Knowing the usual most expensive, most powerful, most high-speed specifications doesn't make you a car nerd. Knowing these ten superlatives does.
10.) The lightest current production car
At 1,488 pounds, my car is extremely light. But those are pounds from the late sixties. The time when crashing a car almost certainly meant the end of the line for all parties involved.
Today, with all the safety regulations we consider cars twice as heavy to be light as feather. And then comes the Caterham 160 at 1,080 pounds, showing the regulators what's what.
Suggested By: Pitchblende, Photo Credit: Caterham
9.) The longest timing belt on a production engine
If you're planning to buy a Porsche 928, make sure to replace the timing belt after every 45,000 miles instead of the factory recommended 60,000. It's 82½ inches long and if it goes, the V8 goes with it.
Suggested By: Trentanium, Photo Credit: The Car Spy
8.) The smallest modern four-seater car
When Toyota introduced the iQ, it was marketed as the world's smallest four-seater car. I guess the original Fiat 500 would have a few words about that, but those insurance saving seats at the back really make the Toyota the smallest family car of the last few decades, and the tiniest Aston Martin ever by a long shot.
Did you know that the Scion version is actually longer by almost 3 inches? Teenagers.
Suggested By: RyanRask, Photo Credit: Janitors
7.) The widest production car
The 1954 Chrysler Imperial. An ass as wide as 82 3/4 inches and no parking sensor.
Suggested By: sm70, Photo Credit: aldenjewell
6.) The largest fuel tank in a production car
If you take the V12 from a Countach and put large (nowadays unobtainable) tires and more weight around it, fuel consumption will rise. Lamborghini thought of that, and fitted the LM002 with a 29o liter (63.8 gallon) fuel tank. You need range in the desert.
Suggested By: burglar can't heart click anything, Photo Credit: vetaturfumare
5.) The smallest four-cylinder engine in a car
Mazda's tiny 358 cc inline four in their ultra compact Carol was cutting edge back in 1962, with all-aluminum construction and 18 horsepower. The contemporary Honda T360's four-cylinder was actually 2cc smaller, but that was a truck.
Mazda went on to also make the smallest production V6 as well. The 1990s MX3 got a 1.8-liter V6 with variable length intake manifold and a fuel cutoff at 7,800 rpm. Downsizing done the right way!
Suggested By: Jonee and gideonford, Photo Credit: Mazda
4.) The largest four-cylinder engine in a car
The 1909 Blitzen Benz had a 21,500 cm3 (1,312.0 cu in) inline-four. It produced 200 horsepower and broke the world speed record at 141.7 mph. That stood for a decade.
Suggested By: Proud to drive a beater, Photo Credit: exfordy
3.) The most rear wipers on a family wagon
Both the Jaguar E-Type and the MG Midget had three front windscreen blades in 1961, but the real crazy stuff came from Toyota in the eighties with the Cressida.
When Toyota stuck these wipers on the Camry wagon, they even made that exciting!
Suggested By: Fragile_this_side_up, Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
2.) The largest V8 in a front-wheel drive car
Not only was the seventh-generation Cadillac Eldorado a front-wheel drive car, for 1970 it also came with a 500 cubic inch V8. That's 8.2 liters of wobbling right there.
Suggested By: themanwithsauce, Photo Credit: That Hartford Guy
1.) The car that could be both FWD and RWD
Only the British could offer this level of make-do-with-what-you-have engineering.
Vracktal:
There may be others, but from my recollection the MG-Rover ZT is the only car ever sold which could be ordered with front wheel drive or rear wheel drive according to owners preference. I'm careful to say 'car' because i'm aware that commercial vans like the Transit and Trafic could also be specced to FWD or RWD too.
rig_pig:
Not exactly. The 75/ZT if ordered in 4 or 6 cylinder format, was only FWD. The Mustang powered 75 V8/ZT260 was only RWD and very rare...
Vracktal:
That's what I meant. You could choose to have it in FWD or RWD based on what engine you went for- The rest of the bodyshell/interior/design was the same (except the RWD ones has a transmission tunnel.
High production costs in the former British car industry? No kidding!
Suggested By: Vracktal, Photo Credit: Abdulla Al Muhairi
Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
Top Photo Credit: Janitors
The Ten Strangest Automotive Superlatives