1.
Glas
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Hans Glas GmbH is a former German automotive company, which was based in Dingolfing. Originally a maker of farm machinery, Glas evolved first into a producer of motor scooters and it was purchased by BMW in 1966, mainly to gain access to Glass patents, they were the first to use a timing belt with an overhead camshaft in an automotive application. Its limited model range was phased out by its new parent. Mechanic Andreas Glas founded a company for agricultural machines at 1895 in Pilsting. He named the company Andreas Glas, Reparaturwerkstätte für landwirtschaftliche Maschinen mit Dampfbetrieb, during the summer periods about 16 people worked for him. In 1905 Andreas Glas company built their first sewing machines and he then had sufficient work to employ all his employees during the winters. Since 1905 Glas had a office in Dingolfing. He started to produce in Dingolfing in 1908 with 150 sewing machines per year, the production count rose each year. After World War II, the market for sewing machines was declining, Glas were known for small cars like the Goggomobil. However, in 1964 the company introduced the Glas 1300GT coupe, the body was designed by Pietro Frua. However competition, mostly from British cars, was tough and in 1966 they released the 2600GT powered by a SOHC V8 engine, however this didnt help and later the same year the company was sold to BMW. The Glas models were kept in production by BMW, but fitted with BMW engines, the Glas 1300 GT coupe was fitted with a 1. 6-litre BMW engine and renamed BMW1600 GT. BMW also fitted a 3-litre engine and named it 3000 GT and this model kept the Glas name, but had a BMW logo in the front and rear. In 1968 BMW created their own large coupe, the BMW2500 CS,277 copies of 2600 GT was made and 389 of the 3000 GT. In 1951 Andreas Glas saw the Vespa scooter from Piaggio in Verona and he was so enthused that he began production of motorscooters that July. The scooter debuted with a 125 cc motor, increased time to 150 cc and 200 cc. Until 195646,181 motor scooters were built, production of scooters stopped because of the Goggomobil cars. From 1953 on, load-carrying scooters were built as well, with the 200 cc engine and 9.5 bhp, they had a load capacity of 200 kg
2.
BMW
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Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, usually known under its abbreviation BMW, is a German luxury vehicle, motorcycle, and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It is one of the luxury automakers in the world. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index, headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, BMW owns Mini cars and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW was established as a business entity following a restructuring of the Rapp Motorenwerke aircraft manufacturing firm in 1912 named Aerowerke Gustav Otto, after the end of World War I in 1918, BMW was forced to cease aircraft-engine production by the terms of the Versailles Armistice Treaty. The company consequently shifted to production as the restrictions of the treaty started to be lifted in 1923. BMWs first significant aircraft engine, and commercial product of any sort, was the BMW IIIa inline-six liquid-cooled engine of 1918, known for good fuel economy, with German rearmament in the 1930s, the company again began producing aircraft engines for the Luftwaffe. The factory in Munich made ample use of forced labour, foreign civilians, prisoners of war, the few Me 262 A-1b test examples built used the more developed version of the 003 jet, recording an official top speed of 800 km/h. The first-ever four-engine jet aircraft flown were the sixth and eighth prototypes of the Arado Ar 234 jet reconnaissance-bomber. Through 1944 the 003s reliability improved, making it a power plant for air frame designs competing for the Jägernotprogramms light fighter production contract. Which was won by the Heinkel He 162 Spatz design, the BMW003 aviation turbojet was also under consideration as the basic starting point for a pioneering turboshaft powerplant for German armored fighting vehicles in 1944–45, as the GT101. Towards the end of the Third Reich, BMW developed some military aircraft projects for the Luftwaffe, the BMW Strahlbomber, the BMW Schnellbomber and the BMW Strahljäger, but none of them were built. By the year 1958, the division of BMW was in financial difficulties. It was decided to carry on by trying to cash in on the current economy car boom exploited so successfully by German ex-aircraft manufacturers such as Messerschmitt, BMW bought the rights to manufacture the Italian Iso Isetta. BMWs version of the cars were to be powered by a modified form of BMWs motorcycle engine. This was moderately successful and helped the company get back on its feet, since 1959, the controlling majority shareholder of the BMW Aktiengesellschaft has been the Quandt family, which owns about 46% of the stock. The rest is in public float, BMW acquired the Hans Glas company based in Dingolfing, Germany, in 1966. Glas vehicles were badged as BMW until the company was fully absorbed. However, this factory was outmoded and BMWs biggest immediate gain was, according to themselves, the Glas factories continued to build a limited number of their existing models, while adding the manufacture of BMW front and rear axles until they could be closer incorporated into BMW
3.
