The first carburetors were surface carburetors where the volatility of the petrol was utilized. The Austrian automobile pioneer Siegfried Marcus invented the “rotating brush carburettor”. This was further improved by the Hungarian engineers János Csonka and Donát Bánki in 1893.[2]
Frederick William Lanchester of Birmingham, England, experimented with the wick carburetor in cars. In 1896, Frederick and his brother built the first gasoline driven car in England, a single cylinder 5 hp (3.7 kW) internal combustion engine with chain drive. Unhappy with the performance and power, they re-built the engine the next year into a two cylinder horizontally opposed version using his new wick carburetor design.
In 1885, Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler developed a carburetor for their engine based on the Atomizer nozzle.
Carburetors were the usual fuel delivery method for most U.S. made gasoline-fueled engines up until the late 1980s, when fuel injection became the preferred method of automotive fuel delivery. In the U.S. market, the last carbureted cars were:
* 1990 (General public) : Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, Buick Estate Wagon
* 1991 (Police) : Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor with the 5.8 L (351 cu in) engine.
* 1991 (SUV) : Jeep Grand Wagoneer with the AMC 360 engine.
* 1994 (Light truck) : Isuzu[3]
Elsewhere, certain Lada cars used carburetors until 2006. A majority of motorcycles still use carburetors due to lower cost and throttle response problems with early injection setups, but as of 2005 many new models are now being introduced with fuel injection. Carburetors are still found in small engines[citation needed] and in older or specialized automobiles, such as those designed for stock car racing.
Source : http://en.wikipedia.com