Car Trivia
Car Trivia that will leave you awed or with a stitch in your side!
- The most popular and affordable car in India till date is the Maruti 800. This passenger vehicle sales, in India, crossed the one million mark in 2005. This segment grows at 10-15% annually.
- Every fifth car sold in India is an Alto: To meet the increasing demand of Indian car buyers, Maruti came out with a new model called Alto, which has more power than the Maruti 800. Currently out of every five cars sold in India, Alto is the fifth.
- Car finance: Around 85% of the cars sold in India are financed when compared to the global average of 70%. In the neighboring country of China, only 15-20% vehicles are financed.
- First company to attempt an affordable 500cc car: Kinetic is the first Indian company to attempt an affordable “People's car” that provides comfortable transport to the India's middle class. The car, titled CityCar with a 500cc engine was developed in collaboration with a French company called AXIOM. Together they built a prototype and showcased it at the Delhi Auto Expo where it received a very good response. Unfortunately the Central Government did not grant decision on reduction in excise duty (Kinetic had sought duty lowering from 40% to 16%) which made the car cost prohibitive. In India for every 333 people there is one car, while in the US every second person owns a car.
- Sergio Goldvarg (Argentina) has a collection of over 7,000 cars which he has collected since 1962, all of which are on display in the Waffleworks restaurant, Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Maximum car in India by 2050: Goldman Sachs has predicted that India will have the maximum number of cars on the planet by 2050 overtaking the United States.
- The first Indian-built private car was manufactured in 1946, by Hindustan Motors. The car - which was the forerunner of today's Ambassador - was identical to the 10 HP Morris Series M.
- First Person to own a car in India: In 1897 Mr. Foster of M/s Crompton Greaves Company of Mumbai was the first to own a car in India.
- First Indian to own a car in India: Jamshedji Tata in 1901.
- First Woman to drive a car in India: Mrs. Suzanne RD Tata in 1905.
- Second most expensive object: The car is the second most expensive object that a person can ever buy (after a house) and it offers a person the freedom and mobility that probably nothing else can.
- The first cars did not have steering wheels. Drivers steered with a lever.
- The first self-propelled car was built in 1769, when Nicolas Cugnot, a French military engineer designed a steam powered road-vehicle.
- The world's first motor-accident was in 1769. The vehicle is still preserved in the Conservatoire Nationale des Arts et Metiers in Paris.
- The first successful internal combustion engine was a two-stroke gas driven engine patented by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir of Belgium in 1860.
- 160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road.
- On average there is about 3,000 feet of electrical wiring in every car.
- On average a human being spends two weeks of their entire lives waiting for traffic lights to change.
- The longest skid marks on a public road are said to been left by a Jaguar, involved in a motor accident in 1960, near Bedfordshire, UK. The skid marks were 950 feet or 290 meters long.
- A blind invented cruise control: Ralph Teetor, a prolific (and blind) inventor, invented cruise control. Teetor, blind since the age of five, built his first car, a one-cylinder, by the age of 12. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. His first job post-graduation was to develop technology for steam turbine rotors used in torpedo boat destroyers during World War I.
- License Plates: On April 25, 1901 the state of New York became the first state to require car license plates by law. The very first license plates were called number plates, which were first issued in 1893 in France by the police.
- Women and Car inventions: The automobile industry gave women ample opportunity for invention. In 1923, of the total 345 inventions listed under “Transportation” in the Women's Bureau Bulletin No.28, about half were related to automobiles and another 25 were traffic signals and turn indicators. Some of these inventions are the carburetor, the clutch mechanism, the electric engine starter, and the starting mechanism.
- Windshield wiper: Prior to the manufacture of Henry Ford's Model A, Mary Anderson was granted her first patent for a window cleaning device in November of 1903. Her invention could clean snow, rain, or sleet from a windshield by using a handle inside the car. This device can still be found in auto rickshaws.
- Insulations for spark plugs: During the 1930s, Helen Blair Bartlett developed new insulations for spark plugs. A geologist by training, her knowledge of petrology and mineralogy was critical in the development of innovative uses of alumina ceramics.
