Portal:Cars

The Cars Portal

The Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car of all-time.

A car (or automobile) is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transportation. Most definitions of cars say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than goods.

Cars came into global use during the 20th century, and developed economies depend on them. The year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the modern car when German inventor Karl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Cars became widely available in the early 20th century. One of the first cars accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. 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.

Cars have controls for driving, parking, passenger comfort, and a variety of lights. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, making them progressively more complex, but also more reliable and easier to operate. These include rear-reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, and in-car entertainment. Most cars in use in the 2010s 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 gasoline cars before 2025. The transition from fossil fuels 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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2006 Porsche RS Spyder - Porsche Museum

The RS Spyder (Type 9R6) is a racing car designed by Porsche in conjunction with Penske to compete in Le Mans Prototype Class 2 (LMP2) racing. The car takes its name from the legendary Porsche 550 Spyder of the 1950s (combined with Porsche's common "RennSport" (lit.: racing sports) designation). The car marked Porsche's first return to the top level of sports prototype racing since the firm abandoned its Porsche LMP in 1999.

The RS Spyder made its debut in the final event of the 2005 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at Laguna Seca winning its class. Since then the RS Spyder has won the ALMS LMP2 Championship in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and took class honours at Le Mans in 2008 and 2009. The outright victory at the 2008 12 Hours of Sebring was the first major victory for Porsche in endurance racing for five years and it was also the first time in 14 years that the non-premier class won the 12 Hours of Sebring overall. Regulation changes for the 2011 season rendered the RS Spyder obsolete but the car has left a legacy in the Porsche 918 Spyder, which uses a development of the RS Spyder's engine and the Porsche 919 Hybrid which carried Porsche's racing program on into the LMP1 category starting in 2014. (Full article...)

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1983 DeLorean

The DMC DeLorean (often referred to simply as the "DeLorean") is a sports car and was the only automobile manufactured by John DeLorean's DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) for the American market from 1981 to 1983. The car was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and stood out for its gull-wing doors and brushed stainless-steel outer body panels. It became widely known for its disappointing lack of power and performance, which did not match the expectations created by its looks and price tag. Though its production was short-lived, the car was made memorable through its appearances as the time machine in the Back to the Future media franchise after 1985.

Throughout production, the car kept its basic styling, although minor revisions were made to the hood and wheels. The first production car was completed on January 21, 1981. About 9,000 DeLoreans were made before production halted in late December 1982 shortly after DMC filed for bankruptcy. (Full article...)

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Mini Mercedes-Benz C-Class (W205) Mini Moke Volkswagen Beetle Le Mans Prototype Mercedes-Benz BMW General Motors Chrysler Ford Motor Company Maserati Lamborghini Volkswagen Hyundai Motor Company Pickup truck Electric car Buick Toyota Honda Ford Taurus Autobianchi Primula Lancia Flaminia Sedan (automobile)

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1928 Model A Ford

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Jeffrey Brian ("J. B.") Straubel (born December 20, 1975) is an American businessman. J.B. spent 15 years at Tesla, as Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer until moving to an advisory role in July 2019.

In 2017, Straubel established Redwood Materials, working on the recycling of lithium-ion batteries and e-waste. (Full article...)

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Bertha Benz Nikolaus Otto Michelle Christensen Edward T. Welburn Leilani Munter Elwood Haynes Karl-Gottfried Nordmann Henry Ford

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On this day February 27

1911 — Cadillac produces the first vehicle with an electric starter

1934 — Ralph Nader is born in Winsted, Connecticut

2003 — The Acura MDX is introduced

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Selected quote of the day

We could remain independent while we had a fighting chance. Emissions and new Japanese competition showed us we didn't.

—Sir John Egan, explaining the sale of Jaguar Cars to Ford

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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?

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General images

The following are images from various car-related articles on Wikipedia.

The Vélib' in Paris, France is the largest bikesharing system outside China
Cugnot's steam wagon, the second (1771) version
Cugnot's 1771 fardier à vapeur, as preserved at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France
1958 Lancia Appia
The Toyota Corolla is the world's best-selling nameplate.
Gurgel Supermini
A Chevrolet Suburban extended-length SUV weighs 3,300 kg (7,200 lb) (gross weight)
LED daytime running lights on an Audi A4
The first automobile in Japan, a French Panhard-Levassor, in 1898
Mass production at a Toyota plant in the 1950s
German Flocken Elektrowagen of 1888, perhaps the first electric car in the world
The Präsident automobile
Ransom E. Olds founded Olds Motor Vehicle Company (Oldsmobile) in 1897
Fiat 4 HP, the first car model produced by Italian manufacturer Fiat in 1899
The original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept
The Ford Model T (foreground) and Volkswagen Beetle (background) are among the most mass-produced car models in history.
1929 Austin Seven
Road congestion is an issue in many major cities. (pictured is Chang'an Avenue in Beijing)
Model-T Ford car parked near the Geelong Art Gallery at its launch in Australia in 1915
1885-built Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first car to go into production with an internal combustion engine
A Stanley Steamer racecar in 1903. In 1906, a similar Stanley Rocket set the world land speed record at 127.7 miles per hour (205.5 km/h) at Daytona Beach Road Course
1929 Alfa Romeo 6C
A robotic Volkswagen Passat shown at Stanford University is a driverless car
1927 Ford Model T
Armand Peugeot
Gustave Trouvé's tricycle, the first ever electric automobile to be shown in public
1946 GAZ-M20 Pobeda one of the first mass-produced cars with ponton design
The Nissan Leaf is an all-electric car launched in December 2010
1974 Citroën DS
Steam Machine Of Verbiest, In 1678. (Ferdinand Verbiest)
The Smart Fortwo car from 1998 to 2002, weighing 730 kg (1,610 lb)
Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903
Karl Benz, the inventor of the modern car
The Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car of all-time.
1954 Plymouth Savoy Station Wagon, one of the first U.S. all-metal station wagons
A replica of Richard Trevithick's 1801 road locomotive 'Puffing Devil'
Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A
1959 Morris Mini-Minor
Volkswagen Beetle
Bertha Benz, the first long distance driver
The second Marcus car of 1888 at the Technical Museum in Vienna
A car being assembled in a factory
Vehicles in use per country from 2001 to 2007. It shows the significant growth in BRIC.
Rolls-Royce Phantom III
Émile Levassor
Kiichiro Toyoda, president of the Toyota Motor Corporation 1941–1950
1926 Bugatti Type 35
1924 Doble Model E
The Selden Road-Engine
Result of a serious car collision
In 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.