The Ford Mustang isn’t named after the horse. I mean, it is, sort of. But the original inspiration was the P-51 Mustang fighter plane. The horse came later, when the marketing team realized a galloping stallion looked better on a grille than a propeller. I’ve watched that single fact split a room in half, with the horse people absolutely certain they’re right and the plane people waving their phones around. Both sides have a point, which is what makes it a perfect car trivia question.
The person who searches for car trivia already knows a few things. They know what a hemi is, or at least they think they do. They’ve got opinions about whether Tesla counts as a real car company. They can probably name five Ferrari models but not the country where the most Ferraris are sold per capita. That’s the gap I’m interested in. Not the stuff you’d find on a bumper sticker, but the stuff that makes someone who grew up around cars suddenly go quiet.
I’ve run these questions in bars, at car meets, and on long road trips where the driver was getting dangerously confident. They work. Here are a hundred of them.
Turn the Key
1. What does BMW stand for?
I open with this one because it sorts the room instantly. People who know it feel smart. People who don’t feel like they should have known it, which is exactly the energy you want at the start.
Show Answer
Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works). A lot of people say “British Motor Works” with total confidence, which tells you something about the power of a wrong answer that sounds plausible.
2. Which car company uses a trident as its logo?
This one separates the casual fans from the people who’ve spent too long on car configurators they can’t afford.
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Maserati. The trident comes from the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore, which is the most Italian origin story a logo could possibly have.
3. What was the first mass-produced car in history?
Everyone says Model T. And they’re wrong. Well, they’re right about the mass-produced part if you define it narrowly enough, but the Oldsmobile Curved Dash beat it by years. This is the kind of question where the “correct” answer depends on how pedantic you want to be, and in trivia, you always want to be pedantic.
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The Oldsmobile Curved Dash (1901), which used a stationary assembly line. The Ford Model T (1908) popularized the moving assembly line, which is why people remember it. Common wrong answer: Ford Model T, because Henry Ford’s marketing was just that good.
4. In what year did Karl Benz patent the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine?
The year surprises people. It’s earlier than they think, and it makes you reconsider how long humans have been strapping engines to things with wheels.
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1886. His wife Bertha then took it on the first long-distance automobile trip without telling him, which honestly deserves its own trivia category.
5. What color was the original Ford Model T exclusively available in from 1914 to 1925?
This is the car trivia question. The one everyone thinks they know. And they’re right. But what they don’t know is why.
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Black. Henry Ford’s famous line was “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” The reason was practical: black japan enamel dried faster than other colors, which kept the assembly line moving.
6. Which country has the most cars per capita?
I’ve seen entire tables argue about this. America feels like the obvious answer, and that’s exactly why it isn’t.
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San Marino, with roughly 1,263 vehicles per 1,000 people. The United States isn’t even in the top five. Monaco and Iceland also rank higher. Common wrong answer: the United States, because we associate car culture with America more than with a microstate in Italy.
7. What does the “GT” in car model names stand for?
People use this term every day without knowing what it means. When I tell them, they always nod like they knew it all along.
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Gran Turismo (Grand Touring). It originally referred to cars designed for high-speed, long-distance driving in comfort, not just raw performance.
8. Which car manufacturer’s name translates to “I roll” in Latin?
This one’s beautiful because the answer is hiding in plain sight. You’ve been saying it your whole life.
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Volvo. The name was originally a ball bearing brand before it became a car company in 1927.
The Ones That Start Arguments
9. What is the best-selling car of all time?
This question has caused more arguments in my trivia nights than any other car question. People commit hard and fast, and they’re almost always wrong.
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The Toyota Corolla, with over 50 million units sold worldwide since 1966. Common wrong answers: Volkswagen Beetle and Ford F-150. The Beetle is second, and the F-150 is the best-selling truck, not car, which is a distinction that will get you yelled at in Texas.
10. What was the first Japanese car sold in the United States?
Everyone guesses Toyota. It wasn’t Toyota.
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The Datsun (later Nissan) began selling in the US in 1958, though some sources credit the Toyota Toyopet Crown in the same year. The Toyopet was a commercial disaster, though. It couldn’t handle American highway speeds.
11. What does “Quattro” mean in Audi’s naming convention?
Simple question, but it catches people who think it means something more complicated than it does.
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Four, referring to Audi’s all-wheel-drive system. It’s Italian for “four.” Audi is German, using an Italian word for a drivetrain technology. The automotive industry has never cared about linguistic consistency.
12. Which company made the first car with a turbocharged engine available to consumers?
This one stumps gearheads specifically because they overthink it.
