PORTAL:CARS

The Cars Portal

An electric car charging station at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This station is run by Petrobras and uses solar energy.

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.

French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built the first steam-powered road vehicle in 1769, while French-born 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 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 1908 Model T, 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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Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

The Brabham BT19 /ˈbræbəm/ is a Formula One racing car designed by Ron Tauranac for the British Brabham team. The BT19 competed in the 1966 and 1967 Formula One World Championships and was used by Australian driver Jack Brabham to win his third World Championship in 1966. The BT19, which Brabham referred to as his "Old Nail", was the first car bearing its driver's name to win a World Championship race.

The car was initially conceived in 1965 for a 1.5-litre (92-cubic inch) Coventry Climax engine, but never raced in this form. For the 1966 Formula One season the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) doubled the limit on engine capacity to 3 litres (183 cu in). Australian company Repco developed a new V8 engine for Brabham's use in 1966, but a disagreement between Brabham and Tauranac over the latter's role in the racing team left no time to develop a new car to handle it. Instead, the existing BT19 chassis was modified for the job. ( Full article...)

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A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is a type of sports prototype race car used in various races and championships, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The technical requirements for an LMP include bodywork covering all mechanical elements of the car. there are two classes within Le Mans Prototypes, designated LMP2 and LMP3.

While not as fast as open-wheel Formula One cars around a track, LMP1s were the fastest closed-wheel racing cars used in circuit racing. Le Mans Prototypes are considered a class above production-based grand tourer cars, which compete alongside them in sports car racing. Later LMP1 designs included hybrid cars that use electric motors to assist acceleration. ( Full article...)

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Michelle Christensen is a U.S. car designer. She was Acura's first female exterior designer. Since 2005 Christensen has worked for Acura and was the lead designer of the second generation Honda NSX. ( Full article...)

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On this day April 28

1876 — Nicola Romeo is born

1916 — Ferruccio Lamborghini is born

1939 — Powel Crosley Jr. unveils the Crosley minicar at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

2006 — Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai, is arrested for embezzlement

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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This type of technology, unheard of 10 or 15 years ago, is real. And it's coming. It's just another step toward the fully automated driving experience. Which is anathema to those of us who are drivers' drivers who are suckers for the thrill of controlling a speed machine.

But that's why people like us will always have motorcycles!

— Bob Lutz on the possibilities of future automated automobiles

Topics

General images

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

Image 11958 Lancia Appia (from History of the automobile)
Image 21929 Alfa Romeo 6C (from History of the automobile)
Image 3In 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 4A replica of Richard Trevithick's 1801 road locomotive 'Puffing Devil' (from History of the automobile)
Image 5 Ransom E. Olds founded Olds Motor Vehicle Company (Oldsmobile) in 1897. (from Car)
Image 6 Volkswagen Beetle (from History of the automobile)
Image 7 Audi A4 daytime running lights (from Car)
Image 8The Toyota Corolla is the world's bestselling nameplate. (from History of the automobile)
Image 9 Road congestion is an issue in many major cities (pictured is Chang'an Avenue in Beijing). (from Car)
Image 10Car exhaust gas is one type of pollution
Image 11Cugnot's 1771 fardier à vapeur, as preserved at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris (from Car)
Image 12 Panel for fuses and circuit breakers (from Car)
Image 13The Vélib' in Paris, France, is the largest bikesharing system outside China. (from Car)
Image 141974 Citroën DS (from History of the automobile)
Image 15 Bertha Benz, the first long distance driver (from Car)
Image 16 Fiat 4 HP, the first car model produced by Italian manufacturer Fiat in 1899 (from History of the automobile)
Image 17The Selden Road-Engine (from History of the automobile)
Image 181885-built Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first modern car—a practical, marketable automobile for everyday use (from History of the automobile)
Image 19Result of a serious car collision (from Car)
Image 20A Chevrolet Suburban extended-length SUV weighs 3,300 kilograms (7,200 lb) (gross weight). (from Car)
Image 21A 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 221946 GAZ-M20 Pobeda, one of the first mass-produced cars with pontoon design (from History of the automobile)
Image 231954 Plymouth Savoy Station Wagon, one of the first US all-metal station wagons (from History of the automobile)
Image 24 Stuttgart, 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 25Model-T Ford car parked near the Geelong Art Gallery at its launch in Australia in 1915 (from History of the automobile)
Image 26 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A (from History of the automobile)
Image 271959 Morris Mini-Minor (from History of the automobile)
Image 282011 Nissan Leaf electric car (from Car)
Image 29A 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 30A car being assembled in a factory (from Car)
Image 31Cugnot's steam wagon, the second (1771) version (from History of the automobile)
Image 32 Carl Benz, the inventor of the modern car (from Car)
Image 33A robotic Volkswagen Passat shown at Stanford University is a driverless car. (from Car)
Image 34The Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car of all-time. (from Car)
Image 35Steam machine of Verbiest, in 1678 ( Ferdinand Verbiest) (from Car)
Image 36Scaled model of the second Marcus car of 1875 (from History of the automobile)
Image 37The Ford Model T (foreground) and Volkswagen Beetle (background) are among the most mass-produced car models in history. (from History of the automobile)
Image 38The German Flocken Elektrowagen of 1888, perhaps the first electric car in the world (from History of the automobile)
Image 39The original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first modern car, built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept (from Car)
Image 40 Rolls-Royce Phantom III (from History of the automobile)
Image 41The Präsident automobile (from History of the automobile)
Image 42Ford Motor Company automobile assembly line in the 1920s (from Car)
Image 43Trucks' 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 441926 Bugatti Type 35 (from History of the automobile)
Image 451924 Doble Model E (from History of the automobile)
Image 46The Flocken Elektrowagen was the first four-wheeled electric car (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 48 Gurgel Supermini (from History of the automobile)
Image 491929 Austin Seven (from History of the automobile)
Image 50The first automobile in Japan, a French Panhard-Levassor, in 1898 (from History of the automobile)