Category Archives: Car Culture

Honda Commercial Explores Tiny Engineering

As a die cast car collector of many years as well as an occasional stop motion animator, I found this ad for Honda in the UK to be a total delight. Flipping and folding, twisting and revving, an engineer pulls together a wide variety of Honda products. Motorcycles morph into mini vans and robots become jets. Impressive.

Glass Bottom Car

In the 1951 Tex Avery animation “Car of Tomorrow” we learn of the “Glass Bottom Car” that allows drivers to see below them. This way they can look down and see if the pedestrian they ran over was a friend of theirs. 50’s era racism and sexism abound in this uncensored cartoon:

In 1955’s “Four Wheels, No Brakes” we get a satirical glimpse of car dealers as Pete Hothead finally decides to get a new car:

via Cartoon Brew

Boots Across America


I walked out of my studio yesterday to find 3 cars booted in a row. Welcome to Hoboken, out-of-towner! Thought it’d make a decent motivational poster. Click to enlarge.

The Ford Granada Wagon is Just Like Shuttle Columbia

In this 1982 ad from Ford, astronaut Wally Shirra presents us with a “vehicle dedicated to the use of space”. We then see the shuttle Columbia landing, followed by a shot of the 1982 Ford Granada.

“Look Out World! Here comes Ford!”

I can’t tell if the metaphor is for NASA ships or nasty sex:

Built to carry a full crew in comfort
while moving big payloads
propelled by the thrust
of Ford’s new v6 engine option
designed to be used
over and over again.

So Ford biggest selling point is that the car will start? More than once? SOLD!

Long live NASA Space Shuttle.