13 Fun Facts About Cars That You Had No Clue About
Source: Pixabay
Cars are an everyday part of many people’s lives, but there are many unheard-of stories about these essential forms of transportation. We’ve compiled a list of fun car facts to make you say, “I didn’t know that!” Read and enjoy.
1. Volvo Gave Away the Seatbelt Patent for Free
Few automotive devices have helped save lives like seatbelts, which a Volvo engineer invented in 1959. The company so believed in the value of seatbelts it offered the patent for free to other automakers, and a de facto standard in the industry was born. In the U.S., a 1966 law mandated that all 1968 and later cars come equipped with seatbelts. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), exactly 329,715 lives have been saved from 1960 to 2012. In 2016 alone, the devices have helped save almost 15,000 lives in the U.S.
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2. Some Cars (or Their Drivers) Get More Speeding Tickets
Perhaps this shouldn’t be included in our list of fun facts about cars, but some vehicles have a greater tendency to get pulled over for speeding. Insurance marketplace Insurify dug into the details to uncover the surprising results. And there’s not a Chevrolet Corvette or Ford Mustang in sight. Driver’s behind the wheel of a Subaru WRX, Scion FR-S, and Volkswagen GTI are the most likely to receive a citation for ignoring the speed limit. Rounding out the top ten of most-ticketed vehicles are the Hyundai Genesis Coupe, Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, Dodge RAM 2500, Dodge Dart, Infiniti G37, and Hyundai Veloster.
3. Who Received the First Speeding Ticket?
And speaking of speeding tickets…a British driver, Walter Arnold, is widely acknowledged to be the recipient of the world’s first speeding ticket on January 28, 1896. The infraction? Racing his horseless carriage through a quiet village near Kent, England, at the blistering pace of 8 MPH (the speed limit was 2 MPH). The U.S. followed suit in 1899, with the first speeding ticket in the country being issued to New York City cab driver Jacob German. His 12 MPH pace in an electric car (yes, electric vehicles existed back then) bested the 8 MPH posted speed limit.
4. The First Electric Porsche Dates Back More Than A Century
While the sleek Taycan sport sedan gets credit as the first modern all-electric Porsche, the original gasless Porsche goes back to the late 1800s. While working for another automaker, a young Ferdinand Porsche revealed the all-electric Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton in 1898. He dubbed it the P-1 to signify the first Porsche-designed vehicle. The car could reach 22 MPH and travel about 50 miles on a charge.
5. Cars Helped the Environment, Sort Of
Automobiles came to prominence in the early 1900s as automakers touted the advantages of not having to deal with gigantic amounts of horse manure. At the start of the 20th century, New York City had a horse population of 100,000 that produced 2.5 million pounds of waste each day and had to be picked up and disposed of.
THE BEST CARS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS
Whether you’re squeezing into a tight campus parking spot or hauling ten loads of laundry back home, these best cars for college students will get you, your friends, and your stuff where you’re going.
6. World Record for Most-Driven Car
Volvo scores another place in our fun facts about cars list thanks to a 1966 Volvo 1800 S. In 2014, American Irv Gordon set a Guinness World Record when his red Volvo coupe reached 3,039,122 miles, the equivalent of driving around the world almost 120 times. As a brand ambassador for the Swedish brand, Gordon has driven his Volvo across Europe and the U.S. He died in 2018 at age 78 while traveling in China.
7. The Origin of Herbie the Love Bug’s #53 Markings
Another memorable vehicle from the same era is the 1963 Volkswagen Beetle dubbed Herbie, which starred in the 1968 Disney movie The Love Bug and sequel films. Emblazoned on several areas of the car is a “number” 53 that helped Herbie stand out in traffic. Yet none of the movies addressed the origin of this designation. According to IMDB, producer Bill Walsh was a diehard fan of legendary Los Angeles Dodger player Don Drysdale, who wore number 53 on his uniform.
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Unless you’re a mechanic or super-dedicated car enthusiast, you might not know much about the brakes on your car. How long do they typically last? How often should you replace your brakes? We’ve got answers
8. James Bond’s First Car Wasn’t An Aston Martin
Ask even a casual James Bond fan about the fictional spy’s most noteworthy car, and the likely answer is the iconic Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger, the franchise’s third film that debuted in 1964. However, Ian Flemming’s pre-movie novels depict Bond behind the wheel of a supercharged Bentley R-Type Continental, arguably giving this high-roller vehicle status as the character’s first noteworthy ride.
9. A Movie Car That Falls Short In Real Life
The DeLorean DMC-12 from the Back to the Future movies has the dubious distinction of being far more capable on screen than on the road. Its flux capacitor helped Doc Brown and Marty McFly time travel when reaching 88 MPH, but the real car had a speedometer that maxed out at 85 MPH (thanks to economy-minded federal law). Plus, the real DMC-12 left the factory with a wimpy 130-horsepower engine that left much to be desired regarding performance.
10. The Chevrolet Corvette Model Year That You Can’t Buy
Try searching for a 1983 Chevrolet Corvette for sale, and you won’t find any. Chevrolet was gearing up to release the all-new fourth-generation (C4) Corvette as a 1983 model, but engineering delays pushed production back a full year. Chevy built some testing and marketing examples wearing 1983 tags to avoid breaking the streak, but the public couldn’t buy these. A single 1983 Corvette remains; it’s on display at the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky.
11. KITT Could Have Taken A Different Direction
Another example of a car stealing the show is KITT, the sentient Pontiac from the Knight Rider TV series of the 1980s. This know-it-all black sports car could give ChatGPT a lesson or two, but it was never supposed to be a Trans Am. The producers had intended the car to be a shiny and new C4 Corvette, but none were available in September 1982. The rest is history.
12. One Person Created Cadillac and Lincoln
While the luxury divisions of General Motors and Ford are archrivals, they have one man in common. Henry Leland. Out of the ashes of Henry Ford’s first car company (that failed), Leland created Cadillac in 1902, which was acquired by General Motors in 1917. That same year, Leland created Lincoln Motor Company to build aircraft engines for World War I. Following the end of the conflict, Lincoln switched to luxury car production, but the company folded by 1922. Ironically, Ford acquired Lincoln.
13. History’s Best-Selling Cars
We close out this collection of fun facts about cars with a very brief look at the most popular vehicles ever sold. With 15 million built from 1908 to 1927, the Ford Model T held the record until being surpassed by the Volkswagen Beetle in 1972. However, those records fall far short of the current sales champ, the Toyota Corolla. As of 2021, more than 50 million examples have hit the streets.
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