“Originality is the fine art of remembering what you heard, but forgetting where you heard it” as I once famously said. The same is true in automobiles. Everyone likes to take credit for being theĀ first, when in reality it’s rarely true.
Do you want some famous examples? People wrongly claimed the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 convertible was the first car to feature a fully retractable hard top. No no no, I would correct them. It’s the Ford Fairline 500 Skyliner, a big car with a non-folding retractable roof that debuted way back in 1957, some 40 years earlier.
Non! screams a voice from the back of the room. You’re forgetting the Eclipse! No, not the Mitsubishi. The real first retractable hard top is none other than the 1938 Peugeot 402 Eclipse Decapotable. Those tinkerers in Sochaux got a removable top to work almost two decades before anyone in Dearborn could figure it out and, wait, what’s this? Actually, a small number of Eclipses were built on the 401 chassis, two years before that!
This isn’t even my favorite example of this phenomenon. People love to claim that the RAV4 was the first crossover SUV, conveniently forgetting the AMC Eagle, which debuted in 1979. But the Eagle isn’t even the original and, with its available 4×4, was barely a crossover SUV.
The real honor should go to the Matra (sometimes Matra Simca) Rancho. This is a vehicle thatĀ looks like it could be a Range Rover and yet offers almost none of the functionality. Do you want 4WD? I bet you do, but you’re not getting it, because it’s a Simca 1100 underneath, so your only option is a 1.4-liter inline four meekly pushing power to the front wheels.
Departure angles? The departure angle is “please don’t take this off-road” degrees. Even in the photo above, you can see that the “shooters” here are about four inches away from a road, and I think the dog is trying to dig out the front wheel wedged in the mud. If that’s not a template for the modern crossover, I don’t know what is.
Top graphic images: Ford; Thomas Romen/Flickr
Jensen FF had 4 wheel drive and ABS brakes. I believe both firsts for a production road car.
The coolest thing about the Peugeot is not only is it a retractable metal hardtop, but it’s electrically operated, too… In 1938!
The first five-cylinder pickup truck in North America (notice I didnāt say US) was the very rare 1992 VW Transporter Doka, which was sold in Canada in VERY small numbers – either 22 or 250 depending on your source. The Colorado/Canyon, of course, is the answer if weāre just talking about the US. Itās also North Americaās first transverse-engine crew-cab pickup, beating out the Honda Ridgeline.
The Cugnot Fardier Ć Vapeur!
So many firsts.
First front wheel drive automobile!
And truly front wheel, because it only had one front wheel, under a 67 liter steam engine. Terrible weight distribution BTW.
Hell, itās the first automobile!
The second one produced had the first automobile accident and Mr Cugnot allegedly was the first person charged with reckless driving. It only went about 2 miles per hour but at 6,200 lb and no brakes with a steam boiler on the front safety was not given much thought.
Any of that after 1770 is not the first.
Just remember, by the time the Americans were getting around to thinking about starting their own country, the French were already crashing into things in cars. Well one car anyway.
So there!
Oh and Mr Benz always gets credit for the first motor car 116 years later.
However Mrs Benz āborrowedā it for the first cross country trip, and mid trip decided that maybe brakes would be a good idea and invented some brakes and continued on her way, so she definitely gets some credit for that.
Actually, the Patentwagen had brake system, but they were very ineffective due to the low friction between two components. Bertha Benz stopped by the leathersmith to attach the leather stripes to the “pads”, which more or less resolved the issues.
You mean āshoesā?
Does it have brake system? No. Steering system? Barely. Suspension system? No. You get the idea. So, the Benz Patentwagen was the first automobile to receive the patent that defines what automobile for the next 100-plus years. Not to mention being the first automobile to go on the world’s first road trip.
Nice pic of the Matra. They carefully composed the angle so you can’t see the corpses of the couple who drove onto the shooters’ land.
