Evolution Of Cars

Cars have gone through many changes throughout the years. We have seen car designs from the 40’s land boats, all the way to the exotic styles we see today. People tend to look past the fact that cars are not only just a form of transportation, but also a passion and an art style, that has been carried down throughout the years. Cars are a way for an artist to express themselves through time, and hard work.
If we really want to try and inform people on how much work goes into one car, we need to go back to some of the most iconic cars in history.
While car aerodynamics have not always been very successful and efficient (1960 land boats), car companies seem to learn from their mistakes, however sometimes it does not always happen immediately.

Dating back to when the Model T was made in 1908, cars started out as boxes on wheels.
When the Model T was made, cars couldn’t even go highway speeds we are used to seeing now of 55 and 60.

Not only were the engines of cars not able to supply the car with that amount of power, but the cars were just tall boxes, and didn’t necessarily go with the wind.
I had found that cars didn’t actually start reaching highway speeds until the Ford Model A.(The Model T’s predecessor) At this time, the Model A’s top speed was said to be about 65, however realistically could barely reach modern highways speeds, and even so would be considered extremely slow.
In Serra, Jonah. "The Evolution of Car Design From 1910 to Now,” it is stated that car companies didn’t really start looking into making cars aerodynamically efficient, and didn’t worry about power output and fuel consumption until about 1910.
Although cars at this started to take into consideration that air flow might have a thing or two to do with speed, for the most part, people tended to think larger engines means more speed. Which in some cases can be true. However, it wasn’t until about 1910 like I said before, that the light bulb clicked for aerodynamic efficiency. However, once the year of 1910 came around, car designs started to drastically changed, and manufacturers started to notice that air flow might actually have something to do with

speed.
Although in 1910 car companies believed that aerodynamics related to speed, manufacturers didn’t start putting those ideas down on paper until around 1950 ( "The Evolution of Car Design From 1910 to Now."). 1950 was one of the first years were we started to see cars with odd edges and curves, and we broke away from the original “box on wheels.”
While new designs for cars were coming out, there were still very many companies that tried to stick to their roots, and keep traditional box-like designs. However, when the 70’s came around, car aerodynamics and designs were about to change drastically. In 1969, there was the beginning of an oil crisis known as the Oil Embargo. Oil was becoming scarce, ultimately causing a decline in oil amounts, and an incline in oil cost.
Because cars are powered by gasoline, people started to realize a good way to blow through your money, was to buy a car and spend your leftover on gasoline. Because of the insane cost, people just began to not buy cars altogether, causing many companies to go out of business. However, there were a select few companies that thrived in this time and lost much less money than their competitors. Many companies started to look back at the idea of making a fuel efficient car, and delved deeper into several ways that cars could be more efficient. For the most part, every company came down to the simplicity of adding curves and unique edges to your car, which made the cars glide through wind easier. According to "Porsche Historical Background,” Porsche was the first company to start the exotic edges trend, and actually came out with the first “sports car” in 1910. While personally I am not a fan of Porsche's, I can’t disagree that this company has had drastic impact on today’s modern vehicles.
Getting back on track, companies began to understand the true meaning of aerodynamics, and how a car flows through the wind, and the larger and box-like it is, the more air resistance it has. The reason the aerodynamics of a car are so important is because the less drag you have, the more fluently you flow through the air. When you flow through the air easier, you don’t have to burn through fuel as fast, therefore saving you a mass amount of money. Once the oil crisis dropped off in 1976, the idea for having sleek looking cars was now a reality, and it started to become a statement for how professional and wealthy you were.
In the earlier stages of cars, existing from 1908 all the way to the 60’s, we tended to see a very standard design, and not much diversity. However, throughout the years, we have started to finally drift away towards more modern designs, with many complex edges. Cars are not only more sleek in today's times, but cars also tell a story unique to them. The designer is the writer, the engine is the body sections, and the aesthetics are the details of the story. They paint beautiful pictures, and can only be described as a work of art. As years go by, new things about aerodynamics will change, and clever designs will emerge. However, we can never forget our past, and how we got to the point we’re today with car designs.