Cars are big. TV shows like Top Gear are hugely popular, with viewers cooing and trouser-rubbing over the latest new cars on the block. Let no sandal-wearing cyclepath tell you otherwise: people love their four wheeled wonders.
And, as you can see from our latest trip into the Guardian's technology archives, motor moonies have been around for a long time.
The report - from an auto industry show at Olympia in London - was published exactly one century ago, 13th November 1907. Above you can see the article as it appeared, ddredged up through our new digital archive, (which - unfortunately - you have to pay for). It's intriguing, and hugely detailed:
The whole of the huge hall is insufficient to accommodate the demands for space which were made, and the annexe was also unable to cope with the overflow, notwithstanding that the entries are, for the first time, restricted to pleasure cars.
Whilst the show is thoroughly representative both of English and Continental makes, it may be said that there seems no very revolutionary trend in design observable anywhere. The car of to-day seems to be settling down on more or less conventional lines, as one would expect as the outcome of ten years of trial and experience.
Improvements will come and are coming slowly and surely, but they are being introduced along sound and safe lines.
I thought it was a fascinating read; not least because while some of the car manufacturers remain solvent today (Fiat, Rolls Royce and Daimler), most of the companies mentioned - Napier, Darracq, Berliet, Clement Talbot - have disappeared.