Maybe not the absolute first worldwide, but notable for very cheap economy cars, Crosley became the first American automaker with 4-wheel disc brakes in 1948, and their 1949 Hotshot was the first postwar American sports car, and a pretty early example of a mid engine layout
SCCA racers could get some power out of those sheetmetal engines in the early fifties.
The CoBra was another interesting bit of innovation, somewhat of a dead end, but very creative
First hybrid: The Lohner-Porsche in 1900!
https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/products/taycan/history-18563.html#:~:text=Also%20in%201900%2C%20Porsche%20designed,the%20sphere%20of%20electric%20vehicles.
Chevrolet had a turbocharged, air-cooled flat six in a production car thirteen years before Porsche did… (but I think technically the Oldsmobile turbo (V8) engine might have entered production before the Corvair turbo six, though they were both ’62s).
Yeah, the F-85 Jetfire went on sale about a month before the Corvair Monza Spyder
The Glas 1004 coupe of 1962 was the first car with an OHC engine with a toothed rubber timing belt.
Since BMW absorbed Glas in 1966, there’s very little remaining Glas legacy. Aside from the Goggomobil, I think the only Glas imported to the US was the 1966-67 1700 GT coupe which ended production in 1968, with BMW engine and rear suspension, as the BMW 1600 GT.
I recall reading, at the time, that the Chrysler JA platform Cirrus/Stratus/Breeze triplets were the first non-smoking car. It didn’t come with an ashtray and lighter. You had to buy the “Smoker’s Package” to get the ash cup fitted to the cupholder and a lighter plug. (Sorry- by brain just randomly recalled that)
Also, dunno if it’s a “first” but the Sebring convertible of the same period was designed from the start as a convertible. It’s not a coupe made into a droptop. It used the JA sedan platform. There was a Sebring coupe, but it was a completely different Mitsubishi -derived platform, only the name was the same. So it could possibly be the first purposely-designed (domestic?) convertible.
Just about every car in 1910 was a designed as a convertible
ok fine. then insert “modern” or “post-war”
Thunderbird?
Um – steel roofs weren’t a thing for many years at the beginning of the 20th century.
Alfa Romeo debuted the world’s first variable vale timing in the Alfa Spider in the early 80’s ,and Triumph was first with mass produced 4 valve cylinder heads in its Dolomite.
Same answer as last week: the Ferrari Mondial had big side intake strakes before the Testarossa (and obviously the 348).
But I’ll also remind everyone (as Jason pointed out) that it’s not only the FIRST mid-engined four-seat production convertible, it’s still the ONLY one!
Hmmm
The guy in the center looks like he might play rhythm guitar for Captain Beefheart.
Do you like having a V6 in your normal car? Started with the Lancia Aurelia. How about a unibody chassis? That’d be the Lambda. Might have also been the first transmission tunnel as well, I can’t remember off the top of my head. I’m away from my books right now, but I’d bring the receipts if I was at home. Lancia racked up a fair few firsts.
This is why, if I ever win the lottery, I mean to assemble a whole mess of pre-Fiat Lancias (and maybe a few post-Fiat ones, and I suppose the rebadged Chrysler 300 for a goof)
For years, I’ve had a sick fantasy of face-swapping a 300 into a Thema. That said, my heart lies on the post-Fiat side. I adore my little Scorpion
Of all the atrocities committed upon brands by Stellantis, the fate of Lancia feels the most tragic – a company known for interesting, unique, innovative, well-built cars reduced to releasing badge engineered Chryslers – Chryslers, for godsake! Vincenzo mustāve slept with someoneās wife, because thatās just pure automotive vindictiveness.
I am openly a huge Lancia girl, but I also acknowledge that Lancia has been on death’s doorstep more than once and for much of their history, they’ve been producing mostly “fancy Fiats.” Now, this isn’t a bad thing, Fiat has an amazing history full of solid engineering that they often don’t get enough credit for, just like Lancia does. I tend to feel that Lancia should be allowed to live at all costs; in the “fuck marry kill” game of Italian non-exotic brands, I’m DTF with Vincenzo, but I recognize that means they need to pump out fancy Fiats. The life of the company literally depends on it, and that’s ok.
