135 years of motoring. But what’s the best automotive invention?

The greatest automotive invention? I can name a few:

overhead valves
front wheel drive
hydraulic brakes
monocoque all-steel body
torsion bar suspension
wet-sleeve engine
rack and pinion steering
superb handling and ride that rivals anything built today

All of them combined became the greatest car ever built, the car that is the basis for what we all drive today and I must say that I am a bit biased as I own two of them.

The Citroen Traction Avant.

The Streamliners are fuel drop tanks from the second world war Mike. The problem was Allied bombers had range but the fighters such as the P51 Mustang did not. So they added these drop tanks in order to get the fighter protection more range. When they ran out, or needed to fight the opposing attacking aircraft, they would simply "drop" those tanks. After the war, they were really popular to build land speed cars out of. Ready built bodies! I'd love to find one!
Hope that helps out Mike!

The lead photo car"- could that be where William Lyons got the idea for the windscreen on the Jaguar Type 'E'? (!!!!)

Forgotten, as probable inventors of a key element of car safety, are the brothers Ernest and William Weight, who installed and tested four-wheel hydraulic (oil-actuated) brakes on an automobile during 1908. They patented them in December that year and improved them in 1909, demonstrating their test car to UK and European car-builders and displaying them at motor shows. Ultimately, as the Weight Patent Hydraulic Brake Company, they installed them on a Hill and Boll-bodied Metallurgique for the 1910 London show. Very advanced, the patent has foot-operated master cylinders feeding separate circuits for front and rear wheel internally expanding drum brakes.

Even they were not the first to see the benefits of hydraulic brakes, as a number of two-wheeled innovators, in the UK at least, had tried them by 1904. That year, Fred Heath of Redditch devised and fitted a hydraulic (water/glycerine) bicycle brake system, operated by a handlebar lever and piston and obtained patents for “improvements in hydraulic actuated brakes for cycles and motors” and for improved flexible rubber hydraulic pipes.

Who remembers any of them, let alone celebrates?

The greatest automotive invention? My initial thought was the starter motor.

Yes please, more info on the pic´s! I like the aero engine! Very safe for nobody ;)

I am not to sure if I would rate the airbag or the controlled crash deformation of a car higher. Today the most important thing about a car is, how it crashes. Obviosly everybody likes to crash more than to drive.

regards from Tyrol
Thomas

Greatest automobile inventions should surely be in categories - safety, engine efficiency, comfort, transmission, durability, etc. otherwise it;s just too difficult to pick one.

What is the streamlined "car" in your headline photo?