the accelerator or gas pedal is designed to regulate fuel or air reaching the engine and speed up.

To zoom suggests a car which spins along with a humming sound. The term spin was once only applied to an engine turning to twist thread, but is now applied to any engine ticking over.

Go hell for leather originally referred to riding a horse as fast as possible.

Burn rubber which is first seen in 1900 meant to go so fast that you could hear a burning smell.

There are several speedy phrases which come from films. The need for speed comes from Top Gun (1986) and Fast and the Furious was from an action film about street racing.

Fast and loose means generally reckless and irresponsible, but it can mean going too fast.

Gear is the transmission concerning the torque and similar which allows the car to move, hence Up a gear, into top gear, etc.

To tootle is to travel in an aimless direction rather than at speed, first referring to riding a bike in 1949 quote.

Running on Empty comes from about 1905 and refers to driving without the adequate fuel. Then there is a backfire, a mistimed explosion in the cylinder or exhaust.

0-60: The speed of acceleration of the vehicle; how quickly it can travel from 0 to 60mph. This is the standard of acceleration measured in test drives on a racetrack. Most cars can go to 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds but cars like the Tesla Roadster can do it in under 2 seconds.

It seems a pity you can’t highlight a cars top speed on adverts, because it is believed that encourages the owner to speed. The advertisers have to come up with other reasons for you to buy their car.

The first speed limit set was at 10mph as long ago as 1865 for propelled vehicles (traction engines, steam cars and similar).

In 1901, Connecticutt set the maximum speed limit of 12mph in its cities and 15mph in its rural areas, but it took several years for other states to follow suit. Exactly how they intended to judge the speed isn’t clear as the speedometer wasn’t patented until 1902 and wasn’t a common feature for cars until 1910…

Drive safely out there…

Top Car Shows That Should Be On Your Bucket List

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Whether you love Ford, Chevy, or just want to see the latest automotive advances, a car show is the place to be. You will be able to see and possibly test drive the newest models and get the first glimpse of the latest concept vehicles. Car shows are fun, exciting, and even educational and you can be a part of it.

Here are our picks for the top U.S. car shows automotive enthusiasts will want to attend.

Top 5 U.S. Car Shows

1. Woodward Dream Cruise

Typically held in mid-August, Michigan’s Woodward Dream Cruise is the largest single-day event in the world. Held appropriately on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, over 25,000 hot-rods, along with classic and muscle cars are proudly shown off by their owners.

Whether you own a vehicle to enter in the parade or just love to look at a piece of automotive history, the day-long event is something everyone should experience at least once in their life.

2. The North American International Auto Show

Detroit, Michigan is home to the North American International Auto Show. If you’re curious about what next year’s models will look like or what concepts are in development, this is the place to be.

You can also catch some great concerts at the auto show, along with see which company takes home the award for ‘truck of the year’. If you’re interested in attending the auto show, it’s usually held at the beginning of June.

3. Bonneville Speed Week

If luxury isn’t important but speed is, head out to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah. During August, vintage cars take over the salt flats looking to see which vehicle is fastest, along with trying to beat previously set top speed records.

The week-long racing event has been held annually since 1949 and it is still the largest. Teams race everything from roadsters, hot roads, and motorcycles, to belly tankers, streamliners, and lakesters. Every type of vehicle can be seen during speed week.

4. Pebble Beach Concourse D’Elegance

If you prefer luxury to speed and salt flats, Pebble Beach, in California, welcomes the world’s top luxury car models each year in August. The car show doesn’t just draw in luxury automobile lovers, but celebrities and some of the richest people in the world also attend.

Along with being able to see these fabulous cars, you can also get into the bidding. Vehicles are auctioned for large sums of money, and even if you don’t enter the auction it’s still fun to see what some of these rare luxury vehicles sell for.

