50 Fun Facts About Classic Car

The Antique Automobile Club of America defines an antique car as being at least how old?

The Classic Car Club of America is stricter, reserving 'classic' for fine or distinctive cars built between 1915 and 1948.

The Classic Car Club of America's list of 'classics' covers cars built between which years?

Only 'fine' or 'distinctive' unmodified American or foreign cars qualify.

To collectors, a 'vintage' car dates from which period?

The era began with cars still a rarity and ended with them well on the way to ubiquity, despite the 1929 crash.

What was the nickname of the Ford Model T?

Produced from 1908 to 1927, it was named the most influential car of the 20th century in the 1999 Car of the Century vote.

In what colors was the Model T actually offered from 1908 to 1913, before the all-black years?

Ford's famous 'any color so long as it is black' line dates from 1909, but black was not even available at first.

How many Model Ts had been built when the last one rolled off the line in May 1927?

It was the best-selling car in history until the Volkswagen Beetle overtook it in 1972.

The Ford Model A of 1927 was among the first production cars fitted with what?

It was also the first Ford with a conventional clutch, brake and gearshift layout, though the brake and throttle pedals were reversed from today's.

Which car is credited as the first mass-produced automobile built on an assembly line?

Introduced in 1901, it owed its success partly to a fire that destroyed the company's other prototypes.

How many wheels did the original Benz Patent-Motorwagen have?

Carl Benz's single-cylinder, belt-driven machine of 1885-86 is widely regarded as the first practical automobile and the first put into production.

Bertha Benz's pioneering 1888 drive in a Patent-Motorwagen went to which town?

The trip revealed the car's trouble on hills; she reportedly had to get out and push when the belt slipped.

Which magazine coined the phrase 'the best car in the world' for the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost in 1907?

The chassis was officially the 40/50 h.p.; only one car, AX 201, was originally named Silver Ghost, but the press applied it to all of them.

How many Bugatti Royales were built?

Ettore Bugatti planned 25 for royalty, but the Depression intervened and only three were sold. Spare engines ended up in French railcars.

Which brothers founded Duesenberg in Indianapolis in 1920?

Duesenbergs won the Indy 500 four times in the 1920s; in 1922 eight of the top ten finishers were Duesenbergs.

Studebaker started in 1852 making what?

The South Bend firm entered the car business with electric vehicles in 1902; the last Studebaker was built in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1966.

In which city was the first Packard built in 1899?

The luxury marque merged with Studebaker in 1953 and was phased out after the 1958 model year.

The 1934 Chrysler Airflow was the first full-size American production car designed around what?

Engineers tested at least 50 scale models in a wind tunnel with help from Orville Wright, but buyers rejected the look.

The Lincoln Continental began as a one-off vacation car built for whom in 1939?

Ford's president commissioned a coachbuilt Lincoln-Zephyr convertible to attract potential buyers.

How many Willys MB and Ford GPW jeeps were built during World War II?

It was the world's first mass-produced four-wheel-drive car and about a quarter of all US military support vehicles built in the war.

How many Volkswagen Beetles were produced between 1938 and 2003?

Its 65-year production run is the longest for any single generation of automobile.

Which engineer led the design of the Volkswagen Beetle in the 1930s?

The basic concept is credited to Béla Barényi as early as 1925. Hitler wanted a car for two adults and three children using no more than seven liters per 100 km.

The Volkswagen bus was inspired by a request from which Dutch importer?

Introduced in 1950, it was known as the Transporter, Kombi or Microbus, and as the Bulli in Germany.

Where was the Porsche 356, the first production Porsche, initially built in 1948?

About 50 cars were built there before production moved to Germany; roughly half of the 76,000 made survive.

What made the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL of 1954 instantly recognizable?

US importer Max Hoffman pushed for a road version of the 1952 racer. At up to 162 mph it was the fastest production car of its time.

Which two features debuted on the Citroën DS in 1955 as firsts for a mass-production car?

Orders hit 12,000 on the first day of the Paris Motor Show and 80,000 over ten days, a record until the Tesla Model 3.

How many deposits did the Citroën DS take during the ten days of the 1955 Paris Motor Show?

The record stood for over 60 years until the Tesla Model 3 collected 180,000 first-day deposits in 2016.

The original Issigonis-designed BMC small car of 1959 had its gearbox uniquely built into what?

