Design has long since become the most important distinguishing feature of car brands. Phil Patton and Bernd Polster present here for the first time a genesis of form of the modern automobile. In doing so, they get to the bottom of one of the most important reasons why we like to be seduced by well-shaped sheet metal in an informative and at the same time entertaining way. A big plus is the close interlinking of the model, brand and designer portraits, which allows each reader individual access. More than 800 illustrations open up the whole cosmos of car design visually. In the first part, the 'form epochs' provide a historical framework. A model typology and close-ups of design details sharpen the eye for the grammar of form. In the main part of the book, the chronology of models, more than 100 milestones of car design are comprehensively portrayed in pictures and text. It is followed by a.