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Black four seater Benz motor car, 1900. Registration number 'AX 90'. Single stroke horizontal engine running at 800rpm. Bore 5.125 inches (120mm). Stroke 5.5 inches (140mm). 3 gear ratios giving nominal road speeds of 20 9 and 3.75 mph operating through belt and chain drives. Weight about 17cwt. Vis-avis body type. Duc model. Makers horsepower 7. Number of cylinders 1. Engine number '2388'.

Carl Benz was not only one of the pioneers of the petrol engine but, during the 1890s, was one of the first people to manufacture successfully a motor car in large quantities. In 1900 the company made a 4-seater with a relatively large 7 HP engine. The Museum's car is that particular model. It is known that the car was registered in 1904, with the plate AX 90, by a Dr. Cropper of Chepstow who used it on his medical rounds, but it is uncertain whether he was the original purchaser. In 1910 the car was given to the Science Museum in London who, in the following year, offered it to the National Museum of Wales. After having been off the road for nearly seventy years the car was mechanically overhauled in the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum's Workshops in 1978 and successfully completed the London-Brighton Veteran Car Rally in 1978 and 1979.

Benz visualised the motor car as a horseless carriage; the body, both in its style and in its face-to-face seating arrangement, is similar to a carriage, while, mechanically, the engine has one cylinder, mounted horizontally at the rear, with an open crank and belt drive and a steering handle rather than a wheel. By contrast there were already many other cars on the road in 1900 which were similar, both mechanically and in appearance, to today's cars. It is not surprising, therefore, that in 1900 the Benz cars had rather an old-fashioned appearance and their sales, together with the company's fortunes, consequently started to decline. The car has two normal and one special hillclimbing gear and the drive is transmitted to the wheels by means of a combination of belts and chains, giving a maximum speed on level ground of about 16 mph. (Source: Welsh Industrial & Maritime Museum Guidebook, 1984).