Cars: Accelerating the Modern World

Have you watched the movie Ford v Ferrari? Henry Ford wanted to make cars affordable for everyone. His moving assembly line cut the money and manpower needed to build cars. Yet his grandson inherited rich and wanted to push boundaries of Ford brand to racing games to increase sales.

Ford Mustang Fastback 1965 Andrew Staughton

In 1966, with its enormous resources and power, hundreds of engineers, best racers and lots of money, factory made Ford won the Le Mans 24 hour race against its strongest rival and primary target – handmade and workshop based Ferrari. At that time, who would ever know that in 2019, Ferrari is still a prestigious brand with super dream cars? And Ford is still a brand not very popular nor admirable in the UK.

Of course, in a bigger picture, Ford or Ferrari and any other car brands, are equally good at accelerating our modern world with a faster pace. Making a car luxury, or making it cheaper to be more affordable, as this exhibition in Victoria and Albert Museum unveils, are just different choices towards the very same era of human history, within cars.

Shown above are the details of a very luxury car. In 1919, the wealthy benefactor Suzanne Deutsch de la Meurthe bought Hispano-Suiza Type H6B at the Paris Auto Salon. Later Henri Labourdette the specialist coach-building workshop customised the car to a very high standard with a ‘skiff torpedo’ body.

Another impressive car is a bright coloured Cadillac. Overwhelming details filled everywhere, metallic paint shining in the room, and look at that engine cover!

But it is not an Auto Show in V&A really. It is about culture, education, environment, past, present and future. Videos at the side of the car are introducing stories of different people living in different countries, for example South Africa, Japan and USA. Audiences make slight noises when they find this Cadillac was actually commuting on the road daily by an elderly white.

So what will it be like? I mean the future with cars, apart from we should and will have less and less traffic deaths.

Maybe the future will not look like this. No, it will not.

But it may arrive with wings.

“How can a car FLY?”

“Yes.”

“How many years ahead will this become real?”

“Yes.”

Audi flying car, developed with Airbus

“Okay, should I go and see this exhibition?”

“Yes. For more pictures of the exhibition, please visit our Instagram @JUZIARTS.”