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Oldsmobile, with the 1962 Jetfire. Chevrolet released the Corvair Monza Spyder the same year, so there’s some debate, but the Jetfire is generally credited as first. Both were ahead of their time and both were kind of unreliable.
13. What’s the only car to appear on the cover of both Time and Newsweek in the same week?
This is one of those questions where the answer tells you more about American culture than about cars.
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The Ford Mustang, in April 1964. Lee Iacocca’s face was on Time, and the car was on Newsweek. They sold 22,000 Mustangs on the first day.
14. Which automaker’s logo features four interlocking rings?
Easy question. But ask people what the four rings represent, and the room goes quiet.
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Audi. The four rings represent the four companies that merged to form Auto Union in 1932: Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer. Almost nobody remembers all four.
15. What was the first car to have seatbelts as standard equipment?
People guess American cars. The answer is Swedish, and it changed the world more than any engine ever did.
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The 1959 Volvo PV544. Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin invented the modern three-point seatbelt, and Volvo made the patent open to all manufacturers because they believed safety shouldn’t be proprietary. That decision has saved over a million lives.
16. How many moving parts does a typical internal combustion engine have, roughly?
I love this question because the guesses are always wildly different. Someone says fifty. Someone says ten thousand. The truth lands in a place that makes both of them uncomfortable.
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Around 2,000 moving parts. An electric motor, by comparison, has roughly 20. That single comparison explains a lot about where the industry is headed.
Muscle and Metal
17. What engine configuration does the term “V8” describe?
Most people know this one, but they struggle with the specifics when you push them on it.
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Eight cylinders arranged in a V formation, with two banks of four cylinders angled toward each other. The angle between the banks is typically 90 degrees.
18. What does “HEMI” refer to in Chrysler engines?
Guys with HEMI stickers on their trucks sometimes can’t answer this one. I’ve seen it happen. It’s beautiful.
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Hemispherical combustion chambers. The dome-shaped chambers allow for bigger valves and better airflow. The name is literally just a description of a shape.
19. What year was the Chevrolet Corvette first introduced?
People always guess later than the real answer. The Corvette is older than rock and roll.
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1953. And the first ones came only in Polo White with a red interior and a six-cylinder engine, not the V8 people associate with the name.
20. What car is known as the “King of Cool” thanks to Steve McQueen’s famous chase scene in Bullitt?
If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll never forget the sound. If you haven’t, you’ve still somehow absorbed the answer through cultural osmosis.
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The 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 Fastback. The chase scene through San Francisco took three weeks to film and the car hit speeds over 110 mph on public streets. The original Bullitt Mustang sold at auction in 2020 for $3.74 million.
21. What does “GTO” stand for in the Pontiac GTO?
Pontiac borrowed this from Ferrari, which is a level of audacity I respect.
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Gran Turismo Omologato, meaning it was homologated (approved) for grand touring racing. Ferrari used it first for the 250 GTO. Pontiac just liked how it sounded.
22. Which muscle car era is generally considered the golden age: the 1960s or 1970s?
Trick question energy here. The answer depends on which half of the decade you’re talking about.
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The late 1960s to early 1970s. The muscle car era effectively died after 1973, killed by the oil crisis, rising insurance rates, and emissions regulations. The golden age lasted roughly from 1964 to 1972.
23. What was the first production car to break 200 mph?
People guess Lamborghini or Ferrari. The answer is less glamorous and more interesting for it.
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The 1987 Ferrari F40 is commonly cited, hitting 201 mph. But the 1986 Porsche 959 was very close, and some argue the Aston Martin V8 Vantage got there earlier depending on conditions. The F40 is the consensus answer, and it was the last car Enzo Ferrari personally approved before his death.
24. What’s the difference between horsepower and torque, in the simplest terms?
I’ve asked this at car meets and watched people who own 500-horsepower vehicles stumble through an explanation. It’s the car world’s version of asking a fish to describe water.
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Horsepower is how fast you can do work (power). Torque is how much rotational force the engine produces. The common analogy: torque is what pushes you back in your seat, horsepower is what keeps you there.
Around the World in 80 Cylinders
25. What country manufactures the most cars annually?
The answer shifted about fifteen years ago, and a lot of people haven’t updated their mental model.
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China, by a wide margin. China produces roughly 26 million vehicles per year, more than the US and Japan combined. Common wrong answer: Japan or Germany, because people still picture the auto industry as a Japanese-German-American affair.
