Everything with an engine and a road.
Car history and how engines work, electric cars and motorbikes, road signs, number plates and the great road trips, for families, classrooms and anyone who loves cars. Every fact here links to its source. Warm up with the game: can you name the motoring topic from one clue?
Which motoring topic?
8 clues. Pick the topic each one describes.
Press start for your first clue.
Nine motoring topics
- Manx motoring
- Car history
- Engines
- Electric cars
- Motorbikes
- Road signs
- Number plates
- Road trips
- Classic cars
Each clue in the game is one of the facts in the motoring file. After you pick, the full fact and its source appear. The drawing is our own.
Open now: Manx Motoring
The first motoring.im site is open. Manx Motoring is the owner’s reference that used to live at motoring.im: car-ownership guides, a garage desk of planning tools, Isle of Man official links and printable vehicle records. It now has its own address.
Visit manx.motoring.im Its shop
Bringing an old car back to life? Our Car Restoration Project Planner, a spreadsheet with printable pages (paid download, $6.99) keeps the budget, parts, jobs and hours of a restoration in one place, in Excel or Google Sheets.
Also open: car history and engines
Two new motoring sites are open, each with sourced facts, games and printables. Their links open in a new tab.
- Car history
history.motoring.imThe history of the motor car in plain English: Cugnot’s steam tractor, Benz and Daimler, Bertha Benz’s drive, the Model T, the Red Flag Act, the Mini and the land speed record, with games and printables.
Open nowThe Complete Car History Printables Bundle, $12.99 - Engines
engines.motoring.imHow a car engine works in plain English: the four-stroke cycle, petrol and diesel, spark plugs, camshafts and flywheels, gears and horsepower, and the inventors from Lenoir to Wankel, with games and printables.
Open nowThe Complete Car Engine Printables Bundle, $12.99
Forgotten and unusual machines
Eight small sites about machines that tried something different: a tram on tyres, a car that stood on two wheels, an atomic car that never left the model stage, a three-wheeled car of the future, a gas turbine car lent to the public, a Dutch automatic that changed gear with rubber belts, a battery tricycle from the maker of the ZX Spectrum, and a German convertible that could drive into a lake. Every fact is sourced. Their links open in a new tab.
- The TVR tram on tyres
tvr.motoring.imThe TVR, the guided tram on rubber tyres that ran in Nancy and Caen from 2000 to 2023. Not the sports car. How it worked, why only 50 were sold, and what replaced it.
Open nowThe Complete TVR Printables Bundle, $12.99 - The Gyro-X
gyro-x.motoring.imThe Gyro-X, the 1967 two-wheeled car held upright by a spinning flywheel. The claims, the reality, and its rebuild at the Lane Motor Museum.
Open nowThe Complete Gyro-X Printables Bundle, $12.99 - The Ford Nucleon
nucleon.motoring.imFord’s 1958 atomic car, which never got beyond a 3/8-scale model. The idea, the design, the problems and where the model is now.
Open nowThe Complete Ford Nucleon Printables Bundle, $12.99 - The Dymaxion car
dymaxion.motoring.imBuckminster Fuller’s three-wheeled car of 1933: rear engine, front-wheel drive and steering from the tail. Only three were built. How it worked, what really happened in Chicago in October 1933, and the one car that survives.
Open now - The Chrysler Turbine Car
chrysler-turbine.motoring.imChrysler’s 1963 gas turbine car: 50 bronze, Ghia-bodied coupes lent free to 203 American drivers, then mostly destroyed. How the turbine worked, the loan programme, the nine survivors and the tall tales checked.
Open now - The DAF Variomatic
daf-variomatic.motoring.imHub van Doorne’s belt-driven automatic: two rubber belts on pulleys that changed size, first shown in the DAF 600 in 1958 and used in every DAF car and in Volvos until 1991. How it worked, the cars, reverse racing, and how it became today’s CVT.
Open now - The Sinclair C5
sinclair-c5.motoring.imSir Clive Sinclair’s battery-assisted tricycle of 1985, legally a pedal cycle you could drive at 14 without a licence. Not the Citroën C5. Why it had pedals, how it worked, the lorry tests, Hoover, the receivership and the unsold stock.
Open now - The Amphicar 770
amphicar.motoring.imThe German amphibious convertible sold from 1961, mostly in America: a Triumph Herald engine at the back, two propellers under the tail and front wheels that steer it afloat. Who built it, what 770 really meant, the leaks, the 1965 Channel crossing, President Johnson’s lake trick and how many survive.
Open now
What is motoring.im?
motoring.im is a small hub for cars, motorbikes and the roads they run on. Each topic will get its own site with sourced facts, games and printables. Some true things to start with:
The first car
In 1885 the German engineer Karl Benz built the world’s first practical car powered by an internal-combustion engine. [source]
The first long drive
In August 1888 Bertha Benz drove the couple’s two sons about 106 km from Mannheim to Pforzheim in a Motorwagen: the first long-distance drive in a car. [source]
Island roads
Racing on Britain’s public roads was forbidden, so in 1904 a Manx law opened the Isle of Man’s roads for the 1905 Gordon Bennett Car Trial. [source]
Fifteen million
More than 15 million Model Ts were built. [source]
Coming soon
Six more motoring sites are planned.
- Electric cars
electric.motoring.imPlanned: how electric cars and hybrids work, batteries and charging, and the history that goes back further than you might think.
Coming soon - Motorbikes
motorbikes.motoring.imPlanned: the first motorcycles, how a bike works, and the Isle of Man TT.
Coming soon - Road signs
road-signs.motoring.imPlanned: what the shapes and colours of UK road signs mean, with spotter sheets for journeys.
Coming soon - Number plates
number-plates.motoring.imPlanned: how to read a UK number plate, and the stories behind registration marks.
Coming soon - Road trips
road-trips.motoring.imPlanned: famous roads such as Route 66, and how to plan a family drive with games for the back seat.
Coming soon - Classic cars
classics.motoring.imPlanned: the Model T and other classic cars, and how to look after an old car’s story.
Coming soon
Sister hubs
motoring.im is part of the same REALLYBYTE family as these hubs:
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