Automotive Evolution

From The Encyclopaedia Expurgatia

Although invented by the homosapiens, the evolution of the motorised carriage perplexes most members of the species.

From the first conceptual model built in AD1672, powered by steam, the modern motorcar was effectively invented in AD1885 [rumours of a 1981 DeLorean DMC12 driving about in California that year notwithstanding] and led ultimately to the 1893 Benz, the 1902 Oldsmobile, and ultimately the 1908 Ford Model T.

Speciation throughout the twentieth century led to countless competing forms and six hundred million members of the Class Automobilia at the beginning of the twenty-first.

As with all evolution, automotive species do on occasion go extinct, becoming replaced by more fit [if often less interesting] automobiles. For example, though the Genus Firebird gave rise to the Genus Camaro, the latter eventually replaced it:

• 1953
  • The General Motors Firebird I [XP21] is invented, made of fibreglass, utilising a 370horsepower jet turbine
• 1956
  • The Firebird II is made of titanium with a 200horsepower engine
• 1958
  • The Firebird III is made again of titanium, using a 225horsepower GT305 along with a secondary, ten-horsepower motor to run its accessories
• 1961
  • The Firebird goes offline for a while, arguably being replaced by the Pontiac Tempest
• 1964
  • John DeLorean invents the Pontiac GTO, replacing the Tempest
• 1967
  • The Firebird returns as a production model, devolving from the GTO
  • The Chevrolet Camaro--effectively the same car--also debuts
• 1970
  • The Firebird and Camaro evolve into second generation FBodies
• 1982
  • The FBodies evolve again, into Generation III
• 1993
  • Gen4 evolves
• 2002
  • Gen4 extincts, replaced not by Gen5, but by SUVs
• 2009
  • The fifth generation Camaro is produced, its fixed headlights proving more fit to survive in a fragile world than the servomotored flipups of Firebirds since 1982