Without further ado, let’s go for a trip into the wonderful, wacky world of cars and strange, interesting facts you’ve probably never heard (or thought of) before.

1. If you could drive a car upwards at 110km/h, it would take you approximately just less than 5 months to get to the moon. The moon is approximately 400,000 km from the earth (about 10 times the circumference of the earth), so driving there would be like driving around the earth 10 times. Astronomer Fred Hoyle was the first who pointed out that if you could point a car upwards, it would only take about an hour of driving to get to space. However, assuming you manage that feat, you’d have two other problems to contend with: Dealing with the lack of food, fuel, oxygen, and clean toilets, and making sure you don’t overshoot the moon.

2. The average car on the street has about 30,000 parts (at least according to Toyota). This counts everything from the chassis all the way down to the smallest screws. A huge number of raw materials, research and development, and production go into the single car you have sitting in your driveway, so the next time you’re out for a spin, think about that.

3. Volkswagen Group owns and sells cars under the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and Porsche marques apart from its own Volkswagen marque. Ever thought that each of these names were unique companies of their own? Think again! All the above brands and even the Ducatti marque from the motorcycle line are under Volkswagen’s parent organization.

4. The odds of someone dying in car accident is 1 in 8,000. By contrast, the odds of someone dying in a plane crash are 1 in 11,000,000, killed by lightning are 1 in 10,000,000, and dying because a left-handed person used a right-handed product are 1 in 4,400,000. What does this tell us? Please be careful on the road!

5. The record for the fastest street-legal production car (as opposed to modified or concept cars) in the world is the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport which clocked in at 431 km/h. This was certified by the Guinness World Records in 2010 and the car was driven by Pierre-Henri Raphanael. Eligible cars on are defined by a strict set of rules such as the definition of a production car.

6. Many new cars’ engines are so much more efficient and quiet that manufacturers have taken to playing the engine noise through speakers. This is especially necessary for electric cars which are so quiet that they actually pose a danger to inattentive pedestrians or the blind. However, this is also done for non-electric cars which has raised controversy.

7. The average speed of the winner at the world’s first automobile race held in 1895 was just about 25 km/h. The course wound from Paris to Bordeaux and back, a distance of approximately 1200 km. Driven by Emile Levassor, he took just under 49 hours to make the distance.
What did you think? Hopefully you’ve learnt some new interesting facts about cars that you haven’t before. Drop a comment if there are others you believe should be on this list but aren’t.

References:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/scientists-calculate-odd-ways-die-282884
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/faq/d/01/04/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_car_speed_record
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/americas-best-selling-cars-and-trucks-are-built-on-lies-the-rise-of-fake-engine-noise/2015/01/21/6db09a10-a0ba-11e4-b146-577832eafcb4_story.html
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-auto-race-held-from-paris-bordeaux-paris