5. The SEMA Show

November is when the Las Vegas Convention Center usually hosts the annual SEMA Show. The acronym for the Specialty Equipment Market Association, you can expect to see over 2,000 exhibits showcasing new components, parts, and tools. Everything an automotive mechanic or car enthusiast needs to keep their vehicle running and looking great.

Product demonstrations and educational seminars will also be held. Don’t forget about the after-party where you can mingle with celebrities and see award-winning custom automobiles.

Get Your Vehicle Ready for the Show

Whether you want to show off your vehicle or just make it there safely, there are a few things you need to do. After all, the last thing you want when showing off your ride is for there to be a problem under the hood. This also applies if you’re just planning on driving to the car show.

It’s often the little things that drivers forget, and these are the ones that can cause the biggest problems. Check your oil and other fluid levels. Think about the last time you had the oil changed, how long ago was that? Depending on the type of motor oil, you can go as long as 15,000 miles but this only applies to synthetic blends.

Consider having a professional inspection, the kicker always recommends Tire Kickers, but we’re biased—they sponsor us.

Checking the little things on your vehicle will help ensure you make it to the car show and if you’ve entered your vehicle it’ll be ready to impress the crowds.

Early Racing

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Early racing included Paris to Rouen, a mere 80Km. It had a top speed of 10 mph. 69 cars were in the preliminary competition after which only 25 won a place in the competition itself. Paris to Bordeaux could be better described as a race but even that one only went to 24 mph.

Early races were sponsored by newspapers, for example the Paris-Rouen race was run by Le Petit Journal. By 1900 cars were doing about 80kph. Because of the damage to the racers, spectators and even livestock which found itself on the road, races weren’t exactly annual events.

Indie 500

The Indy500 began in 1911 with the name “the 500 Mile International Sweepstake” and is still run today. Taking place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the oval circuit shape has been nicknamed The Brickyard due to its paved appearance. The race itself consists of 200 laps of the circuit. At one point it earned the name “The greatest spectacle in racing”.

Hotrod Racing

These early races shouldn’t be described as “hot rod” races. A hot rod is a later invention and is technically a modified older car. In essence racing a Model T in the 1920s was a contemporary car. A few decades later modified Model T’s would race under the banner “hot rod.”

Hotrod races began in California in the 1930’s but they lost popularity in the 1980s. As might be expected the older cars weren’t designed for speed, hence the need for modification. This included Ford Model Ts and similar vehicles.

As well as modifying to run faster it was important to reduce some of the bulk of the vehicle. These vehicles might be comparable with the boneshakers of the bicycle world, just not racers in the conventional sense. It’s not clear why “hot rod” is called this, but many believe it refers to the connection between illegal booze and racing. Rum runners used to modify vehicles to smuggle hooch around country roads. Many racing traditions sprung up from the practice of fleeing revenuers. If this is where “hotrod” came from, it could refer to burning alcohol instead of gas or the act of fleeing the law in a supped up rig.

The Mille Miglia meanwhile started in 1927 and ended in 1957. Generally, it started and finished in Rome going through the mountains and small villages.

Early and Dangerous

These early races have been associated with disasters. In 1938 several spectators were killed. In 1957 two drivers were killed and even more unexpectedly, eleven spectators were killed as well. It’s likely that engine speed was easier to increase than handling, which was seen as the drivers job.

There’s also the Milwaukee Mile, which used an old horse racing track. Then there’s the Knoxville Raceway in Iowa which had “illegal races” between 1901 and 1914 (aka the dodgy part of car racing the history).

The term “Grand Prix” goes all the way back to 1894. It began with a road rage challenge and moved into endurance racing. Formula racing (Formula One etc) began in 1947 with the first world championship in 1951. From there it became the professional activity we know today.

Some of these endurance races were about speed, such as Indy500. Others such as Targo Florio which was set on the mountainous roads of Sicily were about overall performance. The sport of racing was finding its feet. Today, racing is a great deal safer but it could be said to have lost some of its romanticism.

