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Mini

The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout (that allowed 80% of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage) influenced a generation of car-makers. The vehicle is in some ways considered the British equivalent to its German contemporary, the Volkswagen Beetle, which enjoyed similar popularity in North America. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th Century, behind the Ford Model T.
This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis. It was manufactured at the Longbridge and Cowley plants in England, the Victoria Park / Zetland British Motor Corporation (Australia) factory in Sydney, Australia, and later also in Spain (Authi), Belgium, Chile, Italy (Innocenti), Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia. The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates: the Mark II, the Clubman and the Mark III. Within these was a series of variations including an estate car, a pickup truck, a van and the Mini Moke—a jeep-like buggy. The Mini Cooper and Cooper "S" were sportier versions that were successful as rally cars, winning the Monte Carlo Rally four times from 1964 through to 1967, although in 1966 the Mini was disqualified after the finish, along with six other British entrants, which included the first four cars to finish, under a questionable ruling that the cars had used an illegal combination of headlamps and spotlights. Initially Minis were marketed under the Austin and Morris names, as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini Minor, until Mini became a marque in its own right in 1969 More...

Classic Sport Car

Those three words come up together to form an image of inspiration, speed and extravagance. For who can afford classic sports cars? Only the affluent of course! But for the average “Joe” who dreams of having his own classic sports car and hopes to know more about it, this article is meant to provide information on this amazing “king of the road”. First know the foremost brands of classic sports cars.

Lotus is famous for developing the Lotus Elise 11S, Lotus Elise Motorsport, Lotus Elan, Lotus Europa Twin Cam, Lotus Super Seven S4, Lotus Elan SE Turbo and Lotus Super Seven Replica by Birkin.

Only Austin Healey Sprite can produce the Bugeye Sprite Race Car with an outstanding 250 horsepower! The 1960 Speedwell Sprite Vintage Race Car is another force to reckon with, as well as the 1962 Austin Healey Sprite MK.

Austin Mini boasts of the Mini Cooper equipped with excellent colors and for $13,000, it is quite a steal!

The TVR has this elite collection of classic sports cars like the TVR Tuscan Challenge Race Car, TVR S2 Roadster, TVR Taimar Coupe and TVR 2500M.

Classic sports car is almost defined by the brand Birkin, as it is made famous with Louts Super Seven replicas and offers Birkin S3, Birkin C-S3 Street, among other roadsters that come with the Ford ZETEC engine, four-wheeled disc brakes and a heavy-duty aluminum body.

Jaguar is the “mighty” classic sports car that men cannot get enough of. With the Jaguar E-type Coupe, Jaguar X-Type Track Car and Jaguar C-Type replica, this is the brand that really pushes classic sports cars several ‘to the limit”.

Jaguar-engined Triumph screams just as a classic sports car is expected to do. Classic models like the 1969 Triumph Spitfire MK III and 1960 Triumph TR3A stand for what Triumph is all about – sophistication and power.

Here are some books that teach the reader how to keep the classic sports cars in tiptop shape: “Classic Car Restorer’s Handbook,” “Fun and Profit Buying, Showing and Selling Vintage and Classic Cars,” “Restoration of Antique and Classic Cars,” “Budget Auto Restoration: Low Cost, Step-By-Step Tricks” and “How to Rebuild and Modify Your Muscle Car.”

The classic sports car exudes action and nobility. No wonder, it never goes out of style. More...

BMW

If you are having interest in style and speed, then you definitely interested in BMW car range. The all models of these cars are so popular in all over the world. Due to their outstanding performance, royal look and luxurious interior, day by day the sale of these cars is increased. BMW cars have successfully maintained the brand name in the outstanding, impressive and luxurious cars industry from last many years. Its auto parts are quite expensive but are easily available in the market.

BMW cars have provided the unique and smooth driving experience to their customers. From the day of establishment the services offered by BMW is excellent. As the time passes, the services are become well and better. After experiencing this car, you surely don’t want to go for any other choices which are available in the market. After focusing on customers need and style, experts design the car model. They made every auto part very carefully.

All models of BMW cars are well equipped with high and quality performance parts like Xdrive, Blue tooth wireless technology, Valvatronic, and Xenon Adaptive Headlights. Plus, it has electronic damping, dynamic brake control and all wheel drive. It includes some other major parts like hill descent control, all season traction and dynamic stability control.

Both new and second hand BMW auto parts for all models are available. If you search on internet for the suitable BMW car parts, you will definitely get many reliable online shops which are into selling BMW auto parts. To create horsepower and to keep the emission on low rate, fuel injector is designed. Hence, it is one of the most important BMW auto parts. To fill the fuel into the intake port with forced pressure, small needle shaped equipment is fixed into the BMW cars. It helps to atomize the fuel along with oxygen presence in the air burns instantly. So, automatically it provides the required power which is essential for car.