Engine and gearbox shared the same oil, a space-saving design born of the 1956 Suez Crisis and fears of fuel shortages.

Under which two names was BMC's ADO15 small car first sold in Britain in 1959?

Alec Issigonis's project ADO15 rode on 10-inch wheels and rubber-cone springs devised by Alex Moulton.

The Jaguar XK-E, as Americans knew it, was based on which of the marque's Le Mans-winning racers?

The D-Type won Le Mans three years running from 1955. Enzo Ferrari is rumored to have called the E-Type the most beautiful car ever made.

What was the Aston Martin DB5's first James Bond film?

The DB initials honor David Brown, who built up the company from 1947. Touring Superleggera designed the body.

The MG MGB, MGC and MGB GT V8 together sold how many cars between 1962 and 1980?

The roadster replaced the MGA; fixed-roof GT models stopped being exported to the US in 1974.

The 1957 Fiat Nuova 500 was powered by an engine of what size?

The rear-mounted air-cooled twin sat in a car under three meters long. Dante Giacosa won a Compasso d'Oro for the design.

The East German Trabant's body panels were made of what?

Buyers waited up to thirteen years. Images of Trabants crossing into West Germany defined the fall of the Berlin Wall.

How long could an East German wait on the list for a Trabant?

The 1950s design barely changed until the Trabant 1.1 of 1990, making it a symbol of the East's stagnant economy.

In which year did the Chevrolet Bel Air get the V8 that made the 'Tri-Five' Chevys legends?

The Bel Air name first applied only to two-door hardtops from 1950 to 1952. Canadian production ran through 1981.

How many Corvettes were built in the first half of 1953?

They were largely hand-built in an old truck plant in Flint, Michigan. GM nearly canceled the program until Ford's Thunderbird loomed.

Where was the Corvette prototype first shown to the public in January 1953?

Harley Earl, GM's styling chief and a sports-car fan, drove the project. The production price ended up far above his $2,000 target.

The 1958 Ford Thunderbird's addition of a back seat is credited with creating which market segment?

The original 1955 T-Bird was a two-seat convertible pitched as sporty rather than as a Corvette rival.

Which Cadillac Eldorado sub-names, used 1956-60, came from a Spanish city and a French resort?

Seville was the hardtop and Biarritz the convertible. The Eldorado name itself was picked in a 1952 golden-anniversary contest.

What design gave the 1951 Hudson Hornet a low center of gravity that made it a NASCAR terror?

All 1951-53 Hornets ran Hudson's high-compression H-145 straight-six. Later Hornets were rebadged Nashes.

How many Tucker 48s were built before the company folded in 1949?

Preston Tucker was acquitted of stock fraud, but the publicity killed the company. Francis Ford Coppola, who filmed his story, owned one.

Preston Tucker's 1948 car was originally, and still commonly, called what?

The Torpedo was really the prototype's name; the production car was officially the Tucker 48.

The Edsel was named after whom?

Meant as Ford's fourth brand to fight GM and Chrysler, it lasted only the 1958-60 model years and became a byword for flops.

Which book attacked the handling of early Chevrolet Corvairs?

Ralph Nader targeted the swing-axle rear suspension; a 1972 NHTSA-commissioned report later tempered the criticism.

The Ford Mustang was launched on April 17, 1964, how many days after the Plymouth Barracuda?

It defined the pony-car segment; more than 400,000 sold in the first year and the millionth within two years.

Ford credits stylist John Najjar with suggesting the pony car's name, inspired by what?

In Germany the car was sold as the T-5 until 1978 because moped maker Kreidler owned the Mustang name.

What were the DeLorean's outer body panels made of?

Giorgetto Giugiaro designed it; about 9,000 were built in 1981-82 before the company went bankrupt.

Roughly how many DeLoreans were built?

An estimated 6,500 were still on the road in 2015, kept alive partly by Back to the Future fandom.

The Shelby Cobra paired a Ford V8 with a chassis and body from which British firm?

It was built on and off in both Britain and the United States between 1962 and 1967, sold at home simply as the AC Cobra.

For its first two model years, 1964 and 1965, the Pontiac GTO was an option package on which car?

Credited with popularising the muscle-car segment, the GTO became a model in its own right from 1966 to 1971.

The Ford GT40 was built specifically to beat which team, Le Mans winner six years running?

Ford's first Le Mans win came in 1966 when three 7-litre Mk II cars crossed the line together.