1.
Car
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A car is a wheeled, self-powered motor vehicle used for transportation and a product of the automotive industry. The year 1886 is regarded as the year of the modern car. In that year, German inventor Karl Benz built the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, cars did not become widely available until the early 20th century. One of the first cars that was accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were rapidly adopted in the United States of America, where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts, cars are equipped with controls used for driving, parking, passenger comfort and safety, and controlling a variety of lights. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, examples include rear reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, and in car entertainment. Most cars in use in the 2010s are propelled by a combustion engine. Both fuels cause air pollution and are blamed for contributing to climate change. Vehicles using alternative fuels such as ethanol flexible-fuel vehicles and natural gas vehicles are also gaining popularity in some countries, electric cars, which were invented early in the history of the car, began to become commercially available in 2008. There are costs and benefits to car use, the costs of car usage include the cost of, acquiring the vehicle, interest payments, repairs and auto maintenance, fuel, depreciation, driving time, parking fees, taxes, and insurance. The costs to society of car use include, maintaining roads, land use, road congestion, air pollution, public health, health care, road traffic accidents are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide. The benefits may include transportation, mobility, independence. The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies and it was estimated in 2010 that the number of cars had risen to over 1 billion vehicles, up from the 500 million of 1986. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China, India, the word car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum, or the Middle English word carre. In turn, these originated from the Gaulish word karros, the Gaulish language was a branch of the Brythoic language which also used the word Karr, the Brythonig language evolved into Welsh where Car llusg and car rhyfel still survive. It originally referred to any wheeled vehicle, such as a cart, carriage. Motor car is attested from 1895, and is the formal name for cars in British English. Autocar is a variant that is attested from 1895
2.
Motorcycle
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A motorcycle is a two- or three-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes, long travel, commuting, cruising, sport including racing. Motorcycling is riding a motorcycle and related social activity such as joining a motorcycle club, in 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series production motorcycle, and the first to be called a motorcycle. In 2014, the three top motorcycle producers globally by volume were Honda, Yamaha, and Hero MotoCorp, in developing countries, motorcycles are overwhelmingly utilitarian due to lower prices and greater fuel economy. Of all the motorcycles in the world, 58% are in the Asia-Pacific and Southern and Eastern Asia regions, according to the United States Department of Transportation the number of fatalities per vehicle mile traveled was 37 times higher for motorcycles than for cars. The term motorcycle has different legal definitions depending on jurisdiction, there are three major types of motorcycle, street, off-road, and dual purpose. Within these types, there are many sub-types of motorcycles for different purposes, there is often a racing counterpart to each type, such as road racing and street bikes, or motocross and dirt bikes. Street bikes include cruisers, sportbikes, scooters and mopeds, off-road motorcycles include many types designed for dirt-oriented racing classes such as motocross and are not street legal in most areas. Dual purpose machines like the style are made to go off-road but include features to make them legal. Each configuration offers either specialised advantage or broad capability, and each design creates a different riding posture, the first internal combustion, petroleum fueled motorcycle was the Daimler Reitwagen. It was designed and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Bad Cannstatt, instead, it relied on two outrigger wheels to remain upright while turning. The inventors called their invention the Reitwagen and it was designed as an expedient testbed for their new engine, rather than a true prototype vehicle. The first commercial design for a cycle was a three-wheel design called the Butler Petrol Cycle. He exhibited his plans for the vehicle at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in 1884, the vehicle was built by the Merryweather Fire Engine company in Greenwich, in 1888. The engine was liquid-cooled, with a radiator over the driving wheel. Speed was controlled by means of a valve lever. No braking system was fitted, the vehicle was stopped by raising and lowering the rear driving wheel using a foot-operated lever, the driver was seated between the front wheels. It wasnt, however, a success, as Butler failed to find sufficient financial backing, many authorities have excluded steam powered, electric motorcycles or diesel-powered two-wheelers from the definition of a motorcycle, and credit the Daimler Reitwagen as the worlds first motorcycle
3.