The Story of the Drive-In

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Like any cinema, a drive-in is a cinema with a large movie screen, projection booth, a stand selling snacks or drinks and a large area to park your car. What’s different is that instead of rows of seats, you have rows of parking spots and everyone views the movie from their car. Instead of buying individual tickets you generally pay by the carload.

As well as snacks and drinks, the drive-in was linked to larger restaurants – one business supporting the other, you might say.

There are drive-in theaters throughout the world; the first modern drive-in opened in 1933 in New Jersey, but it soon gained a cult following at about the 1950s.

Many old theaters appear on the National Registers of Historical Places. The 66 Drive-in at Carthage Missouri on US Route 66 is the oldest drive-in still going. It showed its first movie in 1949.

Mobmov is a worldwide network of guerilla (unofficial) drive-in theaters. It uses car powered video projectors and transmitters. This was begun in 2005 in San Francisco and all the shows were free.

The Early Drive-Ins:

The earliest drive-ins include The Theatre de Guadalupe in New Mexico, 1915, which only ran for a year. The first film presented was Bags of Gold.

The 1932 Hollingshead Theatre used a Kodak projector on the hood of a car. It was also necessary to set some of the vehicles on blocks so all viewers could see the screen. It offered 400 slots and advertised it as families welcome -not something you tend to see at cinemas today. The first movie was Wives Beware. Hollingshead ran it for three years without making a profit.

The problem could have been the sound issues, in regular theatres the speakers were high up on towers which unfortunately meant the sound wasn’t in sync when it traveled across an entire parking lot. In 1931 one solution was introduced, having a row of speakers in front of the cars. By 1941 you could control the sound using your own in-car speakers.

What’s the Draw of Watching a Moving in your Car?

The popularity of drive-ins could be due to it being the early days of cinema, how exactly do you watch this movie? It tended to be more popular with teens than older people, it could possibly be somewhere to take your car, and usually at this time, your date. Teens had a limited number of places to spend time with a date, this was the most privacy you could find while still being in public.

The reason why drive-ins began to fail may have been linked to the Uniform Time Act. Because drive-ins took place outside and during the evening the level of light is important: you can’t show movies in daylight. There was, no doubt, good reasons for increasing the hours of sunlight in the summer months, but it wasn’t conducive with running a drive-in.

After the 1960s the number of drive-ins shrunk from over 4000 drive-ins to a mere 325. It might just have been the light-after all it doesn’t affect patrons in the Spring, Autumn or Winter. Maybe the novelty had just worn off?

In replicating this American institution, businesses have looked for creating Art-deco sign displays and looking for sponsors to fund their enterprise. As with everything else promotion on Facebook and Twitter works wonders. Many people look for drive-ins to make a comeback under the current lock-down conditions. Only time will tell.

Spare Tires and Run-Flats

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The spare tire is still called a Stepney in India, Malta, Pakistan and so on. It originated with the Davies Brothers (it’s weird that so many innovations come from brothers). But it’s not what leaps to mind when you think of a spare tire.

Cars started out as a luxury item. They came pretty stock and were much more likely suffer mechanical failure then even to have a wreck. Prior to 1898 car wheels were basically wagon wheels, which didn’t go flat. Because wheels were usually made of wood or iron it was hard to keep a spare wheel—its pretty heavy to carry around and could even make a car top heavy and unstable.

In 1898 Charles Goodyear created vulcanized rubber and began wrapping wagon wheels in rubber, with an inflatable tube in it, like a bicycle tire. Then in 1904 the Davies brothers, of the Stepney Rubber Co. in in Llanelli, Wales, imagined a spare tire. The tire simply clamped around your existing tire and then was inflated by hand pump. Much like a modern donut spare it was only intended to get you home, then needed replaced. The nice thing is that you didn’t have to jack the car up to put it on.

It was patented in 1907. They tried to sell it to the US by their ideas were unfortunately stolen.

