Home and Auto What's the earliest era in which people could reverse engineer a car?

**Rain Man** · 07-25-2015, 09:17 PM

After considerable thought, I went with 1750 to 1799. Steam engines had been around for a while by that point, so the concept of artificial locomotion was understand, and presumably also the ability to build "vehicles", at least in the sense of horsedrawn vehicles. Trains apparently showed up in 1804, so the technology wasn't far away to build things like brakes and gauges and stuff.

I don't know how evolved chemistry was at that point. I looked it up, and the periodic table first appeared in 1869. So per an earlier point, gasoline and oil and lubricants may be the most challenging part of reverse engineering a car, and I guess that would make sense. It was probably the last part that was developed when cars were invented the first time.

So it would have been a stretch in 1775 to build a car, but people are resourceful. I think King George III would have put his best minds on it, and they would have succeeded at great cost and time.

View Poll Results: The earliest era that could successfully reverse engineer a car would be ...
1850 - 1902 era	19	52.78%
1800 to 1849	6	16.67%
1750 to 1799	5	13.89%
1700 to 1749	0	0%
1650 to 1699	0	0%
1600 to 1649	0	0%
1550 to 1599	1	2.78%
1500 to 1549	0	0%
1450 to 1499	0	0%
472 ad to 1449	1	2.78%
1 ad to 471 ad	0	0%
500 bc to 1 bc	0	0%
2000 bc to 501 bc	0	0%
4000 bc to 2001 bc	0	0%
10,000 bc to 4001 bc	1	2.78%
Earlier than 10,000 bc but after homo sapiens emerged	0	0%
I think those earlier hominids were pretty ingenious. Mark me down for them.	0	0%
I don't think anyone could do reverse engineer a car. It had to be developed in a forward gear.	0	0%
I think dolphins could do it.	1	2.78%
I need to learn more about insurance rates in each era before I can answer.	2	5.56%
Voters: 36. You may not vote on this poll

07-25-2015, 09:17 PM	#10
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3138491 VARSITY	After considerable thought, I went with 1750 to 1799. Steam engines had been around for a while by that point, so the concept of artificial locomotion was understand, and presumably also the ability to build "vehicles", at least in the sense of horsedrawn vehicles. Trains apparently showed up in 1804, so the technology wasn't far away to build things like brakes and gauges and stuff. I don't know how evolved chemistry was at that point. I looked it up, and the periodic table first appeared in 1869. So per an earlier point, gasoline and oil and lubricants may be the most challenging part of reverse engineering a car, and I guess that would make sense. It was probably the last part that was developed when cars were invented the first time. So it would have been a stretch in 1775 to build a car, but people are resourceful. I think King George III would have put his best minds on it, and they would have succeeded at great cost and time. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
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