Cars In The 1930's

Since the generally regarded invention year of 1886, the car has steadily grown to become the core of modern transportation. The first car which became accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company (Boesen 1981: 22). Since then the car has become a luxury item, a status symbol, an essential asset used by the public for transportation and a competitive sport. Due to the integral need for transportation since the industrial revolution, the automobile industry fast grew into one of the biggest in the world( ). Since the Ford Model T car design has all but completely transformed and this has been due to an array of economic, historical, social and functional reasons.

There is such a vast

Cars in the 1930’s were built to be beautiful with long soft curves and rounded features particularly characteristic of the Art Deco Movement. However safety was of little concern and speed seemed to dominate the market. The 1930’s saw a previous land speed record broken by John Cobb in a Railton Mobile Special 634 km/h at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah(Davis 1953:209).

However, the 1930’s also saw some excellent passenger cars being produced especially in Europe and for very different reasons:

1931 DKW F1

(Source: www.motorbase.com)

Tatra T97

(Source:

At the height of the World War II Germany under Hitler and the Nazi’s had a much more utilitarian goal in mind and the most indicative of this is the largely popular VW Beetle. The need for this kind of car, and its functional objectives, were formulated by Adolf Hitler, who wished for a cheap, simple car to be mass-produced for the new road network of his country. He contracted Ferdinand Porsche in 1934 to design and build it, after telling him in 1933 "This is the car for my roads”(Werner 2003:39).

It is believed that Porsche used Tatra's design of the T97 since he was under huge pressure by Hitler to design the Volkswagen quickly and cheaply. Tatra sued Porsche for damages, and Porsche was willing to settle. However, Hitler canceled this, saying he 'would settle the matter.’(Cars and History: Tatra T97).

In October 1930 Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen the chief of DKW in Sweden developed a small car that could be powered by a DKW motorbike engine which would be popular and cheap. The 1931 DKW F1 was the outcome(Oswald