Cars of the Future

Cars are undergoing a huge change and soon they will have changed dramatically. In the far future we can see Flying cars such as the one being developed by milner motors. People are now looking for alternitves to the fuel guzzling machines we have today. We can now see more hybrid cars appearing today such a the Prius shown on the right which was debuted in Japan in 1997 it was the first mass produced hybrid car ever. It is produced by Toyota.

*Picture from http://hembaba.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/toyota-prius-india.jpg

There of course are futureistic cars in our modern day to for example the Bugatti Veryon which is produced in France by the company Bugatti. 16-cylinder quadruple turbo charged car with 1001 hp DIN (736 kW), 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 2.5 sec, and a top speed of 407 km/h (253 mph), at the Paris and Detriot auto shows. Development continued throughout 2004 and the EB 16/4 Veyron was promoted to "advanced concept" status. In July 2005 Bugatti Automobiles SAS announced that the car would officially be called the Bugatti Veryon 16.4. The Veyron 16.4 is the most powerful, most expensive, and fastest street-legal production car in the world.

* Information from wikipedia

Here is a video to prove the Veryons power.

History Of Cars

By definition an automobile or car is a wheeled vehicle that carries its own motor and transports passengers. The automobile as we know it was not invented in a single day by a single inventor. The history of the automobile reflects an evolution that took place worldwide. It is estimated that over 100,000 patents created the modern automobile. You can point to the many firsts that occurred along the way to producing the modern car.


Although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot from France is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769 by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle, this claim is disputed by some, who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran or was stable. What is not in doubt is that Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive in 1801, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle although it was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and would have been of little practical use.

In 1885 Benz (From Germany has links to Mercedes-Benz) built his first motorwagon, approximately 25 of his vehicles were sold. On the right is the original Benz motorwagon.

* Information from wikipedia
*Picture From http://auto-car.info/?p=5

Car Companies- Germany

Germany
Like Italy Germany has a a big history in the production and racing of cars. Constructers like BMW and Mercedes are among the leading teams in motorsport sponsoring. Porsche has won the 24 hours of le Mays, a prestigious annual race held in France, 16 times. Many famous drivers have come out of Germany. The most successful Forumla One driver in history, Michael Schumacher has set the most significant motorsport records during his career and won more formula one championships and races than any other driver since Formula one's debut season in 1946. I am now going to give you a brief overview of the two biggest German car companies.

Mercedes-Benz

The Mercedes company began in the early 1900's, but Mercedes Benz did not began until about 1927. Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of luxury automobiles coaches, buses, and trucks. It is currently a division of the parent company, Daimler AG. The company has grown greatly, Mercedes-Benz automobiles are now available at dealerships in over 130 countries and their work fleet (trucks and commercial vehicles) are available from a group of dealers worldwide as well as direct from the factory.

The international headquarters of Mercedes is in Stuttgart, Germany on the other skirts in a place called Unterturkheim. But Mercedes cars are produced all over the world with a new plant opening in Hunguary that will produce fuel effiecent cars. Here is a picture of the SLR McClaren which is top of the mercedes range.

* Picture taken from http://www.sportscarcup.com/expensive-cars/

BMW
BMW was founded in 1916 and is now one of the most famous car producers . They produce high performance cars and motorcycles. The circular blue and white BMW logo or roundel is often alleged to portray the movement of an airplane propeller, an interpretation that BMW adopted for convenience in 1929, which was actually twelve years after the roundel as created.

The international headquarters for BMW is in the suburbs of Munich in Germany and it hosts a impressive building(shown on the right).

*Picture taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW

Car Companies- Italy

Italy
Italy has a long history of producing stylish and sporty cars, the country is home to famous car companies such as Alfa Romeo, Lamborgini, Ferrari, Maserati and Fiat. I am now going to give a brief historical background to the car industry and history in Italy as well as outlining the history of some of the more famous car companies.

The car industry in Italy is one of the biggest employers of the country and more than 196,000 and Italy is the 5th highest car producer in Europe. The automoblile industry in Italy started, it all began with the Stefanini-Martina of 1899. Soon the car industry boomed and companies emerged like the ones we know today.

Ferrari
Ferrari has strong history in car production most notably in sports cars. The founder of the company was Enzo Ferrari, who was an Italian car driver and entrepreneur. The first Ferrari road car was built in 1947 it was the 125 sport. Over the last half a century the Fiat owned company has thrived and is now known for its most stylish and sporty cars but also for its dominance on the F1 racing front.

Here is a picture of the end of production line of a typical Ferrari sports car. The cars are made in the small town of Maranello, in Northern Italy in the province Emilia-Romangna. This town annd surrounding regions is famous for Ferrari and tours of the plant by Non-Ferrari owners and Ferrari owners. The parts for these cars are mostly handmade in Italy while some parts like Tyres are drafted in from Eastern Asia.

Picture Taken From cars.uk.msn.com/news/*

Lamborgini

Founded by Ferruccio Lamborghini after the second world war, Lamborghini started out as a tractor building company in the Italian village of Sant'Agata Bolognese. However, Ferruccio Lamborghini's priorities changed when he went to meet Enzo Ferrari at the Ferrari Factory. In 1963, Lamborgini founded the company that would produce sports cars to rival Ferrari's. Since then the Audi (German) owned company has thrived.

Lamborginis main headquarters and production plant is in mainland Italy in the small town of Sant'Agata Bolognese in the province of Bologna. The small town hosts the Lamborgini headquarters and plant but also to the recently built lamborgini muesum. Here is a old picture of the plant Sant'Agata producing stylish cars on the produciton line.

*Picture taken from http://www.lamborghiniworks.com/history.php

Car Companies Around The World

To start of my blog I have decided to show this image to demonstrate how all car companies are connected while we do not know it. Many companies are that are connected belong to completely different countries.

We can see here that the biggest and most influential companies are Daimler Chrylser and GM who own many smaller companies such as Mercedes Benz. This also shows us the balance of power between countries with countries such as Germany having very strong influence in the automobile world.

As I post more, I will begin to develop on different countries and the car companies within those countries.

Introduction

Hey, this blog is for my environmental studies project.

I have decided to pick cars as my topic because I love them and i know that there is alot of geography involved. I will talk about

• Cars of spefic countries etc
• The geography of where parts used are made and where the raw materials are found.