Thermostat is another very important part of BMW car range. The function of this part is to control and regulate the temperature in the vehicle. Overheated temperature in the car may damage the engine. Hence, it is fixed in the car to regularly check on the temperature of the car.
Oxygen sensor is a measuring device which is fixed into the exhaust position of the BMW cars. The main function of this part is to check on the fuel that burns. It gives all the information and thus you can easily adjust any wasting of burning of fuel in the engine. It is important to regularly check the fuel consumption, because it has a direct relation with the performance.

If you maintain your vehicle in proper condition, every time it gives you the best driving experience. Always remember that your car is useful for your daily routines. So, make sure that it appears attractive. Don’t forget, BMW cars are the symbol of prestige. It is not just a luxurious car. It shows your personality and make you style statement for most. More...

The History of Steam Engines

Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729)

Illustration of Thomas Newcomen's Engine circa 1712


Thomas Newcomen was an English blacksmith, who invented the atmospheric steam engine, an improvement over Thomas Slavery's previous design.

The Newcomen steam engine used the force of atmospheric pressure to do the work. Thomas Newcomen's engine pumped steam into a cylinder. The steam was then condensed by cold water which created a vacuum on the inside of the cylinder. The resulting atmospheric pressure operated a piston, creating downward strokes. In Newcomen's engine the intensity of pressure was not limited by the pressure of the steam, unlike what Thomas Savery had patented in 1698.

In 1712, Thomas Newcomen together with John Calley built their first engine on top of a water filled mine shaft and used it to pump water out of the mine. The Newcomen engine was the predecessor to the Watt engine and it was one of the most interesting pieces of technology developed during the 1700's. More...

Benz Patent-Motorwagen

The Karl Benz Patent-Motorwagen (or motorcar), built in 1885, is widely regarded as the first automobile, that is, a vehicle designed to be propelled by a motor.
The vehicle was awarded the German patent, number 37435, which Benz applied for on January 29, 1886. Following official procedures, the date of the application became the patent date for the invention once the patent was granted, which occurred in November of that year.
Benz officially unveiled his invention to the public on July 3, 1886 on the Ringstrasse (Ringstraße) in Mannheim, Germany.

After developing a successful gasoline-powered two-stroke piston engine in 1873, Benz focused on developing a motorized vehicle while maintaining a career as a designer and manufacturer of stationary engines and their associated parts.



The Benz Patent-Motorwagen was a three-wheeled automobile with a rear-mounted engine. The vehicle contained many new inventions. It was constructed of steel tubing with woodwork panels. The steel-spoked wheels and solid rubber tires were Benz's own design. Steering was by way of a toothed rack that pivoted the unsprung front wheel. Fully elliptic springs were used at the back along with a live axle and chain drive on both sides. A simple belt system served as a single-speed transmission, varying torque between an open disc and drive disc.
Karl Benz - detail from gravestone
Working replica of the 1885 Benz Motorwagen in Frankfurt, 2007

The first Motorwagen used the Benz 954 cc single-cylinder four-stroke engine. This new engine produced ⅔ hp (½ kW) at 250 rpm in the Patent-Motorwagen, although later tests by the University of Mannheim showed it to be capable of .9 hp (0.7 kW) at 400 rpm. It was an extremely light engine for the time, weighing about 100 kg (220 lb). Although its open crankcase and drip oiling system would be alien to a modern mechanic, its use of a pushrod-operated poppet valve for exhaust would be quite familiar. A large horizontal flywheel stabilized the single-cylinder engine's power output. An evaporative carburettor was controlled by a sleeve valve to regulate power and engine speed.

Benz later built more models of the Motorwagen, model number 2 boasting 1.5 hp (1.1 kW), and model number 3 with 2 hp (1.5 kW), allowing the vehicle to reach a maximum speed of approximately 10 miles per hour (16 km/h). The chassis was improved in 1887 with the introduction of wooden-spoke wheels, a fuel tank, and a manual leather shoe brake on the rear wheels.
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The History of Mercedes

The history of Mercedes-Benz or for short Mercedes (and sometimes even "Benz" or "Merc") is quite interesting. Mercedes is a German company founded in 1871. In the beginning there were three people - Gottlieb Daimler together with Wilhelm Maybach and Karl Benz. Karl Benz and the other two were able to invent the automobile with internal combustion independently from each other. It is very interesting however that they were only sixty miles apart from each other in that time.

Karl Benz was working in Mannheim. He had a shop there which was the place where he invented the first real automobile driven by internal combustion. The year was 1885 and in the next year Karl Benz was granted a patent for his new creation.



The automobile was called "Benz Patent Motorwagen" and it had three wheels and the design reminds of a carriage hauled by horses perhaps because the main design model was taken from a carriage. The first engine Karl Benz patented in 1879 and it was designed by him.

Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach were granted a patent a year before Karl Benz's internal combustion automobile model. The year was 1885 and the exact date - August 29. The engine they made is believed to be the first prototype of the today's gas engine and they called it "grandfather clock engine".

In the next year Gottlieb Daimler purchased a stagecoach in which he was planning to put the internal combustion engine. Many people made these purchases in that time but Gottlieb Daimler is perhaps the first one with the engine idea in mind. Daimler and Maybach worked together to adopt this stagecoach to fit the needs of the engine. The official words which Mercedes used for this model is "a carriage without horses". It is without horses but with conventional drawbar steering and internal combustion engine.


