We may be nearing the close of the age of the motor car as we know it. What started in 1886 when a Benz first traveled through the streets of Germany may be coming to an end.
Soon we may have the first true "auto" mobiles on our roads — driverless cars — lounge chairs on wheels where we can work on our computers while the car's computer does all the driving.
Let's take a look back at how car collecting began.
The early days
Before 1900, there were only 8,000 cars in the entire United States. This was for a population of 76 million people and 16 million horses. This was well behind the popularity of the car in France, but it still shows how few cars were in use in what would soon be the world's biggest car market.
At the time, half of all the world's cars were made in France. They made 30,000 cars in 1903, and many were exported.
In those days, the car owner had to be a true enthusiast. The vehicles broke down all the time. The rubber tyres were atrocious and might only last 50 miles. Every part of every car was individually machined by a tradesman.
Cars were also enormously expensive. In 1899, Louis Renault's first car, a single-cylinder one-and-three-quarter horsepower pram-on-wheels cost the equivalent in France of 10 years' wages for an average worker.
The rise of the motor age was like the rise of the personal computing age. In 14 years from 1886, the motor car went from an engineering toy to a plaything of the wealthy. Technology changed rapidly. Just as the first IBM PC introduced in 1981 was worthless by 1991 because superior machines had overtaken it, so the early cars were consigned to sit behind the stables on country estates.
This was even the case on the other side of the world. In Western Australia, for example, the first car (a three-wheeled Leon Bollee voiturette imported in 1898) had been dismantled by 1908, the engine being used on a puddling plant at a gold mine.
The early cars were regarded as a joke when new models, superior in every way, came along. In 1902, one of the world's most expensive cars was the four-cylinder 14 hp Renault, made famous by the dangerous intercity races. And yet, in 1909 Henry Ford released his 20 hp Model T. And a few years later, it cost a fraction of the price of the Renault. |
