Treasure trove of British newsreels reveals Top Gear's ancestors

Long after television grew to dominate American and British homes, newsreel producer British Pathé kept at it, documenting the news of the day until finally ceasing production of new short films in 1970 after 60 years of effort. Earlier this month, all of British Pathé's 85,000 films were put online — including fascinating, rare and often weird car footage that resemble nothing so much as a jet-age Top Gear.

Just like today, Pathé's cameras couldn't stay away from odd vehicles — whether home-built electric runabouts good for avoiding World War II gas rations or Italian flying cars — and because it often shot film only, it would spice up the product with jazz music and the bounciest British narration this side of "Thomas the Tank Engine." Besides, what's so scary about a glass cube that can go 50 mph?