26. What does “Lamborghini” mean? Specifically, what was Ferruccio Lamborghini’s original business?
The origin story of Lamborghini is the greatest spite-fueled business decision in automotive history.
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Ferruccio Lamborghini manufactured tractors. He started making sports cars after Enzo Ferrari dismissed his complaints about a clutch in his Ferrari. He literally built a car company out of petty revenge, and it worked.
27. Which country drives on the left side of the road: Japan, Germany, or Brazil?
People forget about Japan. Every time.
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Japan. About 35% of the world’s countries drive on the left, mostly former British colonies. Japan is the major exception, having adopted left-hand traffic during the Edo period, long before British influence.
28. What is the national speed limit on the German Autobahn?
This is the question where confident people get confidently wrong.
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There is no blanket national speed limit on the Autobahn. The recommended speed is 130 km/h (81 mph), but about 30% of the Autobahn has no speed limit at all. Many sections do have posted limits, though, especially near cities. The idea that the entire Autobahn is a free-for-all is a myth.
29. What Italian city is home to both Ferrari and Lamborghini?
They’re not in the same city, but they’re close enough to make this question interesting.
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Trick answer: they’re both in the Emilia-Romagna region, but Ferrari is in Maranello and Lamborghini is in Sant’Agata Bolognese. They’re about 20 miles apart. That stretch of Italian highway between them is called “Motor Valley” and it’s also home to Maserati, Ducati, and Pagani.
30. What does “Volkswagen” literally translate to?
One of those questions where if you know any German at all, you’ve got it.
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“People’s car.” It was conceived in the 1930s as an affordable car for the average German citizen. The history gets dark from there, which is why Volkswagen’s marketing department works very hard to focus on the present.
31. What’s the best-selling car in Africa?
This question reveals geographic blind spots. People guess based on what they see in American driveways.
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The Toyota Hilux pickup. It’s practically indestructible, parts are available everywhere, and it can handle roads that would destroy most vehicles. Top Gear famously tried to kill one and couldn’t.
32. Which country invented the highway system: Germany or the United States?
Americans will say America. Germans will say Germany. They’re both sort of right and sort of wrong.
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Italy, technically. The first autostrada opened near Milan in 1924. Germany’s Autobahn system began in the 1930s. The US Interstate Highway System didn’t come until 1956. But the question of “inventing” a highway depends on your definition, which is why this question works so well at trivia nights.
The Numbers Game
33. How many cars are there on Earth, approximately?
The number is staggering and nobody gets close on their first guess.
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Over 1.4 billion. If you parked them bumper to bumper, they’d circle the Earth roughly 180 times.
34. What is the most expensive car ever sold at auction?
This answer changes every few years, but the current record is absurd enough to be memorable.
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A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé, sold in 2022 for approximately $143 million. Only two were ever made. The previous record holder was a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO at $48.4 million, which suddenly seems like a bargain.
35. What’s the average number of parts in a modern car?
Not moving parts. Total parts. The number is genuinely hard to believe.
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Approximately 30,000 parts. That includes every bolt, clip, wire, and washer. It puts into perspective why cars cost what they cost and why supply chain disruptions hit the auto industry so hard.
36. What percentage of its life does the average car spend parked?
This is the question that makes people reconsider car ownership entirely.
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About 95%. Your car sits doing nothing for roughly 23 hours a day. This statistic is one of the core arguments for ride-sharing and autonomous vehicles.
37. How long did it take the Ford Model T to go from $850 to under $300?
The price drop tells the story of the assembly line better than any textbook.
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About 16 years. The Model T started at $850 in 1908 and dropped to $260 by 1924. Adjusted for inflation, that initial price was about $28,000 in today’s money, which means the Model T started as a middle-class car and ended as something almost anyone could afford.
38. What’s the most ticketed car in the United States?
People always guess something flashy. A Corvette, a Mustang, a BMW. The actual answer is much more mundane.
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Studies vary by year, but the Subaru WRX consistently ranks near the top, along with the Pontiac GTO and Scion FR-S/Toyota 86. It’s not about the car being fast; it’s about the type of person who buys it. A minivan with 300 horsepower gets fewer tickets than a WRX with 268 because of who’s behind the wheel.
Under the Hood of History
39. What was the first car company to offer a car radio as an option?
The car radio feels like it’s been around forever. It hasn’t.
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Galvin Manufacturing Corporation installed the first commercial car radio in 1930. They named it “Motorola” (motor + Victrola). Yes, that Motorola. They made car radios before they made anything else.
40. When were electric cars first invented: the 1890s, 1960s, or 1990s?
This is the question that rewrites people’s understanding of automotive history in real time.
