Manhattan’s Ferrari dealership wraps around a corner near landmarks like the Seagram Tower and Lever House; its plate windows look in on the planet’s most glamorous cars, a gallery seemingly plucked from the nearby Museum of Modern Art. In his alluring “The Driving Machine,” architect and urban planner Witold Rybczynski illuminates the evolution of automative design, uncovering a story that reveals as much (or more) about us than the Ford Rangers and BMWs we shift into gear.
What does your car say about you? ‘The Driving Machine’ knows.
Nonfiction: An eminent architecture writer brings his singular eye to a dazzling history of car design.
For the Minnesota Star Tribune
October 2, 2024 at 12:00PM
The author begins midstream, in the Third Reich, when Hitler called for an affordable vehicle that any German family could own, a “volkswagen,” or “wagon for the people.”
Although Carl Benz made the first internal-combustion car in 1885, Germany lagged behind the rest of Europe in output. Rybczynski notes experimentation with other fuel options, such as kerosene and steam, but combustion engines triumphed on efficacy and speed.
In those early years, many entrepreneurs rushed into the game on both sides of the Atlantic, designers and engineers played with form and function, borrowing elements from horse-drawn carriages as well as primitive airplanes, tinkering with an array of materials — wood, glass, metal — tapping the creative currents of the 20th century.
As Rybczynski opines, “Cars were becoming stylish artifacts to be appreciated visually, coveted, admired, even cherished.”
“Driving Machine” serves up bite-sized anecdotes, some sweet, some savory, like a tasting menu: Hitler relied on a visionary Czech, Ferdinand Porsche, to realize his dream. The first trunks were actual steamer trunks, strapped to the backs of automobiles. Despite a lack of education, Henry Ford applied American mass-production know-how to his eponymous company, building one of the most vital and enduring corporations. (A zealous anti-union crusader, he also funded right-wing causes.)
Station wagons derived their name from longish vehicles that transported goods from train stations to vendors. And the Japanese industry rose from postwar rubble to challenge the West, innovating concepts and sparking an international “cars race.”
The “Mysteries of the Mall” writer never drifts far from architecture, lending his singular erudition to such masterpieces as the Citroën DS, which debuted at the 1955 Paris Motor Show.
Its teardrop-shaped body ”had been wind tunnel tested, but it was fundamentally a work of sculptural art. The curved windshield and rear window and integrated bumpers were features that would become standard in later cars ... the presence of rear fender skirts gave the body the sleek appearance of a speedboat ... no aggressive stance, no masculine menace. Quite the opposite. Truly a goddess.” With 22 books beneath his belt, Rybczynski’s engaging voice continues to ring clear.
Amid the peril of climate change and its attendant surge in greenhouse gases, electric automobiles and hybrids have emerged as trophy items. Rybczynski focuses on Tesla, helmed by CEO Elon Musk, detailing the arrival of a new aesthetic, lean yet high-tech, utilitarian yet luxurious. In the future will we embrace driverless taxis, decked out with cameras and touchscreen infotainment, “an alien creature ... too smart for its own good, a bossy nanny”?
Rybczynski sustains our curiosity until the last page. The author’s signature delight and insight grace this breezy study.
Hamilton Cain, who also reviews for the New York Times and Washington Post, lives in Brooklyn.
The Driving Machine: A Design History of the Car
By: Witold Rybczynski.
Publisher: Norton, 235 pages, $29.99.
