Happy birthday Car...

The car turns 120 on Sunday, January 29.

It was on this day in 1886 that German, Karl Benz, applied for a patent for a motorised vehicle. Granted in November of the same year, Patent No37435a, official recognition Benz design for a 'clunky' three-wheeler as the world’s first automobile.

Says Mercedes-Benz's press material: "It was the individualised technology that secured the Benz Patent Motor Car this status. Unlike other inventors, Benz did not merely install an internal combustion engine into an existing coach chassis, thereby making it capable of autonomous motion (Greek/latin: auto/mobil). His design extended to the entire vehicle: It was quite clear to him that a vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine was subject to engineering principles quite different from those applying to a horse-drawn carriage."

Benz's first car featured a a small horizontal, single-cylinder four-stroke petrol engine which was watercooled and fuelled by a rudimentary carburettor..

Eventually to become known as the "Patent Motor Car", three examples were completed by 1888.

Folklore has it that one was secretly taken out by Bertha Benz, the inventor’s wife, who drove it with her sons 100km from their home in Mannheim to Pforzheim; this journey earned the vehicle much publicity, and Benz sold a number of cars to customers as a result.

Benz's first four-wheeled vehicle, the "Victoria", followed in 1893. This incorporated further innovation including double-pivot steering which is essence is still employed in today’s cars.