German engineer, Karl Benz, designing the first true motor car. Karl Benz closely followed developments in engine design after leaving college and worked towards his dream of building a motor car. Karl Benz closely followed developments in engine design after leaving college and worked towards his dream of building a motor car. In the 1870s, Benz designed a reliable two-stroke petrol engine (in which the four operations of the four-stroke engine are combined into one upward and one downward stroke), for which he was granted a patent in 1879.
