All About Cars
By: Quentin Cetnar
Some of the First Cars
Some people really wonder when the first car was actually made. A lot of people who don’t really know much about the history of cars think the Ford Model-T was the first car made. Well, they are mistaken because the first car was actually made over a hundred years earlier.
The first car was made by a French engineer by the name of Nicholas Cugnot. It was actually made in 1769 according to facts. Many people shortly after tried to replicate Cugnot's design, however those were steam engines, which were heavy, inefficient, and dirty. Unfortunadently, that design didn't last very long. However, a revolutionary design came out over a hundred years later.
When Cars Started To Become Common And Affordable
When cars really started to become practical was when the gas-powered, light, efficient, small and more powerful internal-combustion engine came in to place. This idea was brought to cars by Gotlieb Daimler and Karl Benz and was put into their first car in about 1889 according to facts from the book. Cars at that time were very expensive because they had to be custom build for your purposes and took a long time making it a pretty lengthy process.
Henry Ford, born in 1863 and died in 1947 was one of the people who made cars common and affordable. He started with the known gas engine, orginally by Karl Benz and Gotlieb Daimler in his car except he did things a little differently. Rather than building a car in one place with only a couple of workers, (which was a lengthy process if you didn't work non-stop) Henry ford build his cars on the convayer belt starting with the frame, which down the cionvayer belt the cars moved, everyone had a specific job such as putting the wheels on, or putting the doors on or even a really small job such as putting the door handels on or puting a grille in. This process called the assembly line started being used in 1908 on Ford's first mass produced car, the Model-T also known as the Tin Lizzie. This was a cheap, good qualiy and an affordable car that almost everyone could afford. At one point, over half the cars in the us were Model-T's. The assembly line process is still being used today!
How Cars Have Changed Over the Years
It wasn't until the 1950's and 1960's that cars started to split in to the sporty, small and fun and the big, luxurious, fancy cars. This was slightly before the start of Muscle Cars in the mid to late 60's. Muscle cars were mid-sized cars that had A TON of horsepower and were fast. All of the same luxury stayed began to pack big engines into their heavy cars. This made the cars get horrible gas milage however, at that time nobody cared at that time, however, that changed very quickly in the 1970's when there was a huge oil crisis. This was the downfall of all muscle cars. This affected all muscle cars and killed the reputation of them. Regulations were put on the cars to make emmisions better on cars. This made all cars dogishly slow. Throught the 80's though, cars started to build up more horsepower and luxury cars were not affected as much, as they were always on the slower side. From the 90's to the present, cars have just been improving all around from luxury to muscle, cars have just been getting better and better since then. All kinds of cars are better than ever and rapidly improving.
Different Car Events
Many people know car racing is a sport for car enthusiasts but what they don’t know is there is a lot more car events out there that usually aren't nation-wide televised. Some examples of car events include just regular track racing, drift events, car meets, rallys, and sometimes, illegal street racing. So to start out, there are two types of track racing. Drag acing is when people build out their cars specificly to go faster down a track in a straight line. Drag races usually tend to be 1/4 miles long people compete to cross the finish line and last only about 9-15 second, depending on the car. Then, there's also track racing, which also takes place on pavement and usually tends to go in an oval or circle and can have twisty turns. People here build out their cars for taking turns hard rather than going ina straight line. Track racers usally tend to have different suspension setups than drag cars and most of the time, they have different cars built more for turning hard. Racing in general is not an easy thing, although it looks easy. "I love the competition and the satisfaction of winning but driving the car is so exciting." Says Rick Kelly, a professional race car driver. Rallys are basically races on dirt tracks that take place with cars that tent to be smaller compact cars. Drift events are not exactly races but a way to show off skill. They work like someone takes a car and swings the rear end out while the front wheels are turned the complete other way around a turn (opposite lock) and they do all of that while they are sliding. As you can tell, there a lot of different types of car events and amazingly, they all happen through the tracks and even the streets around the world.