Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Auto
  3. Culture
  4. Reviews

‘Fast Forward: The Cars of the Future’ Book Review

By
Fast Foward
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Fast Foward
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The funny thing about flipping through the pages of Fast Forward is that it’s often hard to tell whether the car you’re looking at was designed last year or in the first half of the last century. Basically, every vehicle in the book looks like either a spaceship, a time machine, or some sort of spaceship/time machine.

Related:

Recommended Videos

Alright, that’s a slight exaggeration. There are a few cars in this recent release from Berlin’s celebrated publisher Gestalten (we’re fans) that look like actual motor vehicles, and there are indeed plenty that reveal their age thanks to the classic curves of roadsters from the ’40s, the fins that popped up on so many cars in the ’50s, and the gull wing doors that rose in popularity (oh, that was punderful) in the 1970s. While the book bills itself as forward-looking — the tome’s full title is Fast Forward: The Cars of the Future and the Future of Cars — this is more of a retrospective of past vehicles than a look ahead. What we see in this gorgeous, 300-page coffee table book is a look at a few dozen cars once billed as vehicles of the future that now offer a unique perspective on the trends and predictions of past generations. (Also, there are a few vehicles that we may see in the 22nd-century toward the end of the book.)

Fast Foward GM Firebird
Image used with permission by copyright holder

As with all of the recent coffee table books published by Gestalten, this one can be enjoyed at random, picked up and thumbed through in no particular order. But, unlike many Gestalten books, the best way to read Fast Forward is indeed from start to finish. The volume is arranged in chronological order, commencing with a chapter titled “Streamliner” that focuses on vehicles from the 1930s and ’40s. It ends with a section called “United Nude” that focuses on an electric concept car unveiled in 2016.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

In exploring approximately 80 years of cutting-edge automotive development, Fast Forward shares the stories of many of the industry’s most famous and/or influential designers (Harley J. Earl, father of the Corvette, and Marcello Gandini, visionary behind multiple iconic Lamborghinis, to give but a couple examples). Of course, it also showcases a lot of amazing automobiles. What is striking about so many of the at-a-glance outlandish cars of the past is the fact that, on closer inspection, many of the design elements that were once far-fetched have become commonplace. In between every three-foot tail fin that was phased out over the years, one spots a set of doors not unlike that of a Tesla Model X. For every rocket-shaped nose cone, one sees the same lines and curves on a Ferrari designed two generations ago or on a model released earlier this year.

Only serious motor heads are going to enjoy reading every single word in this book. I must admit my own eyes glazed and thoughts wandered during some of the bios and articles. But anyone with even a passing appreciation for vehicles and/or for artistic form will love looking at the pictures. And hey, isn’t that what coffee table books are for anyway?

Steven John
Steven John
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven John is a writer and journalist living just outside New York City, by way of 12 years in Los Angeles, by way of… Read Full Bio
Topics
Auto
Cadillac celebrates 125 years with the Escalade-V
cadillac celebrates 125 years with the escalade v my27 collector img 1620

The Cadillac Escalade has been a symbol for decades. When you think about those who made it out of the neighborhood and into the more affluent parts of your home, you think of them in a Caddy. The Cadillac image has always been the go-to for those who want to showcase their success and their ability to rise above the average. The Escalade became the harbinger of wealth when it became the status symbol of the urban and hip hop cultures.

Now the Escalade is the vessel Cadillac is using to celebrate 125 years with the Escalade-V.

Read more
Auto
Porsche wants to teach you how actually to drive their cars
Porsche

A Porsche is one of the most recognizable cars on the road. You always know when you are looking at one. So, it stands to reason that people love them, right? Of course they do. But loving a car and knowing how to drive one are very different. What is it that Ja Rule said in The Fast and the Furious? “We know a few things. And one of the things we knows is, it isn’t how you stand by your car, it is how to drive your car. You better learn that.” How do you learn to drive a Porsche? At the Porsche Track Experience, which has offered programs on everything from a single-day basics class up to a three-day advanced course.

Now, the team behind PTX is expanding into new offerings for the car.

Read more
Auto
The next evolution of the sports car: Porsche redesigns an icon
City, Car, Transportation

Authenticity. It is what we are looking for nowadays as consumers. Thirty years ago, we looked for brand names. We strived for status and letting all those around us see that what we wore, where we lived, where we dined, and finally, what we drove, symbolized our success in life. Then all of that started to stumble, and every industry felt the recession. Of course, the recession was temporary, but the effects of it were not. What we started to look for after that was something real. We realized that stuff…was just stuff. Now, when I look at cars, or suits, or restaurants, I ask myself: What is this going to make me feel?

That is what the new Porsche Mission S does; it makes me feel like vintage New York and the upstate escape.

Read more