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The 1890s. Electric cars outsold gasoline cars in 1900. They were quieter, easier to start, and didn’t require hand-cranking. They lost out when the electric starter motor made gas cars easier to use and when cheap gasoline became widely available. The EV “revolution” is really a comeback tour.
41. What car did John F. Kennedy ride in when he was assassinated?
Most people know it was a Lincoln. Fewer know the specific model, and almost nobody knows what happened to the car afterward.
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A 1961 Lincoln Continental SS-100-X. After the assassination, the car was rebuilt with a permanent roof, bulletproof armor, and titanium plating, then returned to White House service. It was used by four more presidents. That fact unsettles people, and it should.
42. What was the Volkswagen Beetle originally designed to be?
The Beetle’s origin story is one of those things people know vaguely but not specifically, and the specifics matter.
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A cheap, reliable “people’s car” for Nazi Germany, commissioned by Adolf Hitler and designed by Ferdinand Porsche. The same Ferdinand Porsche who founded the sports car company. The Beetle went on to become a symbol of the 1960s counterculture, which is one of history’s stranger ironies.
43. What was the first car with an automatic transmission available to the public?
The manual vs. automatic debate has been going on longer than most people realize.
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The 1940 Oldsmobile, which offered the Hydra-Matic transmission. It was a game-changer for accessibility. General Motors marketed it as “no clutch, no shift,” and within a few years, most American manufacturers offered automatics.
44. What was the DeLorean DMC-12 famous for before Back to the Future?
The movie saved the car from being remembered for something much less fun.
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It was famous for being a commercial failure and for its founder John DeLorean’s arrest in a federal drug trafficking sting in 1982. He was acquitted on entrapment grounds, but the company was already bankrupt. The stainless steel body panels were innovative, but the underpowered engine made the car disappointing to drive.
45. What year was the first speeding ticket issued in the United States?
The speed involved will make you laugh.
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1899. A New York City taxi driver named Jacob German was arrested for going 12 mph in a zone where the limit was 8 mph. He was taken to jail. For going twelve miles per hour.
46. Which car company started as an aircraft engine manufacturer?
There are several correct answers here, but the one I’m looking for is the most famous one.
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BMW. The blue and white logo is often said to represent a spinning propeller against a blue sky, though BMW’s own historians have called this a myth. The logo actually comes from the Bavarian state colors. But the propeller story is so good that even BMW used it in their marketing for decades.
The Ones That Sound Made Up
47. What color is the most popular car color in the world?
Boring answer. But it’s boring for a fascinating reason.
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White. It’s been the world’s most popular car color for over a decade. The reasons are practical: white reflects heat, shows dirt less than black, and has higher resale value. Also, Apple made white cool again in the 2000s, and the effect rippled into car purchases. Seriously.
48. What car part is stolen most often?
This has changed recently, and the current answer says a lot about the world we live in.
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Catalytic converters. They contain precious metals like platinum, palladium, and rhodium. A thief with a battery-powered saw can remove one in under two minutes. The metals inside can be worth $100 to $1,500 on the black market.
49. How many car brands does the Volkswagen Group own?
People start naming them and run out of fingers fast.
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Around 12 major brands, including Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, SEAT, Škoda, Ducati (motorcycles), and others. The fact that the same company makes a $20,000 Škoda and a $3 million Bugatti is one of the auto industry’s strangest facts.
50. What happens to most “new” cars before they’re sold?
This question always gets a confused look before the answer clicks.
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They sit on dealer lots for an average of 50-70 days. A “new” car has been manufactured, shipped (sometimes across an ocean), transported by rail or truck, and parked in the sun for weeks or months before you drive it off the lot. The concept of “new” is generous.
51. What’s the only continent where you can’t buy a Toyota?
Simple. Almost too simple. But people overthink it.
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Antarctica. Toyota is sold on every other continent. In fact, modified Toyota Hiluxes have been driven to both the North and South Poles, so even Antarctica hasn’t been completely Toyota-free.
52. What car has been in production the longest without a complete redesign?
There are a few contenders, but the most commonly cited answer is a car you’ve definitely seen but probably never thought about.
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The Morgan 4/4, which has been in production since 1936. Morgan still builds cars largely by hand in Malvern, England, and the basic design philosophy hasn’t changed in nearly 90 years. They use ash wood in the frame. In 2024.
Pop Culture Pit Stop
53. What kind of car is the Batmobile in the 1966 Batman TV series based on?
The answer is a real car, and it’s more beautiful than any Batmobile that came after it.
