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René Panhard and Emilé Levassor built their first car in 1890, a mid-engined, back-to-back horseless carriage. The following year, they built what many consider to be the first modern car, in terms of architecture: front mounted engine, clutch mounted between the engine and gearbox, and a driven rear axle. Almost all automobiles would follow this layout […]

In 1891, Panhard built a batch of 4 identical cars, followed by series after series of increasing numbers. Although Benz and Daimler built cars earlier, they were isolated examples. Chronologically, this makes Panhard-Levassor the world’s first make of car in continuous production. During WWI, Panhard-Levassor produced cars, trucks, marine and aircraft engine, tractors, tools, machine

The main business of Peel Engineering Company, located on the Isle of Man, was making fiberglass molds for motorcycle fairings and boat hulls. In 1955, the company entered the car market. Peel is most famous for the P50–introduced in 1962 and certainly the world’s smallest ever passenger car. In Peel’s literature, it stated that the

Peel Engineering holds a unique place in automotive history for producing the world’s smallest car (P-50) and the world’s smallest 2-seater car (the Trident). The Peel Trident was an evolution of the P-50. It was made slightly larger to accommodate two modest-size adults. The Peel Trident is not very roomy, and when two people sit

Most people associate Peel Engineering with the building of fiberglass bike fairings and microcars. Peel also made a couple of different car models based on then-current production cars’ running gear. The car seen here is a Peel Viking, which is one of only seven left known to exist. Peel actually never produced the whole car;

In 1939, Peugeot introduced their first three-wheeled delivery motorcycle, the “Trimoteur.” It was advertised as “the more economic of the fast means of delivery.” While the rear wheel, seat, and engine appeared as a typical motorcycle, between the front wheels was an open bin that could carry 220 pounds of delivery items. After World War

During the second World War, much of Europe suffered from the lack of gasoline. Peugeot, like many other manufacturers, made a few electric vehicles. The vehicles were austere, to say the least. This Peugeot VLV (light city car) is powered by four 12-volt batteries and had a range of 50 miles. Although totally impractical today, in

Prior to WWII, Ferdinand Porsche was selected by Hitler to design “the people’s car”–the Volkswagen. During the war, Porsche fled to Austria. It was during this time that he designed the 356. In1950, he returned to Germany. Porsche’s first post-war model was the 356 (named as the 356th project off his design desk). The company

Dating back to 1907, Praga is one of the most important Czech makes. The first car to carry the Praga name appeared in 1910 with the slogan “cars which last for hundreds of thousands of kilometers.” In 1929, Praga produced 7,500 vehicles–more than all other Czech companies combined. The Baby, introduced in 1934, was chosen