7 Wild Car Facts That You Probably Never Knew
Cars are a huge part of nearly everyone’s daily lives around the world and there’s no sign of car production stopping any time soon. And while you might think that you know everything there is to know about the automobile, both past, and present, there are plenty of random facts to know about them. Here are seven wild facts about cars that you probably never knew.
The first speeding ticket
The first speeding ticket ever issued was on January 28, 1896, to a driver named Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent. He was reportedly pulled over and fined for going 8 mph in a 2 mph zone, which resulted in a fine of 1 shilling. In case you’re wondering, that would have been the U.S. dollar equivalent to 24 cents.
60 million cars are produced every year
Did you know that approximately 60 million cars are produced each year worldwide? That’s 165,000 cars per day, 6,875 per hour, and 115 per minute. And we’re wondering why many automakers are switching to electric cars and hybrids.
If you could drive to the moon…
… it would take you less than a month to reach it by car if you were driving 60 mph. That’s not bad, but we highly doubt you’ll be able to stop at the International Space Station for gas and a bag of Cheetos.
World’s first car accident
The first reported car accident took place in Ohio way back in 1891. James William Lambert, an inventor that played a part in the advancement of the automobile, was taking his single-cylinder car out for a spin with his friend when they hit a tree root, lost control of the car, and ended up hitting a hitching post for horses.
Odds of dying in a car accident
Are you scared of long road trips? Have no fear! The odds of dying in a car accident is one in 5,000. In case that doesn’t console you, then take into consideration that the odds of dying in a plane crash are one in a million. OK, maybe you should fly instead.
Highest mileage logged in a car
The highest mileage ever recorded in a car is 3 million. The car is a 1966 Volvo 1800S and is driven by Irving Gordon. He reported drives around 100,000 miles per year traveling between car shows all over the U.S. and Canada. He told Popular Mechanics that he changes the car’s oil every 3,000 miles and changed the transmission fluid every 25,000 miles. If that’s not motivation enough to keep your car properly maintained to have it run for millions of miles, then we don’t know what is.
World’s fastest production car
The world’s fastest production car is the SSC Tuatara. It hit a speed record of 316.11 mph, which broke the record set by the Koenigsegg Agera RS back in 2017 (277 mph). Considering the SSC Tuatara makes a whopping 1,750 hp, we’re not surprised that it was able to hit that kind of speed when conducting its world-record runs in the Nevada desert.