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A 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car, modified by George Barris. He bought the Futura from Ford for $1 and turned it into the most iconic TV car of the 1960s. That’s a return on investment you can’t argue with.
54. In the Fast and Furious franchise, what car does Dominic Toretto most famously drive?
Even people who’ve never seen the movies know this one, which tells you something about the cultural penetration of that franchise.
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A 1970 Dodge Charger R/T. After the first movie came out, prices for real Chargers skyrocketed. The franchise has destroyed hundreds of them over the years.
55. What car does James Bond drive most frequently across the entire franchise?
People say the specific model instantly. But they often get the manufacturer wrong on the very first Bond car.
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The Aston Martin DB5. It first appeared in Goldfinger (1964) and has returned in multiple films since. In the original novel of Casino Royale, Bond actually drives a Bentley, not an Aston Martin. The switch to Aston Martin was a movie decision.
56. What car is “Herbie” in the Love Bug films?
A freebie for anyone over 40. A genuine question for anyone under 25.
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A 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, racing number 53. The number 53 was chosen because it was the jersey number of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale, a favorite of the film’s producer.
57. In the movie Cars, what type of racing does Lightning McQueen compete in?
Parents know this. Everyone else guesses wrong because they assume it’s Formula 1.
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Stock car racing, specifically the Piston Cup (a parody of the NASCAR Cup Series). Lightning McQueen’s design is loosely based on a stock car with elements of a Le Mans endurance racer.
58. What was KITT in Knight Rider?
Two questions here: the make and model, and what the acronym stands for.
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A modified 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. KITT stands for Knight Industries Two Thousand. The car could talk, drive itself, and was essentially an autonomous vehicle decades before Silicon Valley got the idea.
59. What car does Walter White drive at the beginning of Breaking Bad?
The car was chosen deliberately by the show’s creators to communicate everything about Walter White’s life before he broke bad.
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A 2004 Pontiac Aztek, frequently cited as one of the ugliest cars ever made. Vince Gilligan chose it specifically because it represented Walter White’s defeated, compromised existence. The Aztek became a character in its own right.
Engineering Surprises
60. What gas fills most car airbags when they deploy?
People guess air. It’s not air. That’s why they’re not called “airbags.” Wait, they are called airbags. This is confusing, which is why the question works.
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Nitrogen gas, generated by a chemical reaction involving sodium azide. The entire inflation process takes about 30 milliseconds. By the time you hear the bang, the bag is already deflating.
61. Why do car tires have treads?
Everyone knows tires have treads. Surprisingly few people can explain why, and even fewer know that race cars often don’t use them.
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To channel water away from the contact patch and prevent hydroplaning. On a perfectly dry surface, a smooth tire (slick) actually provides better grip, which is why Formula 1 cars use slicks in dry conditions and switch to treaded tires in the rain.
62. What does ABS stand for in a car’s braking system?
Most drivers have ABS and have never thought about what the letters mean.
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Anti-lock Braking System. It prevents the wheels from locking up during hard braking, allowing the driver to maintain steering control. The technology was originally developed for aircraft in the 1920s before being adapted for cars.
63. What’s the purpose of a car’s differential?
This is the question that separates people who drive cars from people who understand them.
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It allows the outer wheel to rotate faster than the inner wheel during a turn. Without a differential, the car would hop, skip, and understeer through every corner because both wheels would be forced to spin at the same speed.
64. What fuel do most Formula 1 cars use?
People say racing fuel or jet fuel or something exotic. The answer is more pedestrian than they expect.
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A highly refined form of gasoline (petrol) that must contain at least 10% sustainable fuel as of recent regulations. It’s not dramatically different from pump gas in composition, though the specifications are incredibly precise. The FIA regulates the exact formula closely.
65. What does the “octane rating” of gasoline actually measure?
Nearly everyone who has pumped gas has chosen between 87, 89, and 93 without knowing what those numbers mean. This is the question that fixes that.
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It measures the fuel’s resistance to knocking (premature detonation). Higher octane fuel doesn’t contain more energy or make more power in a standard engine. It simply resists compression better, which matters in high-compression or turbocharged engines. Putting premium in a car that doesn’t require it is burning money.
66. What was the first car with a rear-view camera?
People think this is a recent innovation. It isn’t.
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The 2002 Infiniti Q45 offered the first factory-installed rear-view camera system. It took until 2018 for the US government to require backup cameras in all new cars. That 16-year gap between “available” and “mandatory” cost lives.
Name That Brand
67. What animal is on the Porsche logo?
Quick one. But the follow-up catches people: what city is it the symbol of?