I donāt know, the current iteration of Maserati seems to be pretty much holding down the fancy Fiat market .
Maserati is my “kill” in the game, plus I’d say they’re more of a fancy Alfa, which is a fancy executive performance Fiat.
Chrysler gets credit for inventing the minivan, but I think that’s been disproved on this very site. Maybe they invented the modern, FWD version that we know today.
Fairly certain it was Matra, the result becoming the Renault Espace.
My understanding was that the Espace and Chrysler minivans came out the same year, and IIRC the Chryslers were released slightly earlier in that year.
Personally, I’d argue the lack of sliding doors prevents the Espace from being a *true* minivan, but they’re cool cars nonetheless.
Stout Scarab ftw!
Except:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DKW_Schnellaster
That’s the one!! It turns out Torch did an article about, surprise, the headlights.
https://www.theautopian.com/start-the-week-by-reflecting-on-the-dkw-schnellaster-headlight-setup-cold-start/
I believe a Cadillac, built circa 1918, is credited with being the first commercially-produced car that used the modern arrangement of clutch/brake/accelerator pedals.
Before that, manufacturers just put the controls wherever they saw fit.
And electric starter as well as first production V8 engine for passenger car.
Sometimes this is what I call second mover advantage. The first has to figure out all the issues, the second just has to look at what the first did and do it better. They don’t have to solve all the issues or prove the market exists.
“It’s not about being first, it’s about being second” -David Bowie
This is why I’d rather be the cop than the robber.
AKA the Apple business model.
In the EV world it’s pretty funny how many people think GM invented the electric car and those people consider themselfs experts as some people think Tesla did. They had them in the 1800s. And were production built in the early 1900s. I always think about Detroit electric but several companies.
Not that I’m sticking up for GM, but the early electric cars – and when I say “early”, I’m talking about anything with lead-acid batteries – were pretty terrible by today’s standards and not particularly usable for much. They’re just jumped-up golf carts, basically, deadly slow, incredibly heavy for their size, and a poor lifespan for their batteries.
GM basically dragged the concept of electric cars into the new era, making them usable for today’s society, in a car that wasn’t some tiny homemade penalty box and drove like anything else. Not really “inventing” electric cars, but sort of a reinvention.
Of course, they pissed it away, GM’s gonna GM.
Ford, Toyota and alot of other small scale manufacturers were right there with them. GM did crush alot of cars though. It’s more a dramatic story so they got a movie and then people think they are expets. The Toyotas and rhe forda and alot of the random little defunct models are still running around. The 1900s EVs were fairly competitive with the ice vehicles of the time. Cars were more like tractors or golf carts.
And lead-acid batteries don’t have the issue with thermal runaway as lithium-ion batteries do.
Woods had them in 1899. There were actually a few midwest manufacturers that made them between 1898 and the U.S.’s entrance into The Great War in 1917. Rich people loved the Woods because they were quiet, didn’t rattle like hell, were fully enclosed (that was uncommon all the way up until the 1920s), and you could charge them by plugging them in to your home’s new and now standard 110V AC outlet.
There were so many manufacturers they seemed to be more on the luxury side and they were simple just plug it in. If you were rich enough to buy one you were probably rich enough to have electric in your house. Seems like rich women were their target demographic. People forget there weren’t gas stations for a while they had to go into pharmacies or general stores to get gasoline that was being sold as a cleaning agent.
Yup, women were a primary audience because of the noise and the whole having to crank the engine thing. EVs were also commonly driven by doctors because they were more reliable.
Plymouth Barracuda. Even a Mustang guy like me can acknowledge that.
what was it first at?
Copying the Pontiac GTO?
First muscle car
The 1st muscle car was the ’64 GTO, or some would argue it was the Rocket 88 15yrs earlier. The Barracuda was a pony car.
