Last week I selected four great films (my opinion) from YouTube about iconic cars (also my opinion). But how are they made? And what does the making say about the brand and its philosophy. The samples I present here range from the relatively modest to the very edge of prestige, but the process of building them is something less profane than divine.

Film 1 | Stradale

Thunder, lightening, molten metal and hand-stitched leather. Monochrome film, rhythmic music, the close ups, the dancing shadows of hand welding, reveal the car as object d’art. No spoken words interrupt the almost miraculous birth of the SF90, which seems to come from points of contradiction: the hand of man; and the mind of God. There is only one Stradale, to be seen from afar, an immaculate conception never to be repeated.

Film 2 | call of the Mountain

Sunrise, the place of birth and hope. A voice. The A110 is not some distant ideal. It is the work of the people of a little-known French town, embodying their pride and passion for a myth reborn. This is a car to be touched, caressed, owned and driven; a car that lifts the spirit, stirs the emotion, rekindles memories, becomes family. A car that searches for its home, Rédélé’s mountain.

Film 3 | deus ex Machina

29 minutes and 3 seconds, the hiss and clack of machines, the whir of motors and the rumble of robotic arms and conveyors. We are left in no doubt that in this place precision has primacy. A new car born in an era where man is an aside, a source of error, an accommodation. A servant and a supplicant, but no more.

Film 4 | wood and iron

Plane, chisel, hammer, saw. Steel, hide, furnace. The old ways don’t die, and neither does the Morgan 44. This is a car built by craftsman, each vehicle not so much a copy of the last as a variation, a phenotypical drift. A car worthy of the land where Gandalf walks amongst wood and stone, where Shadowfax can be seen against the brooding sky, and ravens watch from the heights.