Car classification
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Governments and private organizations have developed car classification schemes that are used for innumerable purposes including regulation, description and categorization, among others. This article details commonly used classification schemes in use worldwide, vehicles can be categorized in numerous ways. Regulatory agencies may also establish a vehicle classification system for determining a tax amount, in the United Kingdom, a vehicle is taxed according to the vehicles construction, engine, weight, type of fuel and emissions, as well as the purpose for which it is used. Other jurisdictions may determine vehicle tax based upon environmental principles, such as the user pays principle, another standard for road vehicles of all types that is used internationally, is ISO 3833-1977. In the United States, since 2010 the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety uses a scheme it has developed that takes into account a combination of both shadow and weight. The United States Federal Highway Administration has developed a scheme used for automatically calculating road use tolls. There are two categories depending on whether the vehicle carries passengers or commodities. Vehicles that carry commodities are further subdivided by number of axles and number of units, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has developed a classification scheme used to compare fuel economy among similar vehicles. Passenger vehicles are classified based on a total interior passenger. Trucks are classified based upon their gross vehicle weight rating, heavy duty vehicles are not included within the EPA scheme. A similar set of classes is used by the Canadian EPA, in Australia, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries publishes its own classifications. This is a table listing several different methods of vehicle classification. Straddling the boundary between car and motorbike, these vehicles have engines under 1.0 litre, typically only two passengers, and are sometimes unorthodox in construction. Some microcars are three-wheelers, while the majority have four wheels, microcars were popular in post-war Europe, where their appearance led them to be called Bubble cars. More recent microcars are often electric powered, the size of ultracompact cars will be less than minicars, but have engine greater than 50cc displacement and able to transport 1 or 2 persons. Ultracompact cars cannot use standard, because of strict safety standards for minicars. The regulation about running capacity and safety performance of cars will be published in early autumn. Today, there are smaller than ultracompact cars, called category-1 motorized vehicles which it has 50cc displacement or less
4.
Microcar
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A microcar is the smallest automobile classification, usually applied to very small cars. Such small cars were referred to as cyclecars until the 1940s. More recent models are called bubble cars due to their bubble-shaped appearance. The definition of a microcar has varied considerably in different countries, since there are usually tax and/or licensing advantages to the classification, multiple restrictions are often imposed, starting with engine size. The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum says Engine sizes of 700cc and less and 2 doors or less, may have all gears operable in reverse as well as in forward gear such as the Messerschmitt KR200. Fitted with lifting bodywork instead of doors, less than 85 cubic feet/2400 litres interior volume. There are also a variety of trucks, usually of the forward control or van style to provide more cargo room. These might be used for local deliveries on narrow streets where standard small pickup trucks would be inconvenient, a motorised quadricycle is a four-wheeled vehicle that can be registered as a motorcycle. They are analogous to mopeds or light motorcycles rather than cars, consequently, they can be driven by underage drivers or in some cases even without a license, and they are free of car taxes. Their speed is limited to ca.45 km/h either through a speed or power limit. The economy of operating such a car has also often been helped by three-wheeled microcars or cars with very small engines being treated as motorcycles for tax. In some countries, drivers of microcars are exempt from licensing conditions, the microcars may have a special category or may be considered motorcycles and therefore no car driving licence is needed. This assures a certain market among people who do not want to stand for, or who cannot pass an auto drivers licence test. More negatively, at least in Austria, Belgium and France, also, motorized quadricycles may be forbidden from motorways. In some European countries, taxes formerly depended on engine displacement and this has given rise to names of such cars as Citroën 2CV and Renault 4CV. Reduced global warming from carbon dioxide emission has now added to this list. In the UK before October 2000, a person who passed a motorcycle test was automatically granted a full sub-category B1 licence as an additional entitlement with the full Category A licence, since 2000 a provisional car licence has to be requested. Another advantage is the ease of parking, some microcars can be parked perpendicular, where other cars park parallel, or lifted by hand, like a motor scooter, to get into a tight spot
5.
