Five of the most photogenic automobiles in the world.

With a certain irony, the old media of books (which took off following the invention of the printing press by Mr Johannes Gutenberg circa 1440) is now being deployed to record highlights from Instagram (invented by Messers Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010). Insta Grammar: Cars is a collection of great photos of cars drawn from the social media platform concerned with appearance like no other.

Cars exist on two quite separate planes: one practical and the other imaginary. In practice, cars are tediously quotidian, but also evidence of how far we’ve come after a century of mass motoring. Almost all cars are now comfortable, safe and reliable, even though you can buy a car for a monthly fee that’s less than you might spend on coffee over the same period. However, they’re also polluting and spend most of their lives either unused (while rapidly depreciating in value) or stuck in traffic. By contrast, cars seem amazing in our imagination. They are beautiful, fast, elegant. They speak of a glamorous past or an exciting future. We load them with dreams of independence, freedom and travel and send them into sublime, empty landscapes.

All of which means they lend themselves perfectly to Instagram, a medium where, whether the subject matter is a watch or a holiday destination, all the upsides are on show and all the downsides are hidden. They used to say that if you love the way a car looks you should buy a poster, but these days if you love the way a car looks, then search for its hashtag. Below are five of our favourite photogenic cars.

The German manufacturer has a long-term Art Car project that over the years has featured work by artists including Messers Alexander Calder, Robert Rauschenberg and Olafur Eliasson. While the American abstract painter Mr Frank Stella did design a 1976 3.0 CSL as part of that programme, this M1 – a six-cylinder, 277bhp, 3.5-litre, Mr Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed, late-1970s supercar – was not created at the request of BMW. Instead, it was ordered by the racing driver and team owner Mr Peter Gregg. He then asked Mr Stella to paint it to commemorate his racer friend Mr Ronnie Peterson, who was killed at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Some of the most beautiful cars ever built carry a three-point star on top of their radiators. These days, big saloon cars generally look rather dreary, but Mercedes’ greatest hits are further distinguished by the fact that so many of them are big barges. The design of this coupé, which was introduced in 1971, combines Mercedes’ famous stack headlights with American influence in the form of the long tail fins. It’s more fun to allow the car to conjure images of Mad Men’s Don Draper, masterful in his grey sack suit, slim tie and fedora hat, than it is to contemplate the fact the coupé’s performance is hampered by an engine that tops out at about 150 bhp.

The rear-engined Porsche 911 is one of the most celebrated cars of all time. Its name is indelibly associated with a raw, functional approach to sports car building that allows Porsche fans to feel there’s a piety to their enthusiasm that sets them apart as the true believers in the cult of the automobile. The 911 is also deeply photogenic, as this classic 2.4-litre example with its iconic Fuchs wheels demonstrates. And the backdrop, sublime Glencoe in Scotland, renders this shot by Ms Amy Shore an Instagram classic.

Further blurring the lines between the digital and the physical, this Lamborghini Huracan GT3 racing car, which was driven by Mr Corey Lewis in last year’s IMSA sports car series in the US, bears a strong resemblance to a car in the console game Forza Motorsport 6. This shot was taken at Virginia International Raceway last summer and captures the visceral, childlike and largely irrational appeal of Lamborghini cars. The book, quite naturally, also contains a number of shots of the brand’s famous Countach.

There’s a certain chauvinism whereby Europeans neglect the sports cars built in the US because they believe their own continent’s exotica to be far superior. With the likes of Ferrari and McLaren producing sports cars on this side of the Atlantic, why look west for performance motors? Or so the logic goes. It seems to elude many Europeans that a Corvette may be built to a (remarkably modest) price, but unlike their native sports cars it still comes with a naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 engine, the kind that is disappearing from most European model ranges. Corvettes also have more presence than any sports saloon, as you can see from this picture.

Insta Grammar: Cars (Lannoo) is published on 27 June

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