When car companies have a new car model or technology that they want to release to the public, or just want to advertise their lineup to the public at an organized event, then they go to these automotive shows. These are very large events that can draw massive crowds and can result in thousands of people showing up and showing off.
Some of the major shows of the year for the mainstream automotive manufacturers include the Detroit auto show and the Japan Auto show. Companies like Ford, Toyota, Honda and GM dominate these shows. Now, for those smaller companies that don't mass-produce vehicles like Hennessey and other tuners that want to get together and show off what they have been doing for the past year, they go to places like the SEMA auto show in Las Vegas. Not only are there places to look at parked cars at these shows but you can also go and watch live performance demonstrations of what these cars can do. For example, Ford had a large piece of asphalt blocked off so that they could run their new mustangs around and show off to the public just what their products can do.
Like I said before, lots of these big name companies like to wait until these shows to release new cars to the public. Some of the largest releases of recent years include the folowing. The Ford GT, Acura NSX, the new BMW M6, the Ford Raptor and Mustang GT350 and GT350R, and the new Nissan Titan.
I highly reccoment going to one of these shows if you have not already, they have so much new technology to learn about every year and who knows? You might get a chance to see and/or be a part of history.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Perfect Christmas Gift Ideas for Gearheads
If you have a gear head in your family or you are a gear head with family asking for gift ideas, here are some of mine.
Tools- Everyone who like cars probably also works on a car every now and then and the gift of a basic set of tools or a specific tool that they want would be a perfect gift.
Car Calendar- As a great stocking stuffer, it will help them stay organized along with giving them some cool car pictures.
Car Seat Covers- If your gear head had an older car with torn or worn seats and isn't proficient in upholstery repair, then this gift idea is perfect for them.
Custom Vanity Plates or Plate Cover- This is always a fun and interesting gift that will help give your gear head's car a new and unique look.
A "this is my shop shirt" t-shirt- Why not? Everyone needs a shirt to get elbow deep in grease and have an excuse as to why it is dirty and has permanent oil or grease stains.
Hope these help you find that perfect gift for the gear head in your life, and Happy Holidays!
Tools- Everyone who like cars probably also works on a car every now and then and the gift of a basic set of tools or a specific tool that they want would be a perfect gift.
Car Calendar- As a great stocking stuffer, it will help them stay organized along with giving them some cool car pictures.
Car Seat Covers- If your gear head had an older car with torn or worn seats and isn't proficient in upholstery repair, then this gift idea is perfect for them.
Custom Vanity Plates or Plate Cover- This is always a fun and interesting gift that will help give your gear head's car a new and unique look.
A "this is my shop shirt" t-shirt- Why not? Everyone needs a shirt to get elbow deep in grease and have an excuse as to why it is dirty and has permanent oil or grease stains.
Hope these help you find that perfect gift for the gear head in your life, and Happy Holidays!
Big Power
Now, there is a percentage of the motoring world that believes that the key to a cool car is found directly underneath the hood. Now, there are a few different ways that these massive amounts of power can be created in a variety of combinations.
Big Motors:
The most logical and common way to create more power from a car is by simply putting a larger motor in the car. This can mean either a larger cylinder block displacement, more cylinders, and best of all, both. The best example of an automaker going for the biggest displacement can be found in the Dodge SRT Viper, at a mind boggling 8.2 liter V10. This car claims the title for the biggest motor in a current production car. And this was a success, at making well over 640 horsepower and 600 lb/ft of torque it ranks as one of the most powerful as well. Now, the prime example of a production car with an immense amount of cylinders belongs to the Bugatti Veyron. Boasting 16 cylinders in a w formation (like 2 V-8's with one row of cylinders stacked on top of the other), 64 valves, 4 turbochargers and well over 1,000 horsepower. This motor is so complex that it is likely that no other car manufacturer will ever attempt to re-create Bugatti's masterpiece.
