American cars

Jaguar began life as Swallow Sidecars in 1922. Blackpool , a rather dreary town on the Western seaboard of industrial Lancashire; seemingly an unpromising launch platform for the car that became as inspirational in Hollywood or Hong Kong as it was in Buenos Aires or Beijing. In the years following the end of the First World War, the young William Lyons appeared to be a pushy young motorcycle sidecar manufacturer with delusions of grandeur. Ambitious to move up to cars, in 1927 he used his Swallow Sidecars workers' coachbuilding skills to make bodies for Austin Sevens, giving them a status...

Quadricycle (also spelled quadracycle or quadrocycle) is a four-wheeled vehicle. The most common layout is when the wheels are placed at the angles of a rectangle. The alternative layout is when wheels are placed at the angles of a rhombus (or, more generally, at the angles of a geometric kite). The rhombus layout is not very convenient, because such vehicles are less stable and leave three tracks instead of two. Quadricycles were one solution to the problem of low-speed stability in early cycles, typically multi-seat models (as seen in the picture). Both tandem (in line, as depicted) and...