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A horse. It’s the coat of arms of Stuttgart, Germany, where Porsche is headquartered. The surrounding red and black antlers come from the coat of arms of the Free People’s State of Württemberg.
68. What does “Lexus” stand for? Is it an acronym?
The internet has generated several fake acronyms for Lexus. None of them are real.
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Lexus doesn’t stand for anything. It’s a made-up name, likely derived from the word “luxury.” Toyota created the brand in 1989 specifically to compete in the luxury market without the Toyota name. The backronym “Luxury EXports to the United States” is clever but completely fabricated.
69. Which car company’s name comes from the founder’s initials?
There are several, but I’m looking for the one where the initials are hiding in plain sight.
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Multiple answers work here: Citroën (André Citroën, though it’s his surname), but the classic answer is that many assume BMW fits this description when it doesn’t. A strong answer is DMC (DeLorean Motor Company) or even KIA, though KIA actually means “rising out of Asia” in Korean. The question is designed to make people realize how many car names they’ve never questioned.
70. What does “SRT” stand for in Dodge’s performance lineup?
Dodge guys know this. Everyone else takes a swing.
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Street & Racing Technology. It’s Dodge’s high-performance division, responsible for models like the Hellcat and Demon.
71. Toyota’s luxury brand is Lexus. Honda’s is Acura. What is Nissan’s?
The pattern is well-known. The specific answer sometimes escapes people because the brand has been less prominent in recent years.
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Infiniti. Launched in 1989, the same year as Lexus. Both were created because Japanese manufacturers wanted to sell luxury cars in America without the stigma that “Japanese” meant “cheap” at the time. That stigma is gone now, but the brands remain.
72. What does the Chevrolet “bowtie” logo represent?
Nobody knows for certain, and that’s what makes this question fun. There are at least three origin stories.
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The honest answer is: nobody is completely sure. Co-founder William C. Durant claimed he saw a similar design in a French hotel’s wallpaper. His wife said he found it in a newspaper ad. Another account says it was inspired by the Swiss flag. Chevrolet has never officially settled the debate.
Speed Demons
73. What is currently the fastest production car in the world?
This changes, and people’s answers reveal when they last paid attention to the record.
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As of recent records, the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ holds the record at 304.77 mph (490.48 km/h), set in 2019. The SSC Tuatara claimed a higher speed but it was disputed. The Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut is a theoretical contender. This record is contested more often than a parking spot in Manhattan.
74. What’s the fastest a car has ever gone on land?
Not a production car. Any car. The number is barely comprehensible.
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763.035 mph (1,227.985 km/h), set by the ThrustSSC in 1997. It broke the sound barrier. On land. The car was powered by two Rolls-Royce jet engines. Calling it a “car” is generous, but it had wheels and it was on the ground, so it counts.
75. What does the 0-60 time measure?
Everyone uses this metric. Not everyone understands what it actually tells you and, more importantly, what it doesn’t.
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The time it takes a car to accelerate from a standstill to 60 miles per hour. It’s the most commonly cited performance metric in America (in Europe, they use 0-100 km/h). What it doesn’t tell you: how the car handles, how it stops, or how it feels at speed. A Tesla Model S Plaid does 0-60 in under 2 seconds but weighs over 4,700 pounds, which matters when the road turns.
76. What was the first production car to use a carbon fiber monocoque chassis?
This is a deep cut. It rewards the obsessives.
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The 1992 McLaren F1. Gordon Murray designed it with a carbon fiber central monocoque, a gold-lined engine bay (gold reflects heat better than any other material), and a center-mounted driver’s seat. It was the fastest production car in the world for over a decade.
77. In drag racing, what does “ET” stand for?
Drag racing has its own language, and this is the most basic term. If you know it, you’ve been to a strip. If you don’t, you’re about to learn something.
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Elapsed Time. It’s the total time from the starting line to the finish line. The other key measurement is trap speed, which is the speed at the finish line. A car can have a slower ET but a higher trap speed if it’s slower off the line but faster at the top end.
Electric Avenue
78. What was the first mass-market electric car of the modern era?
People say Tesla. It wasn’t Tesla. And the real answer involves a conspiracy theory that became a documentary.
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The General Motors EV1, leased to consumers starting in 1996. GM controversially recalled and crushed nearly all of them, which became the subject of the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? The Nissan Leaf (2010) and Tesla Model S (2012) came much later. Common wrong answer: Tesla Roadster (2008), which was the first from Tesla but not the first modern mass-market EV.
