By Ryan Ellis on November 13, 2020 in Say's Spotlight
Although the past couple of months were lacking in the social gathering department, now is the perfect time to brush up on your party etiquette. If traditional tricks like flipping an egg in a shot glass or wowing everyone with a card trick aren’t your style, try impressing the crowd with your knowledge of car facts!
Note: These will also come in handy at your next trivia night.
We are car nerds. It’s the name of the car insurance game. Although you may not consider yourself a car fanatic, you are likely surrounded by cars, so why not learn a bit more about them?
1. World’s First Speeding Ticket
According to Insurify, “across all car models, 10.54 percent of drivers have a speeding violation on their record.” However, only one driver can claim being the very first person to receive a speeding ticket. That lucky man was the infamous Harry Myers. In 1904, Myers was ticketed for going a mere 12 mph. Boy, have speed limits changed since then!
2. Guinness World Record for Highest Vehicle Mileage
Did you and your vehicle recently celebrate the big 100,000 miles on the road together? Congratulations! You’ve got a good one! While this is no small feat, Irv Gordon and his 1966 Volvo 1800S hold the Guinness World Record for highest vehicle mileage. If you plan to beat them, prepare to drive over 3,039,122 miles. You’d only have to drive the whooping 3,055 miles between California and New Jersey about 994 times to claim the lead – not bad if you have the free time!
3. Car Brand Names – Why?
This one is fun mostly because it brings several bits of knowledge and bundles them into one! Most car brands are named for the founder or founders. Examples of this include Carl Benz of Mercedes Benz, Kiichiro Toyoda of Toyota, and Henry Ford of Ford Motors.
However, some companies decided to get a bit more creative. Volvo founders Gustaf Larson and Assar Gabrielsson chose the name based on the Latin word for “I roll.” Kia gets its unique name from the Chinese Korean characters “Ki” and “A.” They translate to “to rise, stand, or awake” and “Asia” respectively. We bet you didn’t know that one!
4. 30,000 Unique Parts
Whoa! A car is made up of about 30,000 parts. These parts are built by both the car company itself and outsourced companies who specialize in production of special parts. Every button and screw count toward that number and vary from vehicle to vehicle based on customizations. Next time you’re cruising around town, take a minute to appreciate all 30,000 parts that make your car run smoothly.
5. 92 Million Vehicles Produced Worldwide in 2019
Since 2020 numbers are yet to be released (and since they will likely break trend with all the craziness of the pandemic this year), we pulled numbers from 2019. According to Statista, “In 2019, almost 92 million motor vehicles were produced worldwide.” Let’s break that down. If the same number of vehicles were produced every day, we’d see 7,666,666 cars per month, 252,054 per day, and 10,502 per hour. WOW!
China led production of these vehicles with an impressive 21.4 million vehicles produced in 2019. Other major production countries that fell behind China, in order, are Japan, Germany, India, South Korea, U.S., Spain, Brazil, France, and Russia.
6. Cruise Control Inventor
Did you know that the inventor of cruise control never even drove a vehicle? Ralph Teetor was an innovator who lost his vision during childhood. Many factors lead to his interest in driving safety including his own chauffeur’s driving habits. The increased number of car crashes due to higher speed limits worldwide only further encouraged Teetor’s idea. The original prototype was called “Speedostat” and was intended to push back on the pedal when the driver tried to exceed the pre-set speed limit. He had no idea what a huge impact this would have on driving!
Hopefully, you learned a bushel of new things today! Even if your trivia master doesn’t include these in your next round, your friends won’t be able to get enough of the new car expert in your group!