Supercar

History is more or less bunk,” said Henry Ford, the famous mass producer of black cars, in 1916. But the long history of car technology development perhaps proves him wrong. 

Back in 1771,  the French engineer Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot took to the road in his steam-powered vehicle, considered by many to be the first automobile. Since then around 100,000 patents have led to the creation of modern cars. For example one of the earliest internal combustion engines, designed to run on turpentine, was patented by Stuart Perry in 1844.

Today’s cutting edge research is still pushing back the boundaries of that concept over 160 years later.

This century’s pressures of protecting the environment and human health occupy the mind of an engineer working on diesel power at the University of Brighton, Professor Morgan Heikal. “My big challenge is that future European legislation for diesel vehicle emissions is very tough. If current trends continue it is likely that in about ten years emissions of nitrous oxide (NOx) from new vehicles will have to be around one-fiftieth of today’s levels. Existing technology can achieve big reductions in NOx but fuel consumption rises. We have to hit both.”