speed

Cliff Nass and I have started our seminar – Cars: past, present, future. The project – automotive archaeology. This week – motor sports. Speed as zeitgeist. I am rereading Jeffrey Schnapp’s wonderful collection Speed Limits. Here is Marinetti – February 1909: We affirm that the magnificence of the world has been enriched by the advent…

connoisseurship of the car

I am back from an extraordinary symposium at Miles Collier’s Revs Institute in Florida, exploring the world of collectable cars at this end of an era. The engine note, the feedback through steering wheel from rubber tyre grip, the scent of warm motor oil, the conversation by the gas station on the road trip, will be history…

when the everyday becomes history and heritage

A couple of months ago Road&Track were about to throw out their old office collection of back issues, photographs, notes, books, promotional literature sent them by car companies, and all manner of paperwork reaching back to the late 1940s when the magazine, one of the most famous and respected in the automotive world, was founded….

on the road to Auto Archive 3.0

The Revs Program at Stanford is developing a dynamic archive of automotive history using the cutting edge skills and technology of Stanford Libraries. It will offer online access to an exceptional library of resources plus powerful facilities for anyone in the automotive past to collect, annotate, upload and share their interests and knowledge – a…

cars – past, present, future – the case of automotive heritage

On Wednesday evenings this quarter I have been hosting a series of conversations with colleagues at Stanford and beyond about the world of cars – past, present and future. Sponsorship has come from our Revs Program and Stanford Continuing Studies [Link] With a very sharp and expert audience we covered a tremendous amount of ground,…