Drive on!: A Social History of the Motor Car

People are unfair to the car. They criticise what it has done to society, without giving due recognition to what is has done for society- which was effectively to liberate it. The development of the car has been distracted, delayed and debased by all manner of social pressures; any failure to keep its initial promise, Setright argues, is not the fault of the concept, but of people. Drive On! looks at the world-changing history of the car decade by decade and charts how cars have adapted as a result of what society has demanded of them. Separate chapters are devoted to such things as where to stop and what to wear, tyres and wheels, city driving, 4-wheel drives and a series of chapters looks at the technological changes of the last century, from wooden wheels to computer control. This is a car book unlike any other- stimulating, informative, provocative and witty.

L. J. K. Setright has been writing for Car magazine for 33 years, is a world expert on tyres and expresses forthright views on such things as speed limits, taxation, and pollution, and offers fascinating divagations on anything from the origins of the word 'dashboard' to the maximum speed of a rain drop (18mph, unaided by wind).