The 1903 Spyker 60 HP is generally recognized as the first petrol-powered four-wheel-drive automobile.
Dutch brothers Jacobus and Hendrik-Jan Spijker built the car for racing and demonstration. It used a six-cylinder engine and transmitted power to all four wheels through a four-wheel-drive system. The layout also included four-wheel braking, an advanced feature for its era.
The Spyker 60 HP was developed before four-wheel drive became associated with military vehicles and off-road utility. Its engineering showed that driving all four wheels could improve traction, but the complexity and cost made the arrangement unsuitable for ordinary mass-market cars at the time.
The car is often confused with the 1940s Willys MB, which popularized four-wheel drive in military service, or the 1980 Audi quattro, which helped establish all-wheel drive in performance road cars. The Spyker claim concerns the earliest petrol-powered four-wheel-drive automobile, not the first mass-produced example.