Happy Birthday, Car!

By Marty Padgett January 29th, 2008

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Mercedes-Benz sent us a lovely card today reminding us that today, January 29th, is what they consider the birthday of the automobile. Of course we normally send out our own salutations by e-card. It must have been lost in the spam filter. We swear.

You probably don’t remember it like yesterday, but in 1886 Karl Benz applied for a patent for a “vehicle with gas-engine operation.” Karl’s “Motorwagen” had a four-stroke gas engine, three wheels, front-wheel steering and the name Tri-Car. That vehicle is now located in a museum in Stuttgart, has a top speed of 10 miles per hour, 0.75 horsepower and displaced 58 cubic inches.

Across town that same year, Gottlieb Daimler’s motorized carriage also appeared in 1886, making it the first four-wheeled automobile with an internal-combustion engine on the planet. Add Daimler plus Benz and...well, you don’t get Chrysler, that’s for sure.

In case you’re updating iCal, Karl’s birthday is November 25. We’ll remind the Benz PR team to update their Amazon wish list accordingly. Meanwhile, please to enjoy this highly interactive tour of the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart, with a warning: it’s so Flash-heavy you’ll think you’re in Central Park instead of Swabia.

Posted in : 2008, Classics, Just for Fun, Mercedes-Benz, Shoppers |

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7 Responses to “Happy Birthday, Car!”

If you look at your picture you can see that the Motorwagen is not a front wheel drive.

Please explain how the car pictured could be front wheel drive. It certainly appears to be rear wheel drive — unless it is driven with the neck craned rearward and steered with a single rear wheel!

Doh! That was a stupid moment. I corrected it above - and I’m waiting on confirmation from Benz PR to see which car I viewed a few years back in a Benz museum. I believe it was Gottlieb Daimler’s car — it’s in a workshop on the grounds of his former home.

RE- BRANDING - RE- BADGEING - HOW MANY NAMES DID THEY GIVE THIS SO CALLED FIRST AUTOMOBILE.

WHEN THE NAME AUTOMOBILE[arrived]- [IT] IS A MARKETING CONTRIVANCE! IN THE FIRST DAMN PLACE.
THEY HAD ALL BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH CYCLES PRIOR TO THIS AUTOMOBILE MARKETING SCHEME!. “”"” QUADRA-CYCLES”" IT DID NOT GAIN ANY ACCEPTANCE WITH THE CONSUMING PUBLIC!. HENCE THE SCHEME AUTOMOBILE!.

This {what is pictured} is one of many incarnates(re-name*re-badge-we have a need to be first!) for the company that would become Daimler-Benz.

It is a “MOTORIZED” some-thing or OTHER???. What is!, still undetermined?, one in which the jury shall never return!.

Calling it the first automobile, is what!, it really is, nothing more nothing less!.

Did you know that the reason Benz built the vehicle with only a single front wheel is because he couldn’t figure out how to get two front wheels to turn?

It has front wheel steering, not front wheel drive.

It seems that I’m a little bit late, but, happy birthday Cars!