Audi decides how cars will sound driving down electric avenue...
I should have thought that the answer for Audi was fairly obvious…a loud Bavarian voice repeating endlessly Achtung, Vorsprung Durch Technic, Dumbkopf
Showing posts with label Engineering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Engineering. Show all posts
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Friday, 29 January 2010
Fusion Salvation?
The BBC is running what might just be the most important story this year, maybe ever. It is about a giant leap forward towards controllable fusion and limitless energy. It's typical that the BBC, obsessed with getting their vengeance on Tony Blair, are not running it on the main news page but in Science and Technology. Maybe they don't understand what its significance is. Call me an optimist but I reckon that this is the beginning of the end of our carbon dependence and so maybe global warming, resource wars, desertification and poverty. Not there yet but watch this space!
Monday, 21 December 2009
Monterey 2009: Blastolene's twin-supercharged V12 Peterbilt hot rod — Autoblog
When I was young, in my teens, I had a very strange psychiatric disorder. You see at the time I was engrossed in F1, Le Mans and Ferrari 250LMs, a perfectly respectable interest for a 15 year old, I was also secretly grooving to US hot rods - something only coarse and common boys were into. It is hard to imagine how different these two categories of vehicle were. I have to confess that this split personality, this automotive schizophrenia, has never quite left me.
So it was with quivering excitement that I read the story in Autoblog of the Blastolene V12 Peterbilt hot rod. What a machine, what a concept, what a name, wowee! Such a fantastical concoction so beautifully made couldn't help but stir the blood. So see for yourself....isn't it quite something!
Monterey 2009: Blastolene's twin-supercharged V12 Peterbilt hot rod — Autoblog
Photo copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
So it was with quivering excitement that I read the story in Autoblog of the Blastolene V12 Peterbilt hot rod. What a machine, what a concept, what a name, wowee! Such a fantastical concoction so beautifully made couldn't help but stir the blood. So see for yourself....isn't it quite something!
Monterey 2009: Blastolene's twin-supercharged V12 Peterbilt hot rod — Autoblog
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Techart Porsche Cayenne Turbo closes in on 200 mph at Nardo — Autoblog
This article tells how Techart have made a Porsche Cayenne Turbo reach almost 200mph. On the face of it this sounds really clever but it is nothing of the sort. It is merely basic Physics at work.
The maximum speed of a car occurs when the power available equals the power required to overcome the rolling resistance (the friction of the tyres and moving bits in the engine) plus the drag of the car travelling through the air. The drag in turn has two parts: skin friction and form drag due to the size of the front of the car and the overall shape. In aeroplanes there is a third type called "lift induced drag" which hardly matters here because the prospect of a 200 mph Cayenne lifting off is too terrifying to contemplate. So to make a car go fast you need it to have lots of power, a small frontal area and a slippery shape.
For a Cayenne there is not much you can do about its frontal area or shape so the only way to make it go faster is by giving it more power - hence the 680 bhp of this one. So theoretically one might imagine that doubling the power would double the speed so a Techart Cayene with 1,360 bhp might do 400 mph. But it doesn't work like that because drag also increases with speed and not directly. It is a squared relationship so at 400 mph the Cayenne would need four times the power required at 200 mph or a whopping 2,720 bhp!!! I suppose you could build a 2,720 bhp Cayenne but it would be like an AA Fuel Dragster. It would need to run on nitromethanol and would only last 10 seconds before either running out of fuel or exploding!
So you can see how silly this sort of thing is because it depends on only producing more power. And for what? Such a car offers nothing remotely useable over the highly capable standard Cayenne. I suppose Jezza and the Hamster might be able to persuade little boys that it's wonderful but not me.
Techart Porsche Cayenne Turbo closes in on 200 mph at Nardo — Autoblog
The maximum speed of a car occurs when the power available equals the power required to overcome the rolling resistance (the friction of the tyres and moving bits in the engine) plus the drag of the car travelling through the air. The drag in turn has two parts: skin friction and form drag due to the size of the front of the car and the overall shape. In aeroplanes there is a third type called "lift induced drag" which hardly matters here because the prospect of a 200 mph Cayenne lifting off is too terrifying to contemplate. So to make a car go fast you need it to have lots of power, a small frontal area and a slippery shape.
