the motor car first appeared in germany in 1885 when karl benz and gottlieb daimler, each working independently of the other, produced self-propelled vehicles powered by rear-mounted, petrol-fuelled single-cylinder engines. these were based on the stationary gas engine that used the four-stroke principle.

the replicas of the originals that each engineer produced gave birth to the worlds motor industry, although in 1896, france and not germany became the worlds largest manufacturer of motor vehicles. in 1891 a french engineer, emile levassor, transferred the engine of the panhard et levassor car from its established rear location to the front of the vehicle, from where it drove the rear wheels via a clutch and in-line gearbox. named systeme panhard, it rapidly overtook the original layout in popularity and survives, in essence, on large-capacity cars.

the progressive gottlieb daimler soon produced, in 1893, a vertical two-cylinder in-line engine a...