Isetta
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The Isetta is an Italian-designed microcar built under license in a number of different countries, including Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Because of its egg shape and bubble-like windows, it known as a bubble car. In 1955, the BMW Isetta became the worlds first mass-production car to achieve a fuel consumption of 3 L/100 km and it was the top-selling single-cylinder car in the world, with 161,728 units sold. Initially manufactured by the Italian firm Iso SpA, the name Isetta is the Italian diminutive form of ISO, the car originated with the Italian firm of Iso SpA. In the early 1950s the company was building refrigerators, motor scooters, Isos owner, Renzo Rivolta, decided he would like to build a small car for mass distribution. By 1952 the engineers Ermenegildo Preti and Pierluigi Raggi had designed a car that used the motorcycle engine of the Iso Moto 200. The Isetta caused a sensation when it was introduced to the press in Turin in November 1953. Small and egg-shaped, with windows, the entire front end of the car hinged outwards to allow entry. In the event of a crash, the driver and passenger were to exit through the canvas sunroof, the steering wheel and instrument panel swung out with the single door, as this made access to the single bench seat simpler. The seat provided reasonable comfort for two occupants, and perhaps a small child, behind the seat was a large parcel shelf with a spare wheel located below. A heater was optional, and ventilation was provided by opening the fabric sunroof, power came from a 236 cc,7.1 kW split-single two-stroke motorcycle engine. The engine was started by a combination known as Dynastart. A manual gearbox provided four forward speeds and reverse, a chain drive connected the gearbox to a solid rear axle with a pair of closely spaced 25 cm rear wheels. The first prototypes had one wheel at the rear, but having a rear wheel made the car prone to roll-overs. This narrow track eliminated the need for a differential, the front axle was a modified version of a Dubonnet independent front suspension. The Isetta took over 30 seconds to reach 50 km/h from rest, top speed was only about 75 km/h. The fuel tank held only 13 litres, however, the Isetta would get somewhere between 5.6 l/100 km,42 mpg‑US and 4.0 l/100 km,58 mpg‑US depending on how it was driven. In 1954, Iso entered several Isettas in the legendary Mille Miglia where they took the top three spots in the economy classification, over a distance of 1,600 km the drivers achieved an average speed of over 70 km/h
4.
Bubble car
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Bubble car is a subjective term used for some small, economical microcars, usually produced in the 1950s and 1960s. The Messerschmitt KR175 and KR200, and the FMR Tg500, had aircraft-style bubble canopies, isettas and others also had a bubble-like appearance. Bubble cars became popular in Europe at that time as a demand for cheap personal motorised transport emerged, most of them were three-wheelers, which in many places qualified them for inexpensive taxes and licensing as motorcycles. Most bubble cars were manufactured in Germany, including by the former German military aircraft manufacturers, Messerschmitt, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer BMW manufactured the Italian Iso Rivolta Isetta under licence, using an engine from one of their own motorcycles. France also produced numbers of similar tiny vehicles called voiturettes, but unlike the German makes. The United Kingdom had licence-built right-hand drive versions of the Heinkel Kabine, there were also indigenous British three-wheeled microcars, including the Trident from the Peel Engineering Company on the Isle of Man. The introduction of the Austin Mini in 1959 is often credited with bringing about the demise of the bubble car, the Mini provided four adult seats and more practical long distance transport often at a lower cost
5.
