Portal:Cars
Wikipedia portal for content related to Cars / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Cars Portal![]() A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people, not cargo. The French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built the first steam-powered road vehicle in 1769, while the Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz designed and constructed the first internal combustion-powered automobile in 1808. The modern car—a practical, marketable automobile for everyday use—was invented in 1886, when the German inventor Carl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Commercial cars became widely available during the 20th century. One of the first cars affordable by the masses was the Ford Model T, begun in 1908, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were rapidly adopted in the US, where they replaced horse-drawn carriages. In Europe and other parts of the world, demand for automobiles did not increase until after World War II. The car is considered an essential part of the developed economy. Cars have controls for driving, parking, passenger comfort, and a variety of lamps. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, making them progressively more complex. These include rear-reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, and in-car entertainment. Most cars in use in the early 2020s are propelled by an internal combustion engine, fueled by the combustion of fossil fuels. Electric cars, which were invented early in the history of the car, became commercially available in the 2000s and are predicted to cost less to buy than petrol-driven cars before 2025. The transition from fossil fuel-powered cars to electric cars features prominently in most climate change mitigation scenarios, such as Project Drawdown's 100 actionable solutions for climate change. (Full article...)
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/The_2012_Fast_500_and_VC_of_the_Year_Awards.jpg/320px-The_2012_Fast_500_and_VC_of_the_Year_Awards.jpg)
Jeffrey Brian Straubel (born December 20, 1975) is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He spent 15 years at Tesla, as chief technical officer until moving to an advisory role in July 2019. In 2023, he was elected to the company's board of directors.
In 2017, Straubel founded and became the CEO of Redwood Materials, Inc., working on creating battery materials and products for lithium-ion batteries out of recycled batteries. (Full article...)- 1953 — Chevrolet Corvette production begins
- 1956 — Alfredo "Dino" Ferrari dies
- 1969 — The last of over 4.2 million cars to carry the Rambler name produced at American Motors' Kenosha assembly line.
- 1992 — Production of Chrysler Corporation's LH cars begins in Bramalea, Ontario, Canada
- 2000 — Ford Motor Company officially takes ownership of Land Rover
- 2006 — Production of the Dodge Ram SRT10 Viper-powered super-pickup ends.
Did you know...
- ...that the racing version of the Dauer 962 Le Mans, winner of 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans, is a roadcar converted from a Porsche 962 racecar, which dominated Le Mans, Group C and IMSA during the 1980s.
- ...that the 25 Millionth VW Golf rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg in March 2007. The first Golf started production in 1974, 33 years later the 1.4 litre TSI version became the 25 Millionth car.
- ...that the nearly identical Ford Model T engines were produced for exactly 12,000 days
- ...that the first production turbocharged cars were General Motors' A-body 1962 Chevrolet Corvair and Oldsmobile F-85?
- ...that Jeep introduced the 1993 Grand Cherokee and 2007 Wrangler in the same way — by driving them through a plate glass window?
- ...that a small number of Renault 20s, badged as Dacia 2000, were made in the 1980s by Dacia in Romania for Romanian communist dignitaries of that time?
- ...that the Autobianchi Primula was the Fiat's first automobile with the front-wheel drive, transverse engine setup and rack and pinion steering?
- ...that the Plymouth Sundance is a liftback, even though the outside appearance might suggest that it is a sedan?
Selected quote of the day
To Users, Agents, Importers, Dealers and Manufacturers of Gasolene Automobiles:
United States Letters Patent No. 549,160, granted to George B. Selden, November 5, 1895, controls broadly the commercial forms of gasolene automobiles. ... Both the Basic Selden patent and all other patents owned as aforesaid will be enforced against all infringers.
—1904 advertisement by the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers exhorting compliance with the Selden patent
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General images
- Image 1Stuttgart, a cradle of the car with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach working there at the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft and place of the modern day headquarters of Mercedes-Benz Group and Porsche (from Car)
- Image 2A Chevrolet Suburban extended-length SUV weighs 3,300 kilograms (7,200 lb) (gross weight). (from Car)
- Image 3The original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first modern car, built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept (from Car)
- Image 6Fiat 4 HP, the first car model produced by Italian manufacturer Fiat in 1899 (from History of the automobile)
- Image 7A Stanley Steamer racecar in 1903. In 1906, a similar Stanley Rocket set the world land speed record at 205.5 km/h (127.7 mph) at Daytona Beach Road Course. (from History of the automobile)
- Image 81924 Doble Model E (from History of the automobile)
- Image 9Cugnot's 1771 fardier à vapeur, as preserved at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris (from Car)
- Image 10In the Ford Model T the left-side hand lever sets the rear wheel parking brakes and puts the transmission in neutral. The lever to the right controls the throttle. The lever on the left of the steering column is for ignition timing. The left foot pedal changes the two forward gears while the centre pedal controls reverse. The right pedal is the brake. (from Car)
- Image 13A Tesla Model Y electric car, the world's best-selling car in the first and second quarters of 2023. (from History of the automobile)
- Image 14The Selden Road-Engine (from History of the automobile)
- Image 15A car being assembled in a factory (from Car)
- Image 19The second Marcus car of 1888 (from History of the automobile)
- Image 21Model-T Ford car parked near the Geelong Art Gallery at its launch in Australia in 1915 (from History of the automobile)
- Image 23Ford Motor Company automobile assembly line in the 1920s (from Car)
- Image 24The Ford Model T (foreground) and Volkswagen Beetle (background) are among the most mass-produced car models in history. (from History of the automobile)
- Image 27A replica of Richard Trevithick's 1801 road locomotive 'Puffing Devil' (from History of the automobile)
- Image 28Car exhaust gas is one type of pollution
- Image 29Cugnot's steam wagon, the second (1771) version (from History of the automobile)
- Image 31Trucks' share of US vehicles produced, has tripled since 1975. Though vehicle fuel efficiency has increased within each category, the overall trend toward less efficient types of vehicles has offset some of the benefits of greater fuel economy and reductions in pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. Without the shift towards SUVs, energy use per unit distance could have fallen 30% more than it did from 2010 to 2022. (from Car)
- Image 341954 Plymouth Savoy Station Wagon, one of the first US all-metal station wagons (from History of the automobile)
- Image 35Road congestion is an issue in many major cities (pictured is Chang'an Avenue in Beijing). (from Car)
- Image 361959 Morris Mini-Minor (from History of the automobile)
- Image 381885-built Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first modern car—a practical, marketable automobile for everyday use (from History of the automobile)
- Image 441946 GAZ-M20 Pobeda, one of the first mass-produced cars with pontoon design (from History of the automobile)
- Image 45Result of a serious car collision (from Car)
- Image 47The weight of the low battery stabilises the car. This is a dual-motor, four-wheel-drive layout but many cars only have one motor. (from Car)
- Image 48The German Flocken Elektrowagen of 1888, perhaps the first electric car in the world (from History of the automobile)
- Image 50The first automobile in Japan, a French Panhard-Levassor, in 1898 (from History of the automobile)
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