Forced Induction:
When simply putting in a larger motor will either not work due to engine bay restrictions or not enough money to afford an engine and transmission swap, then forced induction is another, less expensive way to boos your car's power. Forced induction is the term used for any system that aids the engine in helping increase the amount of air being put into the cylinders. A naturally aspirated engine will only take in as much air as the pressure of the outside air will allow. When you add a means of drawing in more air and compressing it into the same space, you increase power. Denser air = more power. The most common forms of forced induction are supercharging and turbocharging. Superchargers are a compressor powered off of a pulley that draws from the rest of the engine. Now, what this allows for is almost instantaneous power boosts off of the line due to the compressor generating power from the direct increases in engine rpm's. However, this compressor draw can sap some engine efficiency as the rpm's increase. A normal supercharger draws air in from the engine's stock intake system, but if the stock system is not providing enough air to keep the compressor from maximizing, another intake route is available. This alternate to stock intakes is called a blower. What a blower does, is it is an air intake that comes out of the hood of the car directly over the supercharger and draws all extra needed air down to the supercharger when needed through the opening of valves. These blowers are so effective at drawing more air into the supercharger that they can add power boosts of immense proportions. Turbochargers on the other hand are operated through utilizing the pressure of the exhaust. Turbochargers have two housings, both that hold a set of rotors within them. One housing and set of rotors is connect to the other. This first housing is connected to the exhaust pipes just after they connect from the headers and the fan inside is turned by these exhaust fumes. The higher the engine rpm's, the more exhaust fumes produced, thus creating more pressure and spinning this fan faster. The second fan and housing, is connected to either a high flow air filter or is open to the outside air in a cold air dam. What the function of this housing is, is that it takes the spinning power produced from the first housing, and it spins the second fan, that draws in and pressurizes the outside air that is then piped into the engine to create more power. The advantages to having a turbo instead of a supercharger is that it provides a wider band of boost through the rpm's,and it doesn't draw away power directly from the engine pulleys. The one major and probably apparent drawback to turbocharging is that it takes longer to build up the needed exhaust pressure to build considerable amounts of boost at low rpm's. The easiest solution to this problem is to either keep the engine rpm's high when expecting to need a power boost, but this can cause lots of wear and tear on your drive train and i would not recommend doing it very often.
Precision Cylinder boring and Pistons:
A rather new but very effective way at producing immense power in any engine size requires some high tech approaches. With new advances in cnc machining and precision machines similar to that, engines with almost the exact same cylinder and piston dimensions have become common technology in many different race classes. The understanding around this is, is that before, a large amount of energy was being lost when the combustion was occurring and energy was escaping around the piston faster than the piston could move. Now, these new engine blocks and their pistons are so close in measurement, that when the engine is cold, they are physically one piece. The only way for racing teams to make use of this technology is to circulate pre-heated engine fluids through the engine hours in advance to firing the engine in order for it to work. As the block heats up, the cylinders become just wide enough for the cylinders to move when firing the engine. This new technology is a large contributor to the reason that the tiny 1.6 liter v6 used by formula 1 right now, produces well over 600 horsepower and how NASCAR engines can produce an astonishing 900 plus horsepower while being naturally aspirated. Unfortunately, unless you drive a race car to work every day with a means of heating your engine block, this form of gaining power is somewhat out of reach. For now at least it is.
Big Motors:
The most logical and common way to create more power from a car is by simply putting a larger motor in the car. This can mean either a larger cylinder block displacement, more cylinders, and best of all, both. The best example of an automaker going for the biggest displacement can be found in the Dodge SRT Viper, at a mind boggling 8.2 liter V10. This car claims the title for the biggest motor in a current production car. And this was a success, at making well over 640 horsepower and 600 lb/ft of torque it ranks as one of the most powerful as well. Now, the prime example of a production car with an immense amount of cylinders belongs to the Bugatti Veyron. Boasting 16 cylinders in a w formation (like 2 V-8's with one row of cylinders stacked on top of the other), 64 valves, 4 turbochargers and well over 1,000 horsepower. This motor is so complex that it is likely that no other car manufacturer will ever attempt to re-create Bugatti's masterpiece.