79. What percentage of new car sales in Norway are electric?
The number shocks people. Norway is living in the future, and the rest of the world is watching.
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Over 80% as of recent years, with some months exceeding 90%. Norway achieved this through massive tax incentives, toll exemptions, and free parking for EVs. It’s the closest thing to a real-world case study of what happens when a government goes all-in on electrification.
80. How long does it take to charge a Tesla Model 3 from empty to full on a home outlet?
The answer explains why dedicated home chargers exist.
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On a standard 120V household outlet, roughly 50 or more hours. On a 240V Level 2 home charger, about 8-10 hours. At a Tesla Supercharger, about 30-45 minutes to 80%. The gap between those numbers is the entire EV infrastructure debate in miniature.
81. What does “regenerative braking” do in an electric car?
EV owners explain this to gas car owners constantly. Getting the explanation right is harder than they think.
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It converts the car’s kinetic energy back into electrical energy to recharge the battery when the driver lifts off the accelerator or brakes. The electric motor essentially runs in reverse, acting as a generator. It’s why EV brake pads last much longer than those on conventional cars.
82. Who founded Tesla Motors?
This is the question that starts fights in Silicon Valley. The answer is not as simple as most people think.
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Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning incorporated Tesla Motors in 2003. Elon Musk joined as chairman of the board and lead investor in 2004. A lawsuit later resulted in five people being designated as co-founders: Eberhard, Tarpenning, Musk, JB Straubel, and Ian Wright. The question of who “really” founded Tesla depends on whether you think money or incorporation papers matter more.
The Ones Nobody Gets
83. What does the “RS” badge mean on Porsche models?
Not what most people guess. It’s German, and it’s more specific than “really sporty.”
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Rennsport, which means “racing sport” in German. The RS designation has been used since the 1973 Carrera RS 2.7, and it consistently marks the most track-focused versions of Porsche’s lineup.
84. What car company produced the Tin Lizzie?
You either know this nickname or you don’t. There’s no middle ground.
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Ford. “Tin Lizzie” was the popular nickname for the Model T. The origin of the nickname is debated, but one theory is that it came from a race-winning Model T named “Old Liz” that looked like a tin can on wheels.
85. What is a “shooting brake”?
This term confuses Americans and delights Europeans. It sounds violent but it’s actually quite elegant.
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A two-door car with a wagon-style rear end. The term originated from horse-drawn carriages used to transport shooting parties and their equipment. In modern usage, it refers to sporty wagons or hatchbacks, like the Ferrari GTC4Lusso or Mercedes-AMG GT Shooting Brake.
86. What country is Koenigsegg from?
The name sounds German. It isn’t.
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Sweden. Christian von Koenigsegg founded the company in 1994. Sweden produces Volvo, Saab (now defunct as a car brand), and one of the most extreme hypercar manufacturers on Earth. The range is impressive.
87. What’s the only car brand to have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans on its first attempt?
Deep cut. This one’s for the racing nerds, and even they often get it wrong.
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Mazda, in 1991, with the 787B. It remains the only Japanese manufacturer to win Le Mans overall. The rotary engine’s distinctive scream is one of the most famous sounds in motorsport. The following year, rotary engines were effectively banned from the race through regulation changes.
88. What does “Subaru” mean in Japanese?
The logo gives it away, if you know what you’re looking at.
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Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. The logo features six stars representing the five companies that merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries (now Subaru Corporation), with the largest star representing the merged entity. Count the stars on the logo next time. There are six.
89. What was the first car with GPS navigation built into the dashboard?
The answer predates what most people think of as the GPS era.
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The 1990 Mazda Eunos Cosmo, sold only in Japan. In the US, the 1995 Oldsmobile 88 was among the first with a factory GPS option. The systems were crude by today’s standards, with low-resolution screens and limited map data, but the idea was already there.
Money and Machines
90. What’s the cheapest new car you can buy in the United States today?
People are always shocked by both how cheap the cheapest car is and how expensive “cheap” has become.
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The Nissan Versa, starting around $16,000-$17,000 depending on the model year. For context, the average new car transaction price in the US is now over $48,000. The gap between the cheapest and average car has never been wider.
91. What car depreciates the fastest in its first year?
Luxury cars dominate this list, and the numbers are painful.
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Luxury sedans like the BMW 7 Series and Maserati Ghibli consistently top depreciation lists, losing 30-40% of their value in the first year. Electric vehicles from non-Tesla brands have also depreciated rapidly. Meanwhile, trucks and certain Toyotas hold value like they’re made of gold.