Italian Americans
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Italian Americans are an ethnic group comprising Americans who have full or partial ancestry from Italy, especially those who identify with that ancestry, along with their cultural characteristics. Italian Americans are the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States, about 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the United States from 1820 to 2004. Immigration began in earnest during the 1870s, when more than twice as many Italians immigrated than during the five previous decades altogether. The 1870s were followed by the greatest surge of immigration, which occurred in the period between 1880 and 1914 and brought more than 4 million Italians to America. This period of large scale immigration ended abruptly with the onset of the First World War in 1914 and, except for one year, further immigration would be greatly limited by a number of restrictive laws passed by Congress in the 1920s. Approximately 84% of the Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy and Sicily, after unification, the Italian government initially encouraged emigration to relieve economic pressures in the South. After the American Civil War, which resulted in over a million killed or wounded, immigrant workers were recruited from Italy. In the United States, most Italians began their new lives as manual laborers in Eastern cities, mining camps, Italian Americans gradually moved from the lower rungs of the economic scale in the first generation to a level comparable to the national average by 1970. By 1990, more than 65% of Italian Americans were managerial, professional, the Italian-American communities have often been characterized by strong ties with family, the Catholic Church, fraternal organizations and political parties. Today, over 17 million Americans claim Italian ancestry, third only to Brazil with 31 million, and Argentina, Italians and their descendants in America have helped to shape the country and, in turn, have adapted to it. They have gained prominence in politics, sports, the media, the arts, the culinary arts. Italian navigators and explorers played a key role in the discovery, exploration, christopher Columbus, the explorer who first reached the Americas in 1492–1504, was Italian. Another notable Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502, is the source of the name America. Englands claims in North America were based on the voyages of the Italian explorer John Cabot, in 1524 the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to map the Atlantic coast of todays United States, and to enter New York Bay. In 1539, Marco da Nizza, explored the territory later became the states of Arizona. In the 17th century, Henri de Tonti, together with the French explorer LaSalle, De Tonti founded the first European settlement in Illinois in 1679, and in Arkansas in 1683. With LaSalle, he co-founded New Orleans, and was governor of the Louisiana Territory for the next 20 years and his brother Alphonse de Tonty, with French explorer Antoine Cadillac, was the co-founder of Detroit in 1701, and was its acting colonial governor for 12 years. Spain and France were Catholic countries and sent many missionaries to convert the native population, included among these missionaries were numerous Italians
6.
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
7.
Giotto Bizzarrini
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Giotto Bizzarrini is an Italian automobile engineer active from the 1950s through the 1970s. Bizzarrini was chief engineer at Ferrari in the 1950s, working on such projects as the Ferrari 250 GTO. He split from the company in an upheaval in 1961, worked first with ATS. In addition to producing the exotic Bizzarrini 5300 GT, Bizzarini also worked for other makers including Iso, Lamborghini, several concept cars in the 2000s bear his name. Bizzarrini was the son of a landowner from Livorno. Bizzarrini received a degree from the University of Pisa in 1953. His design thesis in his year was a complete redesign of a used Fiat Topolino, in which he modified the engine for increased power. After graduation, he briefly before joining Alfa Romeos Servizio Esperimenze Principali unit under Ing. He was assigned to the development of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta chassis, I always needed to know why something fails, so I can invent a solution. Bizzarrini left Alfa Romeo in 1957 and went to Ferrari when that company needed a test driver and he was quickly promoted to controller of experimental, Sports and GT car development. Some legends refers Mr. Ferrari when he saw Bizzarrinis first car and he worked five years at Ferrari as chief engineer. He also worked as developer, designer and skilled test driver, the Ferrari 250 GT 2+2/GTE, the 3 litre Testa Rossa V12 engine, the Ferrari 250 TR or Testa Rossa and the Ferrari 250 GT SWB were influenced by his ideas and technical solutions. For one of the most successful Ferrari racing series, the Ferrari 250, Bizzarrini worked hard to develop the chassis, engines and his masterpiece at Ferrari was the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. He was first involved with the 250 GTO project in 1960, Ferrari wanted a GT racer with better aerodynamics than the previous 250 GT SWB. The SWB was a racer but had considerable aerodynamic drag. Tests started secretly with a Ferrari 250 GT unit, bodied by Mario Boano, with chassis number #2643GT and this car was developed and was used as a test mule for technical solutions later seen in the GTO. Bizzarrini moved the engine back into the chassis and lowered it to improve weight distribution. The result was the Ferrari 250 GTO, one of the greatest sport cars ever, in 1962, when the GTO was launched, it was the ultimate in aerodynamics
8.