After only eight months they sold about a thousand without having to resort to advertising. A version of the Stepney Tire can be seen in the British Museum.

Where to Store a Spare

Carrying an entire spare tire came about later and was instantly popular. Sometimes there were a pair of tires behind both front fenders, sometimes they were in the cargo space, sometimes above the engine itself.

Nowadays the tires are generally stored in a well, a recess in the trunk, sometimes with a bolt and wing but fastener and covered by thick cardboard. They might be stored underneath the trunk in a “cradle” which allows you to change the tire without emptying the trunk. Unfortunately. it’s no good for four wheeled drive vehicles as the axle will get in the way of the cradle. So most 4-wheel-drive vehicles mount the spare to the front or rear of the vehicle.

In the case of rear engine cars and mid-engine cars (such as the F type Jaguar) have the tire at the front.

Run Flat Tires

The latest innovation to keep you from being stranded by a tire puncture is called a run-flat tire. These tires fill the inside air chamber with a honeycomb of stiff rubber that prevents the tire from completely loosing shape when it losses air pressure. Most vehicles that have run flats still carry a regular spare.

The first run-flat tire was created in 1935 as a rubber tire with inner fabric tire designed for trolleys and commuter trains. It was used for military vehicles as it was said to be bullet-proof. It wasn’t until 1958 when the costs came down that Chrysler and Goodyear teamed up to create a suitable vehicle tire.

In order to check the tires properly you need to invest in a tire monitoring system. A run-flat tire that has lost pressure is hard to recognize. If you think the tire has been punctured, you should the vehicle to see if it’s safe to drive. It’s not clear how slow you should drive a car with punctured run-flat tires, Audi suggest 20-30 mph, while BMW suggest less than 50 mph. It’s a good idea to stick to the back roads.

Opinions seem to be divided on whether it should be repaired or replaced when the “sidewall” has been punctured. The probable route is that you will have to replace the tire as it’s hard to find someone to repair the tire.

Increasingly, cars are coming with a small spare tire, called a donut, which is not meant to replace the tire for any length of time. It’s more crucial to replace the donut if it’s in the position of power (the rear of a rear wheel drive, or front of a front wheel drive) as the donut will cause your differential to fail.

There seems no real alternative to the spare tire as yet…

What has truly killed the need for a spare is road-side assistance. Most people prefer to sit and wait for help, over getting out on a rainy night and changing a tire.

Best of the Web: VW Bus

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We’ve been digging up some vehicles from the past that are iconic in representing freedom and open road. Please enjoy some videos and facts about the VW Bus.

The Volkswagen Type 2, known officially (depending on body type) as the Transporter, Kombi or Microbus, or, informally, as the Bus (US) or Camper (UK), Pão de Forma (Loaf of Bread) (Portugal) is a forward control light commercial vehicle introduced in 1950 by the German automaker Volkswagen as its second car model. Following – and initially deriving from – Volkswagen’s first model, the Type 1 (Beetle), it was given the factory designation Type 2.

As one of the forerunners of the modern cargo and passenger vans, the Type 2 gave rise to forward control competitors in the United States in the 1960s, including the Ford Econoline, the Dodge A100, and the Chevrolet Corvair 95 Corvan, the latter adapting the rear-engine configuration of the Corvair car in the same manner in which the VW Type 2 adapted the Type 1 layout.

Unlike other rear engine Volkswagens, which evolved constantly over time but never saw the introduction of all-new models, the Transporter not only evolved, but was completely revised periodically with variations retrospectively referred to as versions “T1” to “T5” (a nomenclature only invented after the introduction of the front-drive T4 which replaced the T25). However, only generations T1 to T3 (or T25 as it is still called in Ireland and Great Britain) can be seen as directly related to the Beetle (see below for details)[citation needed].