Forced Induction:
When simply putting in a larger motor will either not work due to engine bay restrictions or not enough money to afford an engine and transmission swap, then forced induction is another, less expensive way to boos your car's power. Forced induction is the term used for any system that aids the engine in helping increase the amount of air being put into the cylinders. A naturally aspirated engine will only take in as much air as the pressure of the outside air will allow. When you add a means of drawing in more air and compressing it into the same space, you increase power. Denser air = more power. The most common forms of forced induction are supercharging and turbocharging. Superchargers are a compressor powered off of a pulley that draws from the rest of the engine. Now, what this allows for is almost instantaneous power boosts off of the line due to the compressor generating power from the direct increases in engine rpm's. However, this compressor draw can sap some engine efficiency as the rpm's increase. A normal supercharger draws air in from the engine's stock intake system, but if the stock system is not providing enough air to keep the compressor from maximizing, another intake route is available. This alternate to stock intakes is called a blower. What a blower does, is it is an air intake that comes out of the hood of the car directly over the supercharger and draws all extra needed air down to the supercharger when needed through the opening of valves. These blowers are so effective at drawing more air into the supercharger that they can add power boosts of immense proportions. Turbochargers on the other hand are operated through utilizing the pressure of the exhaust. Turbochargers have two housings, both that hold a set of rotors within them. One housing and set of rotors is connect to the other. This first housing is connected to the exhaust pipes just after they connect from the headers and the fan inside is turned by these exhaust fumes. The higher the engine rpm's, the more exhaust fumes produced, thus creating more pressure and spinning this fan faster. The second fan and housing, is connected to either a high flow air filter or is open to the outside air in a cold air dam. What the function of this housing is, is that it takes the spinning power produced from the first housing, and it spins the second fan, that draws in and pressurizes the outside air that is then piped into the engine to create more power. The advantages to having a turbo instead of a supercharger is that it provides a wider band of boost through the rpm's,and it doesn't draw away power directly from the engine pulleys. The one major and probably apparent drawback to turbocharging is that it takes longer to build up the needed exhaust pressure to build considerable amounts of boost at low rpm's. The easiest solution to this problem is to either keep the engine rpm's high when expecting to need a power boost, but this can cause lots of wear and tear on your drive train and i would not recommend doing it very often.
Precision Cylinder boring and Pistons:
A rather new but very effective way at producing immense power in any engine size requires some high tech approaches. With new advances in cnc machining and precision machines similar to that, engines with almost the exact same cylinder and piston dimensions have become common technology in many different race classes. The understanding around this is, is that before, a large amount of energy was being lost when the combustion was occurring and energy was escaping around the piston faster than the piston could move. Now, these new engine blocks and their pistons are so close in measurement, that when the engine is cold, they are physically one piece. The only way for racing teams to make use of this technology is to circulate pre-heated engine fluids through the engine hours in advance to firing the engine in order for it to work. As the block heats up, the cylinders become just wide enough for the cylinders to move when firing the engine. This new technology is a large contributor to the reason that the tiny 1.6 liter v6 used by formula 1 right now, produces well over 600 horsepower and how NASCAR engines can produce an astonishing 900 plus horsepower while being naturally aspirated. Unfortunately, unless you drive a race car to work every day with a means of heating your engine block, this form of gaining power is somewhat out of reach. For now at least it is.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
How many gears is too many?
A new occurrence that is staring to emerge is the number of gears in a transmission is greatly increasing due to a number of factors. These factors range from better fuel economy, to a quieter car, or a faster car, or even just a smoother ride. Whatever the case may be, I feel like too many can be a bad thing at a certain point.
Examples of where more gears present is a good thing is in somewhat larger cars that are aiming to use as little energy as possible to get from point A to B. Small econo-bots like smart cars and cubes though utilize a usually high number of gears, usually 6, but they don't use more because the weight of the extra clutch would be more parasitic to the efficiency of the car than beneficial. However, in larger cars like sedans and luxury coupes, the weight of the extra clutch isn't as parasitic on the motor, due to a higher power output. What these engineers hope to capture is easier acceleration of the car through more gears to keep the revs down as much as possible. This puts less strain on the engine and also allows for less fuel to be used.
High performance cars are also beginning to see this trend, seven and eight speed dual clutch automatic transmissions are becoming the norm for cars with ever increasing top speeds. Manuals are also not omitted from this trend, as Porsche is offering a new 7-speed manual option in some of their cars. This is in an effort to appeal to more new trends occurring in the car world today, but if you ask me, trying to manage finding the right gear in seven different slots would be a nightmare.
So, what do you think? Are more gears better? Is this a fad or do you think that this is going to become the norm?
Examples of where more gears present is a good thing is in somewhat larger cars that are aiming to use as little energy as possible to get from point A to B. Small econo-bots like smart cars and cubes though utilize a usually high number of gears, usually 6, but they don't use more because the weight of the extra clutch would be more parasitic to the efficiency of the car than beneficial. However, in larger cars like sedans and luxury coupes, the weight of the extra clutch isn't as parasitic on the motor, due to a higher power output. What these engineers hope to capture is easier acceleration of the car through more gears to keep the revs down as much as possible. This puts less strain on the engine and also allows for less fuel to be used.