92. What’s the most expensive car brand to insure in the United States?
Not the brand you’d think. Insurance costs don’t always correlate with sticker price.
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Tesla frequently ranks among the most expensive to insure, due to high repair costs and expensive proprietary parts. Maserati and BMW also rank high. The cheapest to insure tend to be Honda and Subaru models. Insurance companies care about repair costs and claim frequency, not how cool the car looks.
93. What percentage of a car’s cost goes to the dealer versus the manufacturer?
This question makes people think about the car buying process differently.
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The dealer markup on a new car is typically 2-5% of the MSRP, though this varies wildly with market conditions. During the chip shortage of 2021-2022, some dealers added markups of $5,000-$20,000 over MSRP. The manufacturer’s profit margin is usually 5-10%. Most of the sticker price goes to materials, labor, R&D, and shipping.
Safety and Strange Laws
94. In what year did airbags become mandatory in all new cars sold in the United States?
Later than you think. Much later.
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1998 for both driver and passenger side. That means there are cars on the road today from the late ’90s that might not have passenger airbags. The technology existed decades earlier but the mandate took that long to pass.
95. What country requires cars to have their headlights on at all times, even during the day?
Several countries do this, but the most commonly cited one started the trend.
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Sweden was among the first, implementing the law in 1977. Many Scandinavian countries followed. Canada requires daytime running lights on all new cars sold since 1990. The US doesn’t mandate it, though most modern cars have automatic daytime running lights anyway.
96. What’s the legal blood alcohol limit for driving in most US states?
Everyone thinks they know this one. And they do. But the follow-up is what gets them: what is it in most European countries?
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0.08% in the US. In most European countries, it’s 0.05%. In countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, it’s 0.00%. Zero. Not a sip. The variation worldwide is enormous and says a lot about different cultures’ relationships with both alcohol and driving.
97. What safety feature did Volvo invent and then give away for free?
I asked this earlier in the list. If you were paying attention, you already know. If you weren’t, this is your second chance, and the answer is worth remembering.
Show Answer
The three-point seatbelt, invented by Nils Bohlin in 1959. Volvo opened the patent so every car manufacturer could use it without paying royalties. It’s estimated to have saved over a million lives. No single automotive invention has done more good.
The Final Lap
98. What’s the rarest production car ever made?
“Rarest” is debatable, but there’s one answer that consistently wins the argument.
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The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, with only 36 ever made. They regularly sell for $40-70 million when they come to market, which is rare in itself. Some argue the McLaren F1 LM (only 5 made) or the Lamborghini Veneno (only 5 made) are rarer, but the 250 GTO has the combination of rarity, racing pedigree, and cultural significance that nothing else matches.
99. What does the “check engine” light actually tell you?
This is the most universally experienced car moment, and almost nobody knows what it means beyond “something’s wrong.”
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It means the car’s onboard diagnostic system (OBD-II) has detected a fault, most commonly related to the emissions system. The light can mean anything from a loose gas cap to a failing catalytic converter. The most common cause is literally a loose gas cap. The light was designed to tell you something is wrong with the emissions system, not that your engine is about to explode, but the vague orange glow has caused more unnecessary panic than any other dashboard symbol.
100. What was Bertha Benz’s contribution to automotive history, and why does it matter more than her husband’s patent?
I save this one for last because it reframes everything. Karl Benz patented the automobile. Everyone knows that. But the car might have stayed a curiosity, a workshop novelty, if not for what happened next.
In August 1888, Bertha Benz took the Patent-Motorwagen on a 66-mile trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim with her two teenage sons, without telling Karl. She had to solve problems on the road: she used a hatpin to clear a clogged fuel line, a garter to insulate a wire, and she stopped at a pharmacy to buy ligroin as fuel because gas stations didn’t exist. She invented the brake lining during the trip when the wooden brakes wore out and she had a cobbler nail leather onto them.
She proved the car worked. Not in a workshop, not on paper, but on a real road with real problems. Every car trivia question in this list exists because one woman decided to take a drive nobody asked her to take.
Show Answer
Bertha Benz made the first long-distance automobile trip in history on August 5, 1888, driving 66 miles and proving the automobile was a viable mode of transportation. The route is now a memorial road in Germany called the Bertha Benz Memorial Route. Karl built the car. Bertha proved it was a car and not just an engine with wheels.
General knowledge is the hardest round to write because it has to be genuinely broad. I've been at it for 13 years from Boston, MA and I still approach every question like I'm writing for a room full of different people, because I am. I've written for JetPunk trivia, and I take the same care with every set I write.
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