The motor car first appeared in Germany in 1885 when Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, each working independently of the other, produced self-propelled vehicles powered by rear-mounted, petrol-fuelled single-cylinder engines. These were based on the stationary gas engine that used the four-stroke principle.

The replicas of the originals that each engineer produced gave birth to the world’s motor industry, although in 1896, France and not Germany became the world’s largest manufacturer of motor vehicles. In 1891 a French engineer, Emile Levassor, transferred the engine of the Panhard et Levassor car from its established rear location to the front of the vehicle, from where it drove the rear wheels via a clutch and in-line gearbox. Named Systeme Panhard, it rapidly overtook the original layout in popularity and survives, in essence, on large-capacity cars.

The progressive Gottlieb Daimler soon produced, in 1893, a vertical two-cylinder in-line engine and Benz followed, in 1897, with a horizontally opposed twin in which the cylinders were in the same plane as the crankshaft. Panhard had introduced the in-line four in 1896 and this configuration soon outstripped all other types in popularity, most notably in the Henry Ford Model T, built between 1908 and 1927.

Over 15 million of these Fords were produced and their success helped America to consolidate its position, attained in 1906, as the world’s largest manufacturer of motor cars. The United States dominated the industry until 1980, when it was overtaken by Japan.

Britain had lagged behind France and Germany in introducing the motor car, as its industry was stifled by the presence of the Locomotive Act of 1865. This required self-propelled vehicles to be limited to a speed of 3.2 km/h (2 mph) in towns and 6.2 km/h (4 mph) elsewhere. Originally, motor cars were required to be preceded by a man carrying a red flag but this stipulation was usually set aside following an amendment to the act in 1878.

As early cars we