High performance cars are also beginning to see this trend, seven and eight speed dual clutch automatic transmissions are becoming the norm for cars with ever increasing top speeds. Manuals are also not omitted from this trend, as Porsche is offering a new 7-speed manual option in some of their cars. This is in an effort to appeal to more new trends occurring in the car world today, but if you ask me, trying to manage finding the right gear in seven different slots would be a nightmare.
So, what do you think? Are more gears better? Is this a fad or do you think that this is going to become the norm?
Friday, November 20, 2015
What makes a lemon, a lemon?
By definition, a lemon is a car that has so many factory defects in the car that it renders itself completely unsafe and/ or unusable to the owner. Also, the cost of fixing these problems adds up to more than the car is worth, then it can be considered a lemon and is given a salvage title.
There are a few common cars that can almost always be associated with the term lemon. The most notable of these lemons is easily the yugo 45. If you were to look up the words "piece of S*#%" in the dictionary, this would be the picture next to it. What made this car so bad was a multitude of bad ideas put together. For starters, many of these cars had paneling that did not even come close to being aligned correctly. Along with this the body has been known to rust at even the hint of moisture in the air. Another thing is the interior is made out of some of the cheapest and crappiest made materials known to man. The engine and transmission were also prone to very premature and disastrous failure. The frame itself was made out of Russian hot-rolled steel, which was very weak and also very prone to rust. With tan exception to possibly only the Pinto, this was the car you least want to get into an accident with.
Ultimately, any car that has been called a lemon had been done so for very good reasons. It is almost always perfectly accurate in the predictions of the future of the car itself. So, if you hear the term lemon around a car and don't want to pour vast amounts of money into the car, then get as far away from that car a possible.
There are a few common cars that can almost always be associated with the term lemon. The most notable of these lemons is easily the yugo 45. If you were to look up the words "piece of S*#%" in the dictionary, this would be the picture next to it. What made this car so bad was a multitude of bad ideas put together. For starters, many of these cars had paneling that did not even come close to being aligned correctly. Along with this the body has been known to rust at even the hint of moisture in the air. Another thing is the interior is made out of some of the cheapest and crappiest made materials known to man. The engine and transmission were also prone to very premature and disastrous failure. The frame itself was made out of Russian hot-rolled steel, which was very weak and also very prone to rust. With tan exception to possibly only the Pinto, this was the car you least want to get into an accident with.
Ultimately, any car that has been called a lemon had been done so for very good reasons. It is almost always perfectly accurate in the predictions of the future of the car itself. So, if you hear the term lemon around a car and don't want to pour vast amounts of money into the car, then get as far away from that car a possible.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Porsche 911: the Dynasty
When you think of a small, loud and unnervingly fast car that can be used in both daily use and domination of the race track, few disagree that the Porsche 911 can be bested very often in both realms at the same time. As we see the release of the newest piece to this impressive arsenal of cars, I would like to explain what exactly makes these cars so good.
The basic concept of the entire 911 has not changed since it has first emerged back in 1963-64. That winning combination of a rear mounted flat six engine mounted in a car that has not lost its original looks, it has only modernized with more rounded edges and a more functional rear spoiler. Although underneath, the car has evolved greatly to remain at the top of the pack when it comes to performance. From the original performance 911's to the new 911 gt3 rs, they continue to be at the cutting edge of technology when they come out.
The functionality of this German engineered super car allows it to be widely purchased around the world due to it being one of the most manageable yet fast cars. Once you listen to one of these fire up, you know they are fast. Few other cars in the world have been able to create such a loyal following as the Porsche 911.
The basic concept of the entire 911 has not changed since it has first emerged back in 1963-64. That winning combination of a rear mounted flat six engine mounted in a car that has not lost its original looks, it has only modernized with more rounded edges and a more functional rear spoiler. Although underneath, the car has evolved greatly to remain at the top of the pack when it comes to performance. From the original performance 911's to the new 911 gt3 rs, they continue to be at the cutting edge of technology when they come out.
The functionality of this German engineered super car allows it to be widely purchased around the world due to it being one of the most manageable yet fast cars. Once you listen to one of these fire up, you know they are fast. Few other cars in the world have been able to create such a loyal following as the Porsche 911.
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