First pony car. Chrysler actually simultaneously figured out what would become the pony car formula – sporty car based on existing more mundane platform featuring a long hood/short rear body – and beat Ford to the market by a number of weeks.
But Iacocca knew what he had and did the release with more appropriate fanfare, and the rest is history.
I guess im the outlier in believing the 1963 Ford Galaxie with a 427 is the first Muscle Car
Completely agree. In fact, b/c of the Mustang’s worldshaking success, everyone overlooks Ford’s golden-age muscle car offerings like those Galaxies or the up-level Fairlanes (including the so-extreme-it’s-not-really-considered-a-muscle-car Thunderbolt)
And the ’49 Oldsmobile Rocket 88?
The ’56 Studebaker Golden Hawk?
The ’57 AMC Rambler Rebel?
The ’62 Chevrolet Impala SS with the 409?
Wasn’t the original Rambler Rebel the fastest production sedan in the world for a while?
ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆDidn’t it beat the Mustang to market by just a few weeks? They should have invested a few more dollars and changed that Valiant grill.
I’ve always been fascinated with the Matra Rancho ever since I had both a Matchbox and Corgi model of it as a kid. Total lipstick on a pig though.
Izzat Inigo Montoya with the shotgun in the photo of the Rancho?
Why? Do you have six fingers?
Just on the right hand.
In total, Christopher Guest’s Count character’s finger count goes to eleven.
Where’s that “mind blown” gif when I fucking need it???!!!
That picture of the Ford Skyliner really brought back memories. Growing up in the 50’s we had a 1957 Skyliner. Yellow & white exterior with black & white interior. Classy but that roof leaked like a SOB and would jam going UP or DOWN. Mother and I used to laugh about the times she had to drive to the dealer to get it unstuck. As I recall the techs used manual cranks in a very specific order to get it going again. The roof never did stop leaking. Good times.
I remember, as a little kid, being fascinated by a guy at a car show that had one, he was cycling it up and down every few minutes. Later, my dad, who was a pretty good shade-tree mechanic, explained that the complexity of such a thing pretty much guaranteed that it wouldn’t work for very long.
Also, a few days ago, I was browsing fleabay for some sort of car-related part and a used solenoid panel for a Skyliner popped up on my screen, it looked like twelve regular old Ford starter solenoids mounted on a metal piece.
That’s pretty much exactly what it is, except there are only ten solenoids.
As the former owner of a Skyliner I should point out that these cars don’t have a way of operating the top mechanism with manual cranks, although this is a common misconception. If the automatic sequence doesn’t work as intended then the necessary procedure is to trigger the solenoids behind the rear seat individually to get it back in order. If that doesn’t work, then it’s a matter of unbolting the nonfunctional parts of the mechanism. The trunk lid, for example, can be lifted open manually after undoing a few bolts on the underside of the body.
Sounds like something an Arduino could easily modernize.
And yet Ford continued working on the mechanism, which powered the (soft) roofs of the 1958-1966 Thunderbirds and 1958-67 Continentals.
I think more people should remember the first wave of crossovers. The Mitzu Colt Vista, Nissan stanza wagon, Honda Civic Wagon, Tercel wagon and the rest.
I would argue the Mitsu Expo and first gen Odyssey were basically crossovers too. If it doesn’t have a sliding door, it’s not a van.
The early crossover criteria seems to be mainly… does it have a really tall roof? Which is sort of the same criteria now, except maybe it should be… do you sit really high?
The Nissan Prairie also comes to mind.
What about the original crossover, the AMC Eagle?
People know that one and the others seem to be forgotten about and are much more like the current crossover that sell so well now but did not then.
The Mercedes 190e Cosworth. This car is the reason the M3 as we know it came to exist yet gets none of the love the e30 M3 gets. The Evo variants get respect but they are so rare.
I seriously doubt the 190E was the first homologation hot rod special
Certainly not, but the M3 would come to define the compact luxury performance car for the next several decades. The 190e was the car that preceded it.
The Volt.