When you want to give an idea of an uncountable number, it is usually compared with the number of grains of sand on a beach. However, it would not be a bad option to use the parts that a car has. Can we imagine the number of screws and washers that you should carry with you? Taking into account that many fully manufactured components arrive on the assembly line – and we are not referring to the engine block but to mirrors, headlights … – it can be a task for Hercules to fully count all the pieces and small pieces of a car . However, we can get an idea. The most complicated component in a car is the transmission . Thus, the one of the first car manufactured in history, the legendary Ford T -the best-selling series in history, with 15 million units acquired in the United States-, had 43 pieces. In contrast, that of a current car has between 300 and 400 elements .
The simplest car – not because of its design complexity but because of the number of parts – is the Formula 1 car . Well, the number of elements it consists of is about 60,000 . A normal car will obviously have more parts: now only the body of a BMW 6 Series has 500 – and it only weighs 350 kilograms. We must also take into account the type of engine the car uses: the Wankel engine, which we can find in cars from firms such as Mazda, has 40% fewer parts. All in all, the total number of elements of a car can be estimated between 70,000 and 90,000 . A figure that will continue to rise as more and more accessories are being incorporated.
