17 Weird and Wonderful Car Facts You Need In Your Life!
In tribute to everyone’s favourite form of transportation, here are 17 weird and wonderful car facts you (probably) don’t know about.
- The world’s first speeding ticket was issued in 1902
How fast was the offending motorist travelling? A scandalous 45mph.
Old Car
- 1 in 4 cars on the UK’s road were made in China
Which is a lot, given that there are around 35 million cars in the UK.
- A modern Formula 1 car can drive upside down in a tunnel at 120mph
F1 cars produce around 3.5G while cornering, meaning they’ve enough aerodynamic downforce to drive upside down in a tunnel.
- 60 million cars are produced every year
That’s 165,000 a day, 6,875 an hour and 115 a minute — crazy right?
- 1 billion cars are currently in use around the world
Compared to the world’s population, that’s around one car for every seven people on Earth. Amazing.
traffic jams in the city, road, rush hour
- The average British driver will spend around 99 days of their life stuck in traffic
Sorry to be depressing, but it’s true. Our advice is to try not to think about it.
- It would take less than a month to get to the moon by car
That’s right — drive straight up at an average of 60mph, and you could get to the moon in under a month.
- The average car contains over 30,000 unique parts
When you think about it, it’s a miracle they don’t break down more often.
- 75% of all cars produced by Rolls Royce are still on the road
It seems Rolls Royce owners really love their cars.
Rolls Royce
- Volkswagen owns twelve well-known car brands from 7 European countries
Including Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commerical Vehicles, Scania and MAN.
- The first ever car accident occurred in 1891
This prompted the introduction of better safety equipment for drivers.
- The largest speeding fine ever produced was €1,000,000
This was levelled at a man in Sweden, who was clocked doing 180mph. In Sweden, speeding fines are proportionate to the amount someone earns.
- The world record for removing and replacing a car engine is 42 seconds
This record was set by mechanics working on a Ford Escort on 21 November, 1985.
Car engine
- The odds of dying in a car accident are around 1 in 5,000
Compare that to the odds of dying in a plane crash (1 in 11 million), and driving sounds pretty dangerous!
- The man who invented cruise control was blind
His name was Ralph Teetor, and he was inspired to invent cruise control by his lawyer, who was apparently a very poor driver.
- The highest total mileage clocked by a single car is 2,850,000 million miles
That’s equivalent to driving around the Earth 100 times.
- The Hennessey Venom GT is the world’s fastest production car
Its top speed is 270.49mph, making it faster than the Bugatti Veyron by around 0.8 of a second.