A Fact About Cars Every Day

Cars come in more shapes and sizes than your average x-factor queue, although not many come with the optional extra of Simon Cowell sitting in the passenger seat criticising your driving technique. Take these facts down the pub!

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 Only 16 factory authorised right-hand drive prototype De Lorean DMC-12s were made for use in the United Kingdom.

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In the film Gone in 60 Seconds, Christopher Ecclestone’s character doesn’t drive as the actor doesn’t have a driving license.

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The man who took the maiden Monaco victory was Englishman William Grover who would go on to be executed as a Spy in World War II – very James Bond.

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The Porsche 911 was originally designated as the ‘Porsche 901′ (901 being its internal project number). Peugeot protested on the grounds that they owned the trademark to all car names formed by three numbers with a zero in the middle. So, before production started, the new Porsche had its name changed to 911. It went on sale in 1964.

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The paint on a Ferrari F40 is so thin you can see the carbon fibre weave through it. More layers would have added undesirable weight.

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The total number of points scored by women in Formula One is 0.5. It was scored by Lella Lombardi in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. The race was cut short due to an accident and because less than half distance had been completed, half points were awarded. So Lombardi's point for sixth place became half a point.

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The national driving test pass rate was 43.4 per cent last year, based on a total of almost two million learner drivers.

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In 2006 John and Helen Taylor drove an unmodified Volkswagen Golf FSi around the world using just 344 gallons of fuel, averaging 13.8kpg.

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The Bugatti Veyron is named after French racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hour race at Le Mans for Bugatti in 1939.

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The best-selling car of all time is the Toyota Corolla, which sold a staggering 30 million before its replacement by the Toyota Yaris in 2007.

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The "father of the car" was Karl Friedrich Benz, and the first car was the Benz Patent Motorwagen, built in 1885. And it was a three-wheeler, so don't scoff at Reliant Robin drivers – they're keeping it real.

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The late Colin McRae was the youngest ever World Rally champion at just 27 years and 89 days old.

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The fastest car in the world has a highest recorded speed of 257mph and can go from 0 to 60 in 2.78 seconds. Unfortunately, it’s called the Ultimate Aero. But it could have been worse. It could have been called the Ultimate Twix.

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Most racing cars have their tyres filled with nitrogen. The reason being nitrogen has a more consistent pressure compared to normal air.

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The most important car ever made was the Model T Ford. Popularly, the credit goes to Henry Ford, although it was a friend of Ford's, Childe Harold Wills, who oversaw the design of the car and even came up with the squiggly Ford logo. He and Ford later fell out and Wills set up his own car company. Which flopped.

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The Volkswagen Beetle has the dubious distinction of being the most popular car ever created by an evil dictator. Adolf Hitler personally sketched the first Beetle designs in the early 30s.

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Beginning with Mary Anderson, who invented the first windscreen wiper in 1903, women have played a striking role in the evolution of the car. In fact, women inventors were responsible for developing the sparkplug, the clutch and the carburettor.

Bonus points if you can name the car in the picture! And no, its not Brian.