The Type 2, along with the 1947 Citroën H Van, are among the first ‘forward control’ vans in which the driver was placed above the front roadwheels. They started a trend in Europe

An ambulance model was added in December 1951 which re-positioned the fuel tank in front of the transaxle, put the spare tire behind the front seat, and added a “tailgate“-style rear door. These features became standard on the Type 2 from 1955 to 1967. 11,805 Type 2s were built in the 1951 model year

What Is A Minivan?

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The cynical answer is that it’s the 90s answer to the station wagon. While its true that the minivan supplanted the station wagon for family transportation, to sum it up that way is doing it an injustice. To be blunt, most style conscious families have moved on to SUV’s for their large transportation needs. But unlike the station wagon, the minivan never completely died out. Something kept it around.

So what is a minivan?

A minivan is recognizable as a smaller type of van which can hold and transport passengers in two or three rows. They tend to be lower to the ground than normal vans. They have better fuel economy than SUVs as well as having a flexible interior, meaning you can move the seats around more.

They are surprisingly spacious given their size. With 370 cubic feet it is an ideal way to carry either luggage or groceries. (This is the large minivan, by the way). There are also minivans with power sliding doors and lift-gates, everything you will need to transport your family or a reasonably large amount of cargo.

Mini-minivans?

Confusingly though not all minivans have the same capacity. The UK’s Compact MPV is a small minivan, if you can describe something in such odd terms. Then the company went on to make the Mini MPV which is built around the hatchback style and even smaller than the regular MPV. As with most minivans it has seats which recline, fold flat and may even be removed.

Historically

It could be argued that the first minivan was the VW bus, which came out in 1949. Technically known as Volkswagen Type 2, we tend of think of the VW Bus as another type of vehicle. For one thing it was targeted more at recreation than as a family commuter car.

The Ford Aerostar was one of the earliest modern minivans which were built between 1986 to 1997, making the minivan about 34 years old. Their factories were in Hazelwood, Missouri. Originally built with rear wheel drive it was changed to all wheel transmission. It has a range of transmissions from 4 to 5 speed manual.

Although its predecessor was the Ford E series it had a totally different shape, more van-like. They had better fuel economy than the later SUVs. Another feature was the flexible seating which probably why later minivans contain this feature. It’s not a shock that components which work are continued in later models.

The Metris, made by Mercedes Benz, are vehicles between small and mid-size. Van-like vehicles lack cargo space when compared to smaller trucks, though it’s better looking and better for passengers for something smaller? Still the Metris must be more than a delivery van which is how it is, somewhat rudely, described online.

The Dodge Grand Caravan is marketed as suitable for those on a budget. It’s a pity that it doesn’t have that many tech features, your children may require more USB ports for instance, but it does possess a 6.5 inch screen.

The Toyota Sienna has eight speed automatic transmission and has enough space for 57 average sized suitcases. It has emergency braking and lane keeping assist to its credit as well as all-wheel drive and adaptive cruise control (a system that controls the speed of the vehicle). In addition, it has 296-horsepower making it swifter than the usual minivan.

As seen from the examples above, the big selling point of the minivan is its versatility. It’s not just a family car it is also the perfect hire car, given that it can seat 7 or 8. It also makes a handy addition to the service industry even if a full-sized van will be able to store and transport more (though as said above the handling is not as good).

All combined, the minivan handles better than a full sized van, gets better gas mileage than an SUV, and halls nearly as much cargo as a small truck, but meets the needs of families—a dominant market niche. All told the minivan is likely here to stay.

Crossovers

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It all seems to be about initials. SUV is a Sports Utility Vehicle while a CUV is a Crossover Utility Vehicle. Sometimes crossovers are sold as SUVs but don’t be fooled; the off-road handling of crossovers is not as good; most do not have four wheeled drive. If you require a car that can handle itself but isn’t over-substantial, a CUV is good route to go down.

The idea of both SUVs and Crossovers is to have a better level of comfort and interior than a simple passenger car, they are also better at handling fuel. One of the problems with the CUV is that they might be tricky if you have a large family, in which case you might wish to look at the normal SUV or something like a sedan. It’s always a good idea for a family to see how well they might fit in a car before you buy it.