Giorgetto Giugiaro
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Giorgetto Giugiaro is an Italian automobile designer. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles and he was born in Garessio, Cuneo, Piedmont. Giugiaro was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002, giugaros earliest cars featured tautly arched shapes, such as the Ferrari 250 Berlinetta Bertone, De Tomaso Mangusta, Iso Grifo, and Maserati Ghibli. However, as the 1970s approached, Giugiaros designs became increasingly angular, straight-lined designs such as the BMW M1, Maserati Bora, and Maserati Merak followed before a softer approach returned in the Calà, Maserati Spyder, and Ferrari GG50
9.
Gruppo Bertone
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Gruppo Bertone, commonly known simply as Bertone, was an Italian automobile company, which specialized in car styling, coachbuilding and manufacturing. Bertone styling is distinctive, with most cars having a family resemblance even if they are badged by different manufacturers. Bertone has styled cars for Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Citroën, Ferrari, Fiat, Iso, Lancia, Lamborghini, Mercedes Benz, Opel and Volvo, in addition, the Bertone studio was responsible for two of the later designs of the Lambretta motorscooter. In the late 1980s, Bertone styled the K20 motorcycle helmet for Swiss bicycle and motorcycle helmet manufacturer Kiwi, the company was based in Grugliasco in northern Italy. Gruppo Bertone was founded as Carrozzeria Bertone in 1912 by Giovanni Bertone, designer Nuccio Bertone took charge of the company after World War II and the company was divided into two units, Carrozzeria for manufacturing and Stile Bertone for styling. Until its bankruptcy in 2014, the company was headed by the widow of Nuccio Bertone, Giovanni Bertone started a carriage manufacturing business in Turin, at the age of 28. Along with three workers, he built horse-drawn vehicles, in the first decades of the 20th century, cars were not common. The road traffic was dominated by horse-drawn carriages and the built by the young Bertone were particularly regarded for their accuracy. In 1914, Giuseppe Bertone, nicknamed Nuccio, the son of Giovanni Bertone, was born. This nickname later became known as the signature to Nuccio, one of the greatest Italian style masters in the world. The outbreak of the first world war triggered a crisis of the young Italian industrial sector and heavily affected Giovanni Bertone. At the end of the First World War, Bertones business restarted and expanded its activities, in 1920, a new plant was opened near the Monginevro 119 in Turin. Twenty people were on the payroll, one year later, the first important contract was signed to the company. This was a torpedo styled body based on the SPA 23S chassis, then, the FIAT501 Sport Siluro Corsa, the first of a family of models that would characterize the brand in the years to come, was designed. With that, the high performance car was born. During the 1920s, Turin was represented as one of the centers of excellence of the car industry. Bertone was sitting on the hub of it and formed partnerships with almost all the manufacturers of the day, Giovanni Bertone began doing bodywork on the Fast, Chiribiri, Aurea, SCAT and Diatto chassis. The most important and long lasting relationships were those with the two biggest Turin manufacturers were FIAT and Lancia, vincenzo Lancia realised straight away that Giovanni Bertone was an outstanding skilled craftsman with a great future ahead of him
10.
