A car or automobile is a wheeled motor vehicle used primarily for transportation.
The history of the automobile is very rich and dates back to the 15th century when Leonardo da Vinci was creating designs and models for transport vehicles.
In 1769 the first steam-powered automobile capable of transporting people was built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot.
In 1807 François Isaac de Rivaz designed the first hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine.
Around 1832, Robert Anderson develops the first crude electric vehicle, but it isn’t until the 1870s or later that electric cars become practical.
In 1885-1886, Karl Benz developed a three-wheeled petrol- or gasoline-powered automobile. This is considered to be the first “production” automobile.
The 1901 Mercedes, designed by Wilhelm Maybach for Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, deserves credit for being the first modern motorcar in all essentials.
After producing and selling the Model A in 1903, Ford Motor Company’s Model T became the first mass-produced automobile in 1908, focusing on affordability for the average consumer.
Cars were rapidly adopted in the US, where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts, but took much longer to be accepted in Western Europe and other parts of the world.
The word “car” is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum (“wheeled vehicle”), or the Middle English word carre (meaning “two-wheel cart”, from Old North French). In turn, these originated from the Gaulish word karros (a Gallic chariot). It originally referred to any wheeled horse-drawn vehicle, such as a cart, carriage, or wagon.
The word “automobile” is a classical compound derived from the Ancient Greek word autós, meaning “self”, and the Latin word mobilis, meaning “movable”. It entered the English language from French, and was first adopted by the Automobile Club of Great Britain in 1897.
It was estimated in 2017 that the number of cars was over 1.4 billion cars, up from the 500 million of 1986.
The United States has more cars than any other country in the world, at 300 million.
The Toyota Corolla is by far the best-selling model of car ever made, with close to 50 million units sold since its launch in 1966.
Approximately 65 percent of all Rolls-Royce cars ever built are still on the road today.
Volkswagen Group sells passenger cars under the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda and Volkswagen marques.
Volvo built their reputation on selling safer cars, but they gave away the most important safety device ever invented: the three-point seat belt. The design patent open and available to other car manufacturers for free, in the interest of safety.
A single car has about 30,000 parts, counting every part down to the smallest screws.
The “new car smell” is composed of over 50 volatile organic compounds.
On average, cars are parked 95% of the time.
There are more cars than people in Los Angeles.
About a 35% of the world population drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies.
The car with the highest mileage covered a total of more than 3,000,000 (4,830,000 km).
The world’s fastest street-legal production car is the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, at 431 km/h (267 mph).
The official land-speed record (measured over one mile) is 1,227.985 km/h (763.035 mi/h) (Mach 1.020), set by Andy Green (UK) on 15 October 1997 in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA, in Thrust SSC. It is the first car to break the sound barrier.
In 2017, Rolls-Royce unveiled a one-off custom build called the Sweptail. At a reported price of nearly $13 million, it is believed to be the most expensive new car ever.
In October 2013 a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO racer became the world’s most expensive car, selling to a private buyer for $52 million. The red competition car, formerly owned by the Greenwich, Connecticut-based collector Paul Pappalardo, was acquired by an unidentified buyer in a private transaction, according to the Bloomberg news agency.
The most expensive car license plate – made up of the single digit, ‘1’ – was sold to Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri (UAE) for Dh52.2 million ($14.2 million) during a special number-plate auction organised by Emirates Auction Company, and held at Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on 16 Feb 2008.
The Tesla electric car anecdote refers to a supposed Tesla invention described by a Peter Savo. Tesla, according to the story, had the stock gasoline engine removed and replaced with a brushless AC electric motor. The motor was said to have been run by a “cosmic energy power receiver” consisting of a box measuring about 25 inches long by 10 inches wide by 6 inches high, containing 12 radio vacuum tubes and connected to a 1.8-meter (6-foot)-long antenna. The car was said to have been driven for about 80 kilometers (50 miles) at speeds of up to 145 km/h (90 mph) during an 8-day period.
The Formula 1 automobile racing has its roots in the European Grand Prix Motor Racing of the 1920s and 1930s. The “formula” in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must comply. Today, Formula 1 teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull spend average of 320 million USD per year. This involves of Car Cost, Team management cost, driver cost and other small extra costs.
The world’s first automobile accident occurred in Ohio City, Ohio in 1891. Irish scientist Mary Ward was riding in a steam-powered automobile built by her cousins. As they rounded a bend in the road, Ward was thrown from her seat and fell in the vehicle’s path. One of the wheels rolled over her and broke her neck, killing her instantly.
In 1930, laws were proposed in Massachusetts and St. Louis to ban radios while driving. According to automotive historian Michael Lamm, “Opponents of car radios argued that they distracted drivers and caused accidents, that tuning them took a driver’s attention away from the road, and that music could lull a driver to sleep.”
The only cars that Cuban citizens can own legally are cars created and bought before 1959. After this year, the Cuban government seized all of the cars, and owns them all to this day. Most of the pre-1959 cars in the country are from the United States.
Highway hypnosis, also known as white line fever, is a mental state in which a person can drive a automobile great distances, responding to external events in the expected, safe and correct manner with no recollection of having consciously done so. In this state, the driver’s conscious mind is apparently fully focused elsewhere, while seemingly still processing the information needed to drive safely.
Joe Ranft, co-writer and co-director on the film “Cars,” died in a car accident while the movie was still in production.
Over 1.25 million people are killed each year on the road.
Drivers are 23 times more likely to crash when they text at the wheel, a study has revealed.
A recent study estimates that mass-adoption of self-driving cars could reduce over 90% of traffic accidents.
The report from U.S. News and World Report show only 18 percent of U.S. drivers know how to operate a stick shift.
In the United States, a car is stolen every 45 seconds.
The most popular car colors today are: white, black, shades of grey and silver, amounting to over 70% of the total world car production.
Most car companies themselves are named after their founders like Ford, Rolls-Royce, Austin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Renault, Citroen, Honda, Toyota (Toyoda), DeLorean etc.
In Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” trilogy, Wayne drives three different Lamborghinis— two Murciélagos in “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight,” and an Aventador in “The Dark Knight Rises.” (Murciélago means bat in Spanish.).
James Bond actor Daniel Craig has been granted lifetime privileges to swing by the Aston Martin factory any time he likes and take the car of his choice out for a spin.
The Porsche 911 was originally going to be called the 901 but Peugeot had already trademarked all the numbers with a zero in the middle and stopped them.
Italian Traffic Police has two Lamborghini Gallado in service.
Residents of Churchill, Canada leave their cars unlocked to offer an escape for pedestrians who might encounter Polar Bears on Main Street.
South African residents can legally attach small flamethrowers to the side of their cars to provide defense against carjackers.
Joe Ranft, co-writer and co-director on the film “Cars,” died in a car accident while the movie was still in production.