The automobile was born in 1885, when Carl Benz constructed the first vehicle with a combustion engine, but it was not until the turn of the century that the motor car really began to occupy people's minds. This was the start of a remarkable evolution, which is now almost a hundred years old. The, first cars were primitive creatures, far away from today's sophisticated designs, but by the year 1900 most of the basic ideas of the motor car were established: four wheels, engine in the front, and rear-wheel drive. Indeed we have front-wheel drive today, but it is astonishing to see how early many of the great innovations were created, then to be forgotten because they were well ahead of their time. Shaft drive was common already at the end of the nineteenth century, and the V8 engine - which we forever associate with American cars - was built in 1903 by Alfred Buchi from Switzerland. The list of innovations that we now take for granted is very long. Nothing is new under the sun, though many car manufacturers make that claim when marketing themselves. In Cars of the Century, Christer Glenning and Bengt Ason Holm guide us on a breathtaking journey through the world of cars. You will meet the early pioneers and read how they fulfilled their dreams or vanished into the hall of failures. You can also read about cars that have become legendary and collectors' items - but you will also find cars that became notorious fiascos. Many of the vehicles in this book were bread-and-butter cars, but there is also an old tradition of virtually mythical cars, about which stories were told throughout these years. The authors have tried to do justice to every aspect of automobile history in this magnificent book.