Chevrolet small-block engine
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The Chevrolet small-block engine is a series of automobile V8 engines built by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors using the same basic small engine block. The small blocks small physical size also set apart from their massive physical size cousins. Retroactively referred to as the Generation I small-block, it is distinct from subsequent Generation II LT and Generation III/IV LS, engineer Ed Cole, who would later become GM President, is credited with leading the design for this engine. Production of the original small-block began in the fall of 1954 for the 1955 model year with a displacement of 265 cu in, growing incrementally over time to 400 cu in by 1970. Several intermediate displacements appeared over the years, such as the 283 cu in that was available with fuel injection. Introduced as an engine in 1967, the 350 went on to be employed in both high- and low-output variants across the entire Chevrolet product line. Although all of Chevrolets siblings of the period designed their own V8s, over the years, every American General Motors division except Saturn used it and its descendants in their vehicles. In all, over 100,000,000 small-blocks have been built in carbureted, the small-block family line was honored as one of the 10 Best Engines of the 20th Century by automotive magazine Wards AutoWorld. The first generation of Chevrolet small-blocks began with the 1955 Chevrolet 265 cu in V8 offered in the Corvette, by 1957 it had grown to 283 cu in. Fitted with the optional Rochester mechanical fuel injection, it was one of the first production engines to make 1 hp per 1 cu in, the 283 would later be extended to other Chevrolet models, replacing the old style 265 V8s. A high-performance 327 cu in variant followed, turning out as much as 375 hp and it was, however, the 350 cu in series that came to be the best known Chevrolet small-block. Installed in everything from station wagons to sports cars, in commercial vehicles, from 1955 to 1974, the small-block engine was known as the Turbo-Fire V8. All Chevrolet V8s, from the big-blocks to todays LS7 and LS9, of the three engines in this family, two of them, the 265 and the 283, have gone down in automotive history. The first of this family was the 265, introduced in 1955, the 265 had a 3.75 in bore. The stroke of the 265 was 3.00 in, like the 283, the last of this family was the 307 cu in, which was a stroked 283 with a medium journal. The 265 cu in Turbo-Fire V8 was the first Chevrolet small-block, coles design borrowed the valve train design scheduled to be used at the time in the Pontiac V8. Internal GM rules at that time were that once an automotive division had introduced a technological innovation no other GM division could use it for a period of two years. The stud mounted independent ball rocker arm design patented by Pontiac engineer Clayton Leach was scheduled for introduction in the Pontiac 1955 V8
11.
General Motors
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With global headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, United States, GM manufactures cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2008,8.35 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under various brands, current auto brands are Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, and Wuling. Former GM automotive brands include McLaughlin, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall, the company was founded by William C. Durant on September 16,1908 as a holding company. The company was the largest automobile manufacturer from 1931 through 2007, in addition to brands selling assembled vehicles, GM also has had various automotive-component and non-automotive brands, many of which it divested in the 1980s through 2000s. General Motors produces vehicles in 37 countries under twelve brands, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Holden, HSV, Opel, Vauxhall, Wuling, Baojun, Jie Fang, and Ravon. The current company, General Motors Company LLC, was formed in 2009 following the bankruptcy of General Motors Corporation, the new company purchased the majority of the assets of the old GM, including the brand General Motors. In addition to its twelve brands, General Motors also holds a 20% stake in IMM, General Motors employs 212,000 people and does business in more than 140 countries. General Motors is divided into five segments, GM North America, Opel Group, GM International Operations, GM South America. General Motors led global vehicle sales for 77 consecutive years from 1931 through 2007, longer any other automaker. General Motors acts in most countries outside the U. S. via wholly owned subsidiaries, GMs OnStar subsidiary provides vehicle safety, security and information services. In 2009, General Motors shed several brands, closing Saturn, Pontiac, and Hummer, in 2010, the reorganized GM made an initial public offering that was one of the worlds top five largest IPOs to date, and returned to profitability later that year. General Motors Corporation was formed on September 16,1908, in Flint, Michigan, GMs co-founder was Charles Stewart Mott, whose carriage company was merged into Buick prior to GMs creation. Over the years, Mott became the largest single stockholder in GM, and spent his life with his Mott Foundation, GM acquired Oldsmobile later that year. In 1909, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland, also in 1909, GM acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant, along with R. S. McLaughlin, lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers trust, because of the amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions. The next year, Durant started the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in the U. S. and in Canada in 1915, Durant took back control of the company after one of the most dramatic proxy wars in American business history. Durant then reorganized General Motors Company into General Motors Corporation in 1916, merging Chevrolet with GM, shortly thereafter, he again lost control, this time for good, after the new vehicle market collapsed. These facilities were added to the factories that were exclusive to Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland
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