The first motorcar to be driven in Singapore was a second-hand Benz imported from Germany in 1896 by the Katz Brothers firm for a customer. This vehicle was later acquired by lawyer and amateur historian, Charles Burton Buckley, and nicknamed the ‘Coffee Machine’ due to its grinding, shaking and rattling movement. For the locals, motorcars were viewed as strange Western contraptions and thus referred to as ‘devil wind carriages’. Despite such early misgivings, driving motorcars soon became a popular pastime among the wealthy Europeans and Asians, with a Singapore Automobile Club formed in 1907 for car enthusiasts.
