Crazy car facts
Do you love cars? Or are you looking to impress your friends with a car fact or two? Either way, we’ve picked twelve of the craziest car facts that are sure to surprise!
1) You can reach the moon in less than a month by car
It might be surprising, but it’s true! If you were to drive straight up at 60mph, you’d be able to reach the moon in less than a month.
2) The inventor of cruise control was blind
After becoming blind following a car accident at age five, Ralph Teetor never stopped thinking about creating a way to keep a vehicle running at a constant speed. We now know it as cruise control, but that mechanism was originally introduced as the “Speedostat”.
3) Brake lights were invented in 1905
Before brake lights, drivers used hand signals to inform other drivers and pedestrians where they were going. But since this wasn’t effective after dark, the brake light was introduced and has become an essential requirement for all vehicles.
4) The first electric vehicle was created in 1832
Yes, electric vehicles might seem like a very recent invention, but the first EV was built in 1832 by Robert Anderson!
5) That “new car smell” is the result of harmful chemicals
The plastic and vinyl parts are coated in petroleum-based solvents, and car manufacturers are trying to find ways to eliminate the smell.
6) The Volkswagen Group owns 12 brands
As well as Volkswagen Passenger Cars, the German manufacturer also owns Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN.
7) There’s no patent on the seatbelt
Volvo is credited with introducing the seatbelt to the world. Because of how essential a seatbelt is to save lives in the event of a car crash, there is no patent so that it could be implemented into all vehicles by other car manufacturers.
8) History behind the wheel
No one knows how they were created, but the first wheels were found in Mesopotamia in 3500 B.C., but they weren’t originally used for transportation! It would be another 300 years before wheels would be used to move objects.
9) Da Vinci and the first car
There are drawings of the first car by Leonardo Da Vinci from 1478! If you’d like to see what it’d look like if it’d been built, there is a replica of the car in the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy.
10) Airbags are a fairly recent invention
This essential safety feature wasn’t introduced in cars until 1974!
11) The longest car in the world is a limousine
According to the Guinness World Records, a custom-built limousine is 100 metres long and even has a swimming pool and helicopter pad!
12) Dubai has the world’s fastest police car
Again, verified by the Guinness World Records, the city chose the Bugatti Veyron as its police car. A supercar that houses a 16-cylinder engine that produces 1,184bhp with a top speed of 253mph and reaches 0-60mph in two and a half seconds!
