Sex, Drink and Fast Cars: The Creation and Consumption of Images
by Stephen Bayley

'Sex, Drink and Fast Cars' is about the image of that most characteristic of twentieth-century products: the automobile. Cars are very much more than transportation: despite their familiarity, they retain an elusive, magical quality, inspiring passions that bear comparison, with the erotic impulse. Author Stephen King described car ownership as a parody of the act of love. Just looking at a fast car is a prologue to desire, driving one a form of sexual display. This book explores the meaning of cars and looks at ways these meanings are exploited by designers, advertisers and marketeers.