The car is one of the most recognizeable inventions of the modern era. Without cars there would be no suburbs, car trips, endless drop-offs and pick-ups most parents are all to familiar with. Here are some fun facts about cars and their colorful past.
* The first cars did not have steering wheels. Drivers steered with a lever.
* The New York City Police Department used bicycles to pursue speeding motorists in 1898.
* The first speeding ticket was issued in 1902.
* In 1916, 55 percent of the cars in the world were Model T Fords, a record that has never been beaten.
* The first gas gauge appeared in cars in 1922.
* In 1923, 173 new inventions by women for cars had been reported. Among these inventions were a carburetor and an electric engine starter.
* The first car radio was invented in 1929.
* Buick introduced the first electric turn signals in 1938.
* The Peanuts characters were first animated in 1957 for a Ford Fairlaine automobile commercial.
* Most American car horns beep in the key of F.
* The automobile is the most recycled consumer product in the world today
Car fun Facts
Rolls-Royce facts
The first 10 hp Rolls-Royce was sold for £395...Today it is worth over £250,000
More than six out of ten of all Rolls-Royce Motor cars built are still roadworthy
At the Rolls-Royce factories in Crewe and London the cars are always referred to as Royces.
They are never called Rollers
The Rolls-Royce radiator grille is made entirely by hand and eye - no measuring instruments are used
It takes one man one day to make a Rolls-Royce radiator, and then five hours are spent polishing it
The Rolls -Royce radiator was not registered as a trademark until 1974
It takes over 800 man-hours to make the body of a Phantom VI
During the First World War Rolls-Royce made rifles
You will never open an ashtray in a modern Rolls-Royce and find a cigarette end.
It empties automatically
A Rolls-Royce does not break down. It 'fails to proceed.'
Notices have been hung around the factory bearing the legend: 'Beware silent cars.'
Even today every Rolls-Royce engine is completely hand built
The cooling capacity of the air-conditioning system in the Silver Spirit is equivalent to that of
30 domestic refrigerators
No one is certain who designed the Rolls-Royce radiator grille or the interlinked RR badge
The hydraulic tappets on Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars are given a natural finish
of a 16-millionth of an inch
The oldest known Rolls-Royce still on the road is the 1904 10hp owned by Mr Thomas Love Jr of
Scotland
Rolls-Royce did not make a complete car until after the Second World War. Before that they made only
chassis, the bodies being added by outside coachbuilders
Sir Henry Royce's first job was a newspaper delivery boy for W H Smith & Son Ltd
Sir Henry Royce was always known as 'R' at the factory. The practice of addressing people by their initials,
especially on written memorandums, is still continued at the factory
In 1949 an Italian owner, seeking permission to modify his Rolls-Royce, commissioned a seance to
call up Henry Royce's spirit. Rolls-Royce legend has it that the advice from beyond the veil was:
"Consult your authorised distributor"
Examine the coachline that extends the full length of the Silver Spirit, you may be surprised to learn that it is
applied by hand. This unerring line is 15' 6" long.
At one time, Rolls-Royce engines held World Speed Records in the Air, on Land and on Water,
simultaneously.
It is possible that Rolls-Royce Motors is the best known British company name in the World. Letters have
been received from remote corners of the globe addressed to the Royal Family, care of Rolls-Royce, England.
There are 27 Electric Motors in every Silver Spirit.
The Vicar of St Marys, Nantwich, took a Rolls-Royce into his church and blessed it, along with fruit &
vegetables at the Harvest Festival service. A member of the congregation remarked "It's going in for it's first service".
The badge on the Rolls-Royce was changed from Red to Black not, as popularly
believed to commemorate Henry Royce's death, but because Royce himself decided
Black was aesthetically more appropriate. Some customers complained that the red badge often clashed with the
colour of the car. The Prince of Wales was particularly outspoken on the subject.
Every piece of glass in a Silver Spirit is given a final polish with powdered pumice of a fineness normally used for polishing optical lenses
Just inside the main entrance to the offices at the Roll-Royce factory in Crewe, there is a bust of Henry Royce facing one of Charles Rolls. For many years the bust of Royce stood in No 1 shop at the Derby factory and contained his ashes, until they were sent to Alwalton church were Royce had been christened.
The 4 final polishings on some gearbox components was not done with jewellers rouge (which is too coarse) but fine ground oat husks
Although he designed some of the great aero engines of all time, Royce never travelled in an aircraft.
'I have only one regret' said Royce as he lay dying, 'that I have not worked harder.'
After singing the praises of Rolls-Royce Cars over tea with Henry Royce, an aristocratic lady asked,
as an afterthought, 'but Sir Henry, what would happen if the factory at Derby produced a bad car?'
Sir Henry answered,
"Madam. the man on the gate would not let it out of the works."
Royce left £112,000 in his will, mostly to his faithful nurse, Ethel Aubin.
Ever heard about Aeroplane Crossing ... ?
We have heard about railway crossing or bus crossing or even ship crossing under the bridges. But have u ever heard about Aeroplane crossing ... ?
See the picture where the vehicles wait for the aeroplane to cross the road. This is in Germany where the runway crosses a road.
Eco-car more efficient than light bulb
An eco-car that can travel the world using a fraction of the electricity it takes to power a light bulb has been unveiled by its British creators.
The hydrogen-powered Ech2o needs just 25 Watts -- the equivalent of less than two gallons of petrol -- to complete the 25,000-mile global trip, while emitting nothing more hazardous than water.
But with a top speed of 30mph, the journey would take more than a month to complete. Ech2o, built by British gas firm BOC, will bid to smash the world fuel efficiency record of over 10,000 miles per gallon at the Shell Eco Marathon.
The record is currently ... 5,385 km/per liter [12,900 mpg!]. John Carolin, BOC global director sustainable energy: "It sounds unbelievable how little power is used to keep the BOC Ech2o moving, but it demonstrates the impact of careful design and is a valuable lesson for car makers in the future.
Note: If these small test cars get over 10,000 miles per gallon, why aren't new cars getting at least 100 mpg?
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/07/04/eco.car