- Automatic windshield wiper: Another woman inventor named Charlotte Bridgwood invented the first automatic windshield wiper. Charlotte Bridgwood, president of the Bridgwood Manufacturing Company of New York, patented her electric roller-based windshield wiper called the “Storm Windshield Cleaner” in 1917. However, her product was not a commercial success.
- First workable 4-stroke engine DAIMLER (Germany): Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) designed the first workable four-stroke internal-combustion engine, and the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft was founded in 1890 to produce cars. The British Daimler Company was also formed later, which purchased the UK rights and built cars using Daimler engines.
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DIFFERENT MAKES DIFFERENT STORIES
- HONDA (Japan): Soichiro Honda (1906-1991) was a mechanic who founded Honda in 1948. The company originally produced only motorcycles, and Honda cars were introduced in 1964. Honda is the first Japanese company to manufacture cars in the US.
- BMW (Germany): BMW as a company was born on 20 July 1917 when the former 'Rapp-Motorenwerke' was renamed 'Bayerische Motoren Werke'. Shortly after this, the Imperial Patent Office approved the company's trademark, a stylized rotating propeller against a blue-and-white sky with the letters 'B.M.W' in the outer border.
- MERCEDES: Emil Jellinek was the Austro-Hungarian consul in France, who had the rights to sell Daimler's cars in Austria, Hungary, France, and USA. Mercedes was the name used by Jellinek to sell Daimler's cars, and was in fact the name of his daughter. In 1902, Daimler registered the name “Mercedes” as their car trademark.
- KARL BENZ: (Four-stroke engine): Karl Benz, born in 1844 was a son of an engine driver. He studied mechanical engineering, and was interested in the internal combustion engine right from his college days. His early working days were restricted to the two-stroke engine, since the four-stroke engine was under the Otto patent. In 1885, when the Otto patent was no longer valid, Benz developed a four-stroke internal combustion engine. This he attached to a three-wheeled carriage, and thus was born the first of the modern automobiles. The car, however, was not an immediate commercial success, and it was not till seven years and several improved versions later that Benz's car became popular.
- MITSUBISHI: The first Mitsubishi Company was a shipping firm that Yataro Iwasaki established in 1870. In 1873 it took the name Mitsubishi Shokai. The name Mitsubishi was derived from the words: “mitsu” meaning “three” and “bishi” meaning “water caltrop” (also called “water chestnut”). Therefore, “rhombus” logo is reflected in the company’s logo. Another translation is “three diamonds”.
- ŠKODA: In the Czech language “Skoda” literally means “damage”. It is also a Czech surname, which became a brand name later.
- PORSCHE: Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, often shortened to Porsche AG or just Porsche, is a German sports car manufacturer founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche, the engineer who also created the first Volkswagen. The company is located in Zuffenhausen, a city district of Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg.
- FIAT: The full expansion is Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino. It has an Italian car factory at Turin.
- FORD: This was launched in a converted factory in 1903 with $28,000 in cash from 12 investors. During its early years, at its Michigan factory, groups of two or three men worked on each car. Henry Ford was 40 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company, which became one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world, as well as being one of the few to survive the Great Depression. The largest family-controlled company in the world, the Ford Motor Company has been under family control for over 100 years. The first Ford cars had Dodge engines.
- JEEP: The most popular notion on how the name Jeep came to be known as Jeep is that the word came from the abbreviation used in the army for the “General Purpose” vehicle (GP).
- Rolls meets Royce: Frederick Royce (an engineer) and Charles Rolls (a car dealer) together introduced their first car (Rolls Royce) in 1904.
- Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari was a mechanic, race car driver then a race car team owner. His cars dominated racing for many years after World War II.
- The Volkswagen Beetle has several firsts to its credit:
• It was the first European car to sell a million vehicles in a year.
• Beetle, was indeed one of the most popular cars to be ever produced.
• Herbie made his first appearance in “The Love Bug”,which released in 1968, and was one of the most successful Walt Disney Films.