Soon after that in 1889 they built a complete model from scratch which was the first automobile powered by four-stoke engine. It was again with four wheels and after the founding of DMG in 1890 they were able to sell the first model of their automobile two years later in 1892.

On the other hand Karl Benz was able to sell his first model in 1888 - an year before Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach was able to build their model. Karl Benz did that after some refining of his model Motorwagen and maybe this gave him this advantage over the years because he did not started from scratch like Daimler and Maybach did.

In 1899 automobiles from Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft made in a city near Stuttgart took a part in a race driven by Emil Jellinek. Jellinek was a diplomat and a businessman and he was very enthusiastic about the whole idea around automobiles. In 1896 he went to see the designers Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach and soon after that he bought from them his first automobile car - the Phoenix. An interesting story about that car is that Emil Jellinek painted the name of his daughter Mercedes Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek on the car for good luck. Years after that a whole series of cars got that name.

Jellinek wanted faster cars and that the 1900 DMG was the first to bear his daughter name. It looks like Jellinek was obsessed by the idea of his daughter's name because he offered and made a contract for 550 000 marks for the purchase of 36 models of the new car with 35 hp engine only to see his daughter name on this car. The new engine was named Daimler-Mercedes engine containing like this only the name of the developer and Mercedes.

Very soon after that he made a deal for another 36 models but of another series - with 8 hp engines. After that on a higher price he was able to sell these models on the market in USA, Belgium, France and Austria-Hungary and that quickly made him be one of the biggest sellers of cars for that time.

Of course the name of his daughter Mercedes kept on showing on new models of automobiles like "Mercedes 35 hp". Jellinek's obsession by the name Mercedes grow up and he even change his own name to Jellinek-Mercedes. For eight years Jellinek took place in the meetings of the board of directors of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft from 1901 to 1909 but he retired from any activities linked to automobiles because of his diplomatic appointments.

In 1924 the two big companies DMG and Benz & Cie. finally began cooperating but due to World War I and the problems with the German economy in that time they were able to merge two years after that in 1926 and they used the name Daimler-Benz AG. Of course the name Mercedes was not lost. They began production of tracks and automobiles and they used the name Mercedes-Benz for them. From the part of Daimler they got the name Mercedes and Benz was from the part of the ex company Benz & Cie. A clause of the merging agreement compelled the two companies to stay together until 2000.

They focused on creating land models of vehicles but they also made engines for boats and planes for both civil and military organizations. They was able to make even Zeppelins powered by their engines and soon after that in 1929 Karl Benz died.

The company's most efforts were on creating limousine models and their glory is known today for that. Still they made some sport models like the early model of SSK designed by Ferdinand Porsche. Another product is the amazing Mercedes-Benz 300SL. With its gull-wing doors it was an interesting view.

Of course Mercedes-Benz made less expensive cars for the general public too. In Stuttgart they were able to create and test the Volkswagen models in cooperation with Porsche. Before that car a model called A-Class came in production. It is a small family car and maybe because of this the popular name of that car is Baby Benz. The first generation of Baby Benz was created in 1997 and years after that after redesign it appeared again in 2004.
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Who Invented the First Automobile?

The first automobile was invented in the 18th century, but was in one of its most primitive forms. However, who exactly invented the automobile is a very difficult question to answer. It was slowly improvised into a full fledged thing and no single person worked on it completely.

The first steam powered automobile was put together in the year 1630 and the first electric car was invented in the year 1830. In 1885, the first car to be driven on gasoline was invented. So, if anyone can be credited with the concept of a vehicle called a car it can be Ferdinand Verbiest, who built the steam powered car in 1672 and it was a gift to the emperor of China. He meant for it to be a toy.

Exactly after one century Nicholas and Joseph Cugnot designed a vehicle for the French Army. It was self propelled vehicle and could go at 2.5 miles per hour.

The first electric car was developed by Robert Anderson from Scotland. However, the batteries could not be recharged. Nonetheless, as time passed these vehicles became extremely popular as it was the only kind of automobile back then.

In the year 1880, the first automobile with an internal combustion engine was invented. Then, in 1885, Karl Benz came up with the first gasoline car and patented it. So, Benz is the father of automobiles in this world as far as gasoline run vehicles are concerned. After that there has been no looking back even now. Cars have only improvised on various technologies and have gotten better.
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Trusselle automobile

Trusselle Automobile, 1901

This is a 1901 Trusselle "Quad Sociable", built inEngland. It used a 2.75 hp engine built by De Dion Bouton of France. More...

Inventor of the modern automobile

Karl Benz generally is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile.

An automobile powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885, and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie., which was founded in 1883. It was an integral design, without the adaptation of other existing components, and included several new technological elements to create a new concept. This is what made it worthy of a patent. He began to sell his production vehicles in 1888.


In 1879, Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle.
In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called a boxermotor in German. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899 and, because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a joint-stock company.
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Car, an automobile

An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods. However, the term automobile is far from precise, because there are many types of vehicles that do similar tasks. More...