1930's Elegance

Art Deco is my favourite design movement, and as someone who loves cars I think that the 1937 Cord 812 is a great example of this movement. I saw one at an Art Deco exhibition a few years ago at the NGV and instantly decided that one day i must have one.

I love the way it mixes both aggressive lines in the radiator grill and smooth curves in the wheel arches. The chrome detailing and whitewall tires give it the elegance and class that define Art Deco. The pipes coming from the sides of the engine also give it a raw, powerful look.

It also had plenty of new innovations in engineering at the time. It had front wheel drive, a space saving V8 engine configuration, pop-up headlights, a gear pre-selector, similar to modern semi-automatic transmissions found in sports car of today, and a supercharger, which gave birth to the term 'suped-up', still used in the car-modding community today.

Unfortunately these innovations, as well as a rushed production, led to many technical problems with the car, eventually leading to the demise of Cord Automobile. It is, however, often rated as one of the most influential cars of the 20th Century.

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_Automobile

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1936-1937-cord-810-812.htm

Andrew de Morton