Although very late in the Victorian Era, petrol driven “horseless carriage” cars did make an appearance and were only owned by the very wealthy! The very early cars required a special attendant to walk in front holding a red flag as a warning to others that the petrol car was moving down the street. In 1886 the first car was a three wheeled vehicle which was powered by a one cylinder petrol engine the Benz & Cie Benz Patent-Motorwagen.
Benz & Cie then created the Benz Viktoria in 1892 and the Benz Velo in 1894. The Velo was one of the first cars to be entered into racing. The Velo and Duryea Motor Wagon which was created from the Duryea Motor Wagon Company became the first standardised cars in history.
In 1890 the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft motor company started operating and went on to produce the Mercedes in 1900 which is still in production to this day as a luxury vehicle brand. On this year Fiat had produced 24 Fiat 4 HP cars starting in 1899. At the time this was a record amount of cars as the production time of cars was nowhere near the scale you see today.
In 1896 Mr Walter Arnold from East Peckham in Kent was fined one shilling for speeding at 8mph in a 2mph zone, the first ever speeding fine to be issued in history. He was driving his Karl Benz car and was caught by a policeman on a bicycle!
In 1897 Olds Motor Works in America was being founded and in 1901 they had produced 425 cars. The company owner Random Olds produced one of the first cars for beach racing in Ormond and more famously Daytona, this car was called the Olds Pirate Racing Car. This company and the founder went on to set records racing and averaged a speed of 57mph racing in 1902.