Convertible
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A convertible or cabriolet is an automobile body style that can convert between an open-air mode and an enclosed one, varying in degree and means by model. Convertibles evolved from the phaeton, an open vehicle without glass side windows that sometimes had removable panels of fabric or other material for protection from the elements. Historically, a retractable roof consisted of a frame covered with a folding. A lesser seen detachable hardtop provided a more weatherproof and secure alternative, as technology improved, a retractable hardtop which removes and stows its own rigid roof in its trunk appeared, increasingly becoming the most popular form. A semiconvertible also known as a coach has a retractable or removable top which retains fully framed windows on its doors. A landaulet is a convertible with a fully enclosed front cabin. Other common terms include cabriolet, cabrio, soft top, and drop top, and where the roof is more than emergency weather protection, open two-seater, rag top, spider. The erected top secures to the frame header with manual latches, semimanual latches. The folded convertible top is called the stack, a tonneau cover provides a solution. A range of materials is available for soft tops, automakers had problems in securing raw materials to fulfill orders after World War II, including canvas in various shades for convertible tops and limiting their manufacture. Polyvinyl chloride material was used for many convertible tops, the material consists of two layers, a top layer made of PVC, which has a specific structure depending on the vehicle model, and a lower layer made of fabric. Side windows were not existent in open cars, which may have detachable side screens, rear windows have evolved similarly, with plastic rear windows appearing as late as the first-generation Porsche Boxster. Plastic windows can degrade, fade, yellow, and crack over time, a windblocker or wind deflector minimizes noise and rushing air reaching the occupants. Mazda pioneered a version on the RX7 convertible which featured an integral rigid opaque panel that folded up from behind the front seats, current convertibles feature windblockers of various designs including detachable fold-up designs, vertically retractable glass, minimal flaps – or other integrated wind controlling systems. According to the responsible for the 2008 Chrysler Sebring, its windblocker reduces wind noise by roughly 11 to 12 dB. Mercedes and Audi currently offer a heating duct to the area of the seat on SLK, SL. Windblockers are also available on the aftermarket for use on convertibles that do not have them, the Volvo C70 retractable hardtop includes a door-mounted side-impact protection inflatable curtain which inflates upward from the interior belt-line – vs. downward like the typical curtain airbag. The curtain has an extra stiff construction with double rows of slats that are offset from each other
6.
Van
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A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van it can be bigger or smaller than a truck and SUV, there is some varying in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, microvans, are used for transporting goods or people in tiny quantities. Mini MPVs, Compact MPVs, and MPVs are all small vans usually used for transporting people in small quantities, larger vans with passenger seats are used for institutional purposes, such as transporting students. Larger vans with only front seats are used for business purposes, to carry goods. Specially-equipped vans are used by television stations as mobile studios, Postal services and courier companies use large step vans to deliver packages. Van meaning a type of vehicle arose as a contraction of the word caravan, the early records of van as a vehicle in English are in the mid 19th century meaning a covered wagon for transporting goods. Caravan with the meaning has records since the 1670s. A caravan, meaning one wagon, had arisen as an extension or corruption of caravan meaning a convoy of multiple wagons, the word van has slightly different, but overlapping, meanings in different forms of English. While the word now applies to boxy cargo vans, other applications are found to a greater or lesser extent in the different English-speaking countries. In Australian English, the van is commonly used to describe a minivan. A full-size van used for commercial purposes is known as a van, however. Finally, the van can sometimes be used interchangeably with caravan. The British term people mover is used in Australian English to describe a passenger van. The American usage of van to mean a cargo box trailer or semi-trailer is used rarely, if ever, early Japanese vans include the Kurogane Baby, Mazda Bongo and the Toyota LiteAce van. Microvans, vans that fulfill kei car regulations, are popular for small business. The term is used to describe full-fledged station wagons and even hatchbacks with a basic trim package intended for commercial use. These are sometimes referred to as Light Vans, in British English, the word van refers to vehicles that carry goods only, on both roads and rails
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