From wind-tunnel dreams to mass-market miracles, this photo-rich journey revs up the eras—showcasing icons, oddities, and the boldest leaps in car design. Buckle up for a faster, fearless ride through automotive history.
Behold a bold, pulse-quickening chronicle of machines that redefined movement. A vivid tour through the ages of automotive prowess, from the dawn of an industry to the gilded glamour of luxury, through daring breakthroughs, radical redesigns, and the unstoppable surge of mass production.
Motorists' Festival. Moscow, 1966.
The 1927 FIAT-503, steered by its owner, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Stumbris of Riga, purchased in 1938, has become a fixture on the screen—appearing in The Garnet Bracelet, Slave of Love, and other Soviet classics. Today it stands pristine in the Riga Motor Museum. On October 9, 1966, Moscow roared with the Motorists' Festival—a grand automotive showcase of rare relics and cutting-edge Soviet models. Columns of cars corridor through the city from Manezhnaya Square to Luzhniki, ending in a ceremonial rally and a festive concert.
Dornier Delta car, 1955.
Munich’s Dornier winded up a singular miniature bubble car—the Delta—designed to carry four and sprint to 65 km/h.
Testing a ZIL-131 at the NAMI proving ground, 1980s.
Model Karen Birch at the wheel of a Peel P50, a new microcar from the Manx Peel Engineering Company, before the London Motorcycle Show, Earl’s Court, 8 November 1962.
The Peel P50 is the record-holder for the world's smallest production car, a Guinness entry. Born in the UK (1962–1964) by Peel Engineering, it measures 137 cm long, 104 cm wide, and weighs about 59 kg. Its single-cylinder, two-stroke 49 cc engine delivers around 4.5 hp and a top speed of 60 km/h. Three wheels (two front, one rear), one headlight, one seat, one door, and no reverse—turning around meant stepping out and wrenching the rear handle. Marketed as affordable urban transport for housewives, only about 50 were produced. In the 2010s, Peel revived the P50 as an electric version, honoring the original silhouette. The P50’s cult status grew from its absurd compactness, quirky look, and appearances on hits like Top Gear, where Clarkson himself piloted it around the BBC offices.
Experimental staff car. England, 1927.
Colonial Office delegates attend a demonstration of battlefield-capable all-terrain vehicles in Aldershot, staged by the War Office. On regular roads, the tracked system raised for stability and performance.
Tightness testing of a ZIM body at the Molotov Gorky Automobile Plant. Gorky, 1955.
The ZIM (GAZ-12) stands as a Soviet milestone: the plant’s emblem—a deer—symbolizes its lineage. The first non-limousine seven-seat sedan in the USSR, with folding middle seats (strapontins) and no partition between front and rear, signaling a car for mid-level management rather than the elite. Crafted in a record-breaking span of a little over two years, the first GAZ-12 rolled out in late 1950 and entered production in 1951.
A revolutionary rooftop tent for camping on an Austin A40. 1960.
Lenin Komsomol Automobile Plant (AZLK). Moscow, 1965.
AZLK—the Lenin Komsomol plant—emerged from the KIM era into Moskvitch fame. Born in 1930, it forged ahead under Moskvitch branding from 1946 onward. Since 1996, the plant has operated as Moskvitch OJSC.
1966 Jensen P66 prototype.
The Jensen P66, an audacious British concept car from Jensen Motors, surfaced in the early 1960s as a potential successor to the CV8. Though it dazzled with design and tech, it never reached production. Unveiled at the 1964 London Motor Show, it was eclipsed by corporate turmoil and a pivot to the Interceptor, which debuted in 1966. Only two or three P66s exist today, museum pieces that illuminate an alternate path in Jensen’s history.
At the Leningrad port, 1965–1973.
Inside J.A. Brady’s garage, 1307–1309 Williamson Street, Madison, Wisconsin, 1933.
The sedan’s brakes are tested on a Cowdery machine—a complimentary service provided by the garage.
The Pangolina: homemade wonder, Ukhta, 1980.
Alexander Kulygin, a gifted electrician and engineer, built the Pangolina—a physics-defying, six-wheeled experiment with a Lamborghini-esque silhouette and a shooting-brake lineage. Final assembly in Ukhta, with a makeshift teamwork ethos and no factory support, yielded a one-off marvel: a car that stunned magazines and TV, earning the nation’s attention as the Pangolin. The name captures its armored, pangolin-like presence.
Car lift at Mitchell Motors, 114 Wardour Street, Westminster, London, 1907.
Mitchell Motor Works and Garage opened in 1906, offering five stories of space for customers to “garage” their cars, lifted and rotated through a vertical lattice of platforms.
A GAZ-24 Volga, prepared for professional motorsports, 1980s.
A car in a repair shop. USA, 1950s.
A man beside a GAZ-12 ZiM in the mountains. Armenian SSR, 1960s.
Pedestrian safety demonstration in Washington, 1924.
In 1924, Washington, D.C. staged a public demonstration to champion pedestrian safety as cars flooded American streets, attempting to curb the rising toll of collisions.
Race cars. USSR, 1959.
Captivating and sometimes amusing car photography.
Advertisement for the Studebaker President Speedway State Coupe (1933).
Clipper car testing, London, 1954.