On the first of the year, the first car:

The 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen

http://files.americar.de/images/2011...-wagen-2-2.jpg

What qualifies this as the first car? I thought there were some earlier steam powered non-track riding vehicles before this? Is it the ICE engine or producing more then just one of a model?

A couple of things: This was the first gasoline-powered car, but more importantly, it was the first of this basic design. Cars for the next 20 years would look--and work--basically like this.

Look at a 1903 Curved Dash Olds, for example. It is basically this. Benz patented this in Germany, much later, the Seldon Patent would ape this design in U.S. registry. Seldon would later sue Henry Ford for patent infringement.

To your point, the Patent Wagen wasn't the first off-rail self-powered conveyance, it was the first that could be considered a real (practical, replicable) car.

I may be wrong about something: The Patent Wagen may not have been the first gasoline-powered car, it was the first "Otto-Cycle" powered car.

Otto Cycle internal combustion, or 4-cycle" engines are basically still what powers most cars today. Much, much refined, of course.

Diesel and 2-cycle are the best-known alternatives to 4-cycle.

Fancy riding around on that thing.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Oliveloaf

A couple of things: This was the first gasoline-powered car, but more importantly, it was the first of this basic design. Cars for the next 20 years would look--and work--basically like this.

Look at a 1903 Curved Dash Olds, for example. It is basically this. Benz patented this in Germany, much later, the Seldon Patent would ape this design in U.S. registry. Seldon would later sue Henry Ford for patent infringement.

To your point, the Patent Wagen wasn't the first off-rail self-powered conveyance, it was the first that could be considered a real (practical, replicable) car.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Oliveloaf

I may be wrong about something: The Patent Wagen may not have been the first gasoline-powered car, it was the first "Otto-Cycle" powered car.

Otto Cycle internal combustion, or 4-cycle" engines are basically still what powers most cars today. Much, much refined, of course.

Diesel and 2-cycle are the best-known alternatives to 4-cycle.

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Cool, that all makes sense. Most of the time with statements of the first of anything it helps to know the parameters. I was watching the military channel top 10 fighting ships and they listed the Nimitz class of carriers as #2 but in talking about it they seemed to be ignoring the Enterprise CVN-65. But I realized they were not counting the "Big-E" as she was a single ship and not a part of a class of ships. I think there were 10 Nimitz class carriers in the end.

The Iowa Class Battleships were rightfully #1 BTW. They had an enormous life span, were probably the best overall Battleships when built be #2 in armor, #1 in speed and their 16" guns were extremely rapid fire compared to the 18" guns of the Yamato and Musashi which took a big hit for having pretty much no tine of service.

Very cool! Inspired by Cracked, I'd been reading about the history of electric vehicles the other day, which came a few years after the Patent Wagen and yet still much earlier than I had known.

Fedinand Porsche built this crazy electric thing way, way back in 1901:

http://retrothing.typepad.com/.a/6a0...a432970b-800wi

Those are motors in the center of each wheel. This thing was reportedly ridiculously heavy.