Roaming through car history is like driving on an infinite road. It's a hill climb if you will, where every single bend actually represents an amazing car fact. This week, I am going to drive through five amazing bends and tell you five cool car stories. One may call them even weird. This is your mandatory lesson in car history. I chose it only for you, to be more informed about what you love the most. Cars!

BMW and Volkswagen Once Owned Different Parts of the Rolls-Royce Company

Back in the Nineties, BMW and Volkswagen were in a sort of a bidding war over Rolls-Royce. In essence, they were acquiring assets and trying to take control of the company. As you probably know, BMW “won” and gained access of possibly the most recognizable name in the business. However, not before going through more than a four-year-long farce in its bidding war over the company with Volkswagen.

First things first, though. Vickers PLC was the owner for Rolls-Royce and Bentley, while Rolls-Royce PLC, an aircraft engine maker, owned the Rolls-Royce trademark and actually pushed for BMW's takeover of the company. So, BMW got the trademark (branding and stuff), while Volkswagen ended up with factories for RR and Bentley and the Bentley brand. For a brief time of three to four years, Volkswagen actually produced Rolls-Royce vehicles before BMW was able to, with some help from politicians mind you, take over the entire Rolls-Royce brand.

At the turn of the Millenium, this turnover was a hot automotive topic for a few years. Everyone wanted to know what would happen with Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Obviously, a lot of good happened. The Phantom and the Continental GT were the first awesome cars to mark the new era for both brands. One under BMW and the other under Volkswagen.

The 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Had Mercury Cougar Tail-lamps

Parts-sharing isn’t anything new in the world of cars. We all know about Pagani using the instrument cluster of the Lancia Ypsilon for the Zonda, or the Lamborghini Diablo with the Nissan 300ZX's headlights. Heck, even the Jaguar XJ220 used Rover city-car tail lamps. Well, it did. But only for one model year. For the 1968 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Ford prepared 1966 Thunderbird rear lights.

The Exhaust Frequency On The Maserati Quattroporte Was...Arousing?

Back in 2008, the internet world was swamped by really interesting news - “Frequency of the Maserati Quattroporte exhaust actually turns women on.” Well, that was a bomb.

This, obviously, correlated with sexual arousal.

However, I am not actually sure this is 100 percent true. Not the part about the arousal, but about the Quattroporte engine sound.

I’ll let user Chippy569 from Reddit explain to you why this is just a boho. In a rather amazing thread he said (among other things):

“In an engine, the fundamental frequency is directly tied to the RPM of a car, much like the fundamental of a piano note is tied to which key is played. The relationship between the engine RPM and the frequency is simple: engine RPM * (# of cylinders) / 60 (and then /2 for 4 stroke engines) = fundamental. So in a Maserati V8, 333hz *2 * 60 /8 = 4,995 RPM. Therefore this engine should only be "arousing" at just shy of 5,000 RPM. However, that also means a Gallardo V10 should be just as arousing at 333*2*60/10=3,996 RPM, a Ferrari V12 at 3,330 RPM, a Nissan 370Z at 6,660 RPM, and the VW Polo at 9,990 RPM. (Yeah ok, a Polo wouldn't do that... but a street bike would.)”

Now, I do not claim his math is right or that this is a scientific method to prove that any engine can be like this, but I am just saying that he is onto something here.

One Out of Every Four Cars Produced in the World Come From China

Some say that actually one in every three cars is produced in China. Let me be a bit conservative on the title of this paragraph though. Whatever the truth really is, one thing is for certain - the Chinese produce a shitload of cars. Including commercial vehicles, mind you. So, the number that says that every third car produced is from China may actually be the truth.

Bear in mind that the majority of the cars produced in China are produced for the Chinese market. They are cheap, not exactly high-end, and definitely not on par with the cars for the markets in developed countries. Nevertheless, the sheer number is quite staggering. Whole cities in China were developed only to support the production of cars.

The Highest Number of Cars Per Capita Are In San Marino

Do not worry; the U.S. is high-up on this list. With 797 cars per 1,000 people, the U.S. is a country that stacks up high on the list of the highest number of cars per capita. However, it cannot hold a candle to San Marino, an enclaved microstate in Italy with a population of just over 33,000.

All of this counting children.

On the sad end of the scale sits Togo, a small country in West Africa, with only two cars per 1,000 people.