Everyone knows gas powers most of our cars but in 1870, this idea was revolutionary. Siegfred Marcus put a one-cylinder internal combustion engine with a crude carburetor on a handcart and filled it with liquid fuel making him the first man to drive a vehicle by means of a gasoline. The cart drove for around 500 feet and is now known as the "first Marcus car". In 1883, Marcus used a low voltage magneto-type ignition working together with his rotating brush carburetor for his famous "second Marcus car". It ran at 10 mph and considered very innovative at the time with a few historians naming it as the forerunner of the modern automobile for being the world’s first gasoline-powered vehicle.

Siegfried Marcus was born a German but later moved to Austria in 1852. He manufactured scientific instruments in Vienna and held 131 patents, improving several electric devices such as telegraph systems and ignition devices.

Horses and mules have much to thank Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot. By inventing the world’s first self-propelled vehicle in 1769, Cugnot started a revolution that would liberate them from the drudgery of pulling carts and carriages.

Cugnot, an engineer, worked with several steam-powered vehicle prototypes to transport cannons and other heavy war materiel for the French army. His first effort was a three-wheeled wagon, powered by a boiler mounted on the front. Two years later, he built an improved model which attained a top-speed of 2mph. While maneuvering the heavy vehicle was easy, it required stops every 10 to 12 minutes to regain steam pressure in the boiler. This same model crashed into a garden’s brick wall - the world’s first recorded automobile accident. 

Cugnot’s work was initially supported by the Court of Loius XV. However, the weight and speed of the vehicle made it impractical for military use and further development of the prototype was stopped. The vehicle still exists and is on display at the Conservatoire Nationale des Arts et Metiers in Paris.

As for the first combustion engine automobiles, both Germans Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler produced such in 1885-1886 and 1886-1889, respectively.

Karl Benz began to work on new engine patents in 1878. Initially, he focused on manufacturing a stable two-stroke gas engine, which was based on Nikolaus Otto’s design of the four-stroke engine. A patent on the design by Otto had been declared void. Benz finished his engine on New Year’s Eve and was granted a patent for it in 1879. Benz built his first three-wheeled automobile in 1885 and it was granted a patent in Mannheim, dated January of 1886. This was the first automobile designed and built as such, rather than a converted carriage, boat, or cart. Among other items Benz invented are the speed regulation system known also as an accelerator, ignition using sparks from a battery, the spark plug, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator. He built improved versions in 1886 and 1887 and went into production in 1888: the world’s first automobile production. His wife, Bertha, made significant suggestions for innovation that he included in that model. Approximately twenty-five were built before 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced. They were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.

Check out how the car is such a classic.

The Ford Model T was the first ever production car. Its production brought car prices down, bringing car ownership accesible to the people (when its competitors were selling for around $2000-$3000, it was only sold for $850). Plus, it pioneered the assembly line, wherein the chassis would roll down on one continuous line, with the workers attaching various parts in different areas along the line.