The first self-propelled vehicle in the world: this is the title claimed by the carriage –or, better, by the fardier– that Nicolas Joseph Cugnot built for the Parisian Military Arsenal in 1769. Three wheels, two cylinders and over 4 tons of weight move at a maximum speed of 4 km/h. The invention did not have much of a future, and that first, ten-minute long race that went down in history, ended with a crash against a wall: in fact, the first self-propelled vehicle could neither steer nor stop. The original fardier is exhibited at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris; the one on display here is a replica on a 7/10 scale.
