Peugeot can rightfully claim to be among the oldest car manufacturers still in existence. In business long before the advent of the automobile, Peugeot has been making cars for more than a century. A giant of the industry, it remains one of the world’s largest producers, having absorbed several former rivals. ARMAND PEUGEOT WAS born in […]

Through innovation, technical excellence, and competition-led promotion, Audi has become a giant of the motor industry. Yet this now-famous German name was dormant for around 20 years after World War II. Since finding a home under the Volkswagen umbrella, Audi has come to epitomize Germany’s pioneering spirit. The man behind AUDI was a German engineer and industrialist named August Horch,

Consumer electronics tycoon Sir Clive Sinclair had long considered making silent, emissions-free electric vehicles. Sinclair C5 1985 In August 1983, new rules came into force allowing “electrically assisted cycles” to hit the road with no driver’s license, tax, insurance, or even helmet needed; they simply had to weigh under 132lb (60kg) and not exceed 15mph (24kph). Sinclair saw his

There’s a vast array of designs that might illustrate the concept car boom of the 1980s, when manufacturers wanted to demonstrate their capabilities of the near- to medium-term future. Saab EV-1 1985 And almost all of them are empty vessels, dramatic yet delicate mock-ups with no chance of ever leaving the motor show hall. In this

Transport for the pope during public appearances had tended to be in open limousines until the terrible event that befell Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981. While blessing worshipers in St. Peter’s Square, he was shot by a gunman only 15ft (4.5m) away. Range Rover Popemobile 1982 It was felt that any future vehicle carrying

This machine revolutionized Formula One. It opened a new chapter in construction methods by introducing carbon-fiber-composites (CFCs) to what was then a sceptical racing community. McLaren MP4-1 1981 Until the MP4, the first result of Ron Dennis’s arrival at the hallowed McLaren team, Formula One car chassis were built from aluminum-up to 50 different sections in a

Guy Ligier-Formula One team owner, motorway construction tycoon, and confidante of French president François Mitterran-was an outside bet as a provider of ultra-small cars for marginalized motorists. Ligier JS4 1980 Yet in 1980, the Ligier JS4 became an instant best-seller in its class. Such tiny cars, with either sub-3ci (50cc) gas engines or larger diesels, could be driven

The poster boy for the 1970s supercar boom, this rare and exotic road machine was first revealed as a prototype in the spring of 1971. The 25th Anniversary edition, to celebrate Lamborghini’s dawn in 1962, was fundamentally the same car, but by 1988 it possessed a near-mythical reputation for mid-engined style and excitement. The word

Italdesign’s Aztec 1988 show car was built around a gloriously pointless feature: twin cockpits for driver and passenger. Italdesign Aztec 1988 Like the Asgard people-carrier and the Aspid coupé, it used mid-mounted Audi’s turbocharged five-cylinder engines, transversely mounted, and Quattro four-wheel drive. But the Aztec’s mad appeal of driver and passenger independently experiencing the rush of

Meet the “Ultimate All-Terrain Sports Coupé.” There had never been such a car until Glenfrome Engineering revealed its Facet, and proved off-road driving and Lamborghini-esque styling could mix. Glenfrome Facet 1983 The running gear was a standard Range Rover chassis, on which Glenfrome’s coachbuilders created the chiseled-looking body. Windshield and door frames were aluminum castings, a