- Ferdinand Porsche, a design engineer who first created the Volkswagen but never created a car carrying his name. That was left to his son, Ferry, to accomplish.
- Charles Goodyear accidentally discovered the rubber vulcanizing process. He patented the process, but could not come up with any practical uses for it and died penniless in 1860. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was named after him.
- Goodrich was a company that was started in 1896. It also has many firsts to its credit:
• First synthetic rubber tire
• First tubeless tire
• First American-made radial tire
• First space saver spare
• First “run flat” tire
- The first car to include anti-lock brakes was the 1966 Jensen FF which came equipped with the Dunlop Maxaret anti-lock braking system (originally developed for use on aircrafts).
- In 1999, the two-door Honda Insight became the first commercially available hybrid gasoline-electric car in the United States. The Insight won numerous awards (including International Engine of the Year) and earned EPA mileage ratings of 61 mpg in the city and 70 mpg on the highway, making it the world's most fuel-efficient car.
- The International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum is situated in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
- Rear-view mirrors were made standard equipment on production cars only in 1916.
- Model T Ford offered the largest engine in 1908.
- James Watt built the first engine crank in 1782.
- RACING FLAG COLOURS AND MEANINGS
- Checkered Flag: Signifies the end of the practice session, qualification attempt, or race. The race leader is declared the winner.
- Green Flag: Signals the start of the practice session, qualification attempt, or race. It also signals all restarts after a caution or red-flag period.
- White Flag: Displayed when the leader starts the final lap of the race. During qualifications, signals that the driver has started final lap of the qualification attempt.
- Royal Blue Flag: The “passing flag” signals slower cars to yield passage to the Diagonally faster traffic.
- Red Flag: Signals that the race has to stop immediately, regardless of position of cars on the track.
- Black Flag: Directs a driver to proceed to the pits on the next lap as a penalty for not abiding by the race laws or the instructions of race officials.
- Yellow Flag: The “caution flag” signals hazardous conditions on the track, and all cars must slow immediately, they must maintain the same position they held when the yellow flag was waved, and they must follow track safety vehicles until the green flag is displayed. During a qualification session, a qualification attempt is halted.
- WORLD RECORD OF CAR PARADES
- A total of 107 BMW coupé cars took part in a parade organized by the BMW Coupé Club Nederland (BCCN) at The Hague, Netherlands, on April 25, 2004.
- A total of 125 Ferrari cars took part in a parade at Shatin Racecourse, Hong Kong, on February 29, 2004 at an event in aid of the Po Leung Kuk charity's Child Sponsorship Program.
- A total of 249 Mazda MX-5 cars took part in a parade organized by Mazda (New Zealand) at Alexandra Park, Auckland, New Zealand on October 9, 2005.
- The largest parade of Fiat cars was one of 220 Fiat 126s arranged by the 126 Fan Slovakia club in Zvolen, Slovakia, on June 26, 2004.
- FAMOUS CARS
- The Aston Martin in the James Bond movie “Goldfinger” is, without question, the most famous of all Bond cars, with gizmos and gadgets that probably no other has ever matched. The car in question was a silverbirch 1963 Aston Martin DB5 from their plant in England.
- The Batmobile was a custom-made Futura. It was originally the creation of George Barris. The car was customized in 3 weeks, was 23 feet long (7 meters) and the drive train had to be extended eleven inches to compensate for the unusual length.
- The first ever land-speed record was ostensibly established in 1898 by Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat of France who drove an electric car (in Acheres near Paris) at a speed of 39.24 miles per hour.
- The Bluebird was the first car built strictly for breaking land speed record. On Feb 4, 1927 - Malcolm Campbell of England drove the Napier-Campbell Bluebird to 174.883 mph.
- The Thrust SSC, driven by Andy Green and owned by Richard Noble, was the first land based vehicle to break the sound barrier on October 15th 1997, with a two way average of 763.035 mph.
- In 1910, magician Harry Houdini was the first solo pilot to fly a plane in Australia. He taught himself to drive an automobile just so he could drive out to the airfield - he never drove again!
