Explore The World With Dieter Klein’s ‘Lost Wheels’

Fans of photo-rich coffee table books are probably familiar with teNeues Media, the German publishing house founded by Dr. Heinz teNeues in 1931 that’s made something of a name for itself since switching to large-scale hardbacks in 2000.

Focused almost exclusively on photography, and including only a few descriptive passages in English and German, teNeues’ back catalogue is positively heaving at the spine on the more niche side of travel, lifestyle, architecture, art, nature, and of course, ‘the elegance of cars.’ Those of you already scanning Amazon might want to check out Black Beauties and The Grand Cabrios and Coupes of Mercedes-Benz.

Save some room in the cart though, as teNeues’ newest title, Lost Wheels – The Nostalgic Beauty of Abandoned Cars, is something long-time Petrolicious readers may take a particular interest in.

Dedicated to abandoned classics, Lost Wheels is a pictorial chronicle of Dieter Klein’s journey across Europe and the United States, and highlights once gleaming vehicles left to rust and ruin. There are no concourse models amongst this lot, as the German freelance photographer pays “a tribute to classic cars, but also to the transformative power of nature and the enduring intrigue of people and incidents unknown.” Hence the 1937 Chrysler Imperial with an entire tree growing through its long-destroyed windshield in Georgia, USA; the 1950 Porsche 356 left to rot in Germany, still with a ‘77’ on its passenger door; and, among the most haunting of the bunch, the Citroën ‘graveyard’ in France, that features almost a dozen Traction Avants from 1934 to 1957.

As is teNeues’ custom, there’s very little in the way of accompanying text, thus allowing the works to speak for themselves, and even lets award-winner Dieter have a little fun at his reader’s expense: of the 160 images featured in the 208-page ‘atlas’, one of them doesn’t feature a car at all!

There are some exceptions though. Speaking about a rusting treasure trove he finds in, what appears to be, a dis-used mine in northeast France, and with all the eeriness that goes with that, Dieter writes:

“It was wet and the darkness was total: it was a bit creepy. A few bats flapped past almost noiselessly above my head, roused by the light from my flashlight. It was a huge riddle: more than thirty automobiles sitting in a shallow pit in the sandstone in the middle of Champagne…Originally the vehicles were supposed to have been protected by being parked in this cave. It had been a bad decision.”

Lost Wheels is now available from the Petrolicious store for $55 USD. Oh, and, if any of the teNeues marketing team happen to be reading this, I have some archive images of my family’s ‘well-worn’ 2004 Chevrolet Monte Carlo I’d be happy to discuss pulling together for a follow-up edition.

*Images courtesy of Dieter Klein and teNeues. Further details on how to place an order for ‘Lost Wheels – The Nostalgic Beauty of Abandoned Cars’ can be found HERE