and in the beginning there was...

The Benz Patent-Motorwagen ("patent motorcar"), built in 1885 by the German engineer Karl Benz, is widely regarded as the first practical automobile and was the first car put into production. Attached are pics of the 1/24 ICM kit I made sometime ago. And yesterday this wonderful little Minichamps 1/24 Daimler Motorkutsche 1886 arrived. 

The Daimler Motorized Carriage was the first car produced by German engineers Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, who founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG). The first car was sold in 1892. The vehicle built by Daimler and Maybach is not classified as an automobile, however, since it was a stagecoach, a horse-drawn carriage purchased from another manufacturer, which they adapted by putting an engine onto it to move two of the wheels. In contrast, the Benz Patent Motorwagen had a chassis that was designed from the beginning as an integral part of a vehicle that would be motorized, therefore making the vehicle qualify for a patent as an invention.

Love all this early auto history, nice to have a couple of representatives in 1/24.