Where did Crossover car start?

The origins could well be in the 1970s and 1980s with cars such as the Matro Racho and AMC Eagle. These were not traditional off-road vehicles but they had something in common with them. The Matra is interesting for the materials it was made from; polyester and fibreglass, not the first things you think of when building a car, something like steel would surely be more useful? As with later cars they were sold as off-roaders, despite lacking the 4×4 capability. 

The AMC Eagle is an even weirder vehicle. If you had an off-road vehicle, a genuine one in this case with four-wheel drive, why would you design it as a passenger car? The brown color the vehicle came in might not have helped sales, though we are looking at through our twenty first century eyes. It was in production between 1980 and 1988 with body types such as the 2 door coupé (a coupé is a passenger car with a sloping roofline at the back), a 2 door convertible, a 4 door saloon and several others. The basic setup is a Concord body with a four-wheel drive. In 1988, Chrysler took over AMC but only for one year, it just wasn’t worth their while continuing.

Sales

Because CUV’s are not as useful as traditional SUVs you might have thought they wouldn’t sell as well, but they are user friendly, simply lacking the offroad component. So, in these days of city life plenty of people are happy to have the look of an off-road vehicle without the expense of really having the functionality – which explains why 50% of all “SUV type cars” sold in 2005 were CUV and the number has been increasing over the past 15 years.

Outside the US what makes a CUV seems even less defined. Is the Audi Q7 a CUV? Some people might think it’s too substantial. What about the VW Touareg? Its handling is more like a sports car. Or maybe, just maybe, the designs of a car cannot always fit in one category.

Cars in Tintin.

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“Herge’s Adventures of Tintin!” began the famous cartoon. Herge, whose real name was George Remi, certainly loved to draw cars and made sure they were full of intricate detail. It would take an age to show all the cars that featured in his books. Here is just a selection.

When drawing a car your mind goes into what makes a car a car. It’s the radiator, the color of the hub, the shape of the doors, the shape of the headlights (many are more than just round, they might have some decoration at the top) and so on. Some cars like a Peugeot 202 and a Land Rover which feature in the comics have a visible spare wheel at the back. It gives much more of a background style to the piece.

It’s not about drawing stationary cars, you need to look at movement. This is not about showing smoke coming out of an engine, a Lancia for example is shown which all wheels off the ground as if it going over bumpy terrain. A quick way of doing it was a squiggle shown next to car as if the car isn’t going to be at that point for very long.

The Model T Ford from Tintin in the Congo shows its distinctive canopy, side plates and visible axels.

Many cars seem to date from the 1930s, maybe this is where Tintin is meant to be set. Even comics which seem to be set in the 1960s, such as Destination Moon, include both a blue Dodge and blue Ford both manufactured in 1949.

Sadly not all the cars can be linked to real cars. There are number of cars in Tintin in America which are long enough to be Chevrolets, but not quite the pattern, the coloring is all wrong for instance. The cars driven in the part set in Chicago seem to have noticeable fenders, but there’s not that much which distinguishes them from other cars.

With a book like The Black Island you can see a noticeable love of British cars. Those who have watched the UK series Morse cannot help but recognize the hood of the Jaguar, in this case a Mark X.

Because the type of car dates a comic, when filming a book, many vehicles were replaced by other ones. Thomson and Thompson were shown driving a Peugot 201 in Black Gold, but that was changed to a Jeep.

The Calculus Affair is the comic book which features the most cars, including French cars such as 2CV (which is still recognisable as such despite being in a crashed state) and the Citroen 15 which has a noticeable sheen to the black paint.

With 205 vehicles to choose from, this is a gigantic subject and there is much more to say on the matter, including the advert that Herges made about Citroen cars. In the meantime check out François de Dardel’s website for a number of images from the comic books for a complete picture on the subject.