For a Cayenne there is not much you can do about its frontal area or shape so the only way to make it go faster is by giving it more power - hence the 680 bhp of this one. So theoretically one might imagine that doubling the power would double the speed so a Techart Cayene with 1,360 bhp might do 400 mph. But it doesn't work like that because drag also increases with speed and not directly. It is a squared relationship so at 400 mph the Cayenne would need four times the power required at 200 mph or a whopping 2,720 bhp!!! I suppose you could build a 2,720 bhp Cayenne but it would be like an AA Fuel Dragster. It would need to run on nitromethanol and would only last 10 seconds before either running out of fuel or exploding!
So you can see how silly this sort of thing is because it depends on only producing more power. And for what? Such a car offers nothing remotely useable over the highly capable standard Cayenne. I suppose Jezza and the Hamster might be able to persuade little boys that it's wonderful but not me.
Techart Porsche Cayenne Turbo closes in on 200 mph at Nardo — Autoblog
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
VIDEO: Jay Leno drives the 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Challenger
Jay Leno seems to like the Hotchkiss E-Max Challenger as well.
Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Videos, Dodge, Celebrities
Well, well, well -- look who's jumping on our Hotchkis bandwagon. It's none other than Jay Leno behind the wheel of the 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Challenger! What a wonderful beast of an automobile.
To refresh your memory a bit, the suspension gurus at Hotchkis wanted to build a classic muscle car that not only looked and sounded the part, but that handled like a modern performance car. In fact, they wanted to take things a step further, so they went and built an auto-crosser. To quote ourselves, 'Tooling around the 'hood a bit I'm slightly amazed at how much the bright yellow Dodge feels like a go kart. A gigantic go kart, but a go kart nonetheless.'
And guess what? Jay feels the same way. Well, not quite the same, as he compares the handling to a Lamborghini. We're not prepared to go quite so far, but there is no question that as far as 1970 Mopars go, this is the best handling one out there, period. One thing Jay does that we didn't get to do is place the E-Max on a lift and get a guided tour of all the fancy-pants suspension components from none other than John Hotchkis himself. They examine the poly-bushings, the shiny tie-rods and the elegant A-arms that make up the E-Max's sophisticated front end, as well as the less-than-modern (but still nifty) solid-axle leaf-sprung rear. Then they venture out into the streets of Burbank for a little hoonage, including a smoky burnout. Watch the video, after the jump.
Photos copyright (C)2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Jay Leno's Garage]
VIDEO: Jay Leno drives the 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Challenger originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsWednesday, 4 November 2009
SEMA 2009: 427-powered Fiat 500 is the stuff dreams are made of
Cinque cento diventare settemila. Bravo! Stupendo!
SEMA 2009: 427-powered Fiat 500 is the stuff dreams are made of: "
Filed under: Aftermarket, Motorsports, SEMA Show, Classics, Coupe, Performance, Fiat, Specialty
Okay, this is so awesome it hurts. The guys at Legacy Innovations took a perfectly lovely but woefully underpowered 1959 Fiat 500 and turned it into a Fiat 7,000. The Fiat 500 is an iconic car, one with tremendous nostalgic charm, but it was never really much good as a car until they redid it a few years ago. So although we might love the little 500, it doesn't provide a very good platform for what the Legacy Innovations guys had in mind for it - namely drag racing.
Easy fix though. They broke out the torches and gutted it. They basically removed all of the weak stuff and replaced it with a full-on 4130 chrome molly tube chassis, hinged the body in true Funny Car fashion and dropped in a 725-HP 427 small block. The body was kept relatively stock, save for the hood cutout, but they still managed to mount a pair of Hoosier slicks in back and still had room for wheelie bars that extend out far enough to effectively double the length of their little 500.
No word on how quick this baby is in the quarter, but we bet it's quick enough to embarrass just about anything else coming out of Italy. It's cars like this that make the trip to SEMA totally worthwhile.
Photos copyright (C)2009 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.
SEMA 2009: 427-powered Fiat 500 is the stuff dreams are made of: "
Filed under: Aftermarket, Motorsports, SEMA Show, Classics, Coupe, Performance, Fiat, Specialty
1959 Fiat 500 Funny Car by Legacy Innovations - Click above for high-res image gallery
Okay, this is so awesome it hurts. The guys at Legacy Innovations took a perfectly lovely but woefully underpowered 1959 Fiat 500 and turned it into a Fiat 7,000. The Fiat 500 is an iconic car, one with tremendous nostalgic charm, but it was never really much good as a car until they redid it a few years ago. So although we might love the little 500, it doesn't provide a very good platform for what the Legacy Innovations guys had in mind for it - namely drag racing.
Easy fix though. They broke out the torches and gutted it. They basically removed all of the weak stuff and replaced it with a full-on 4130 chrome molly tube chassis, hinged the body in true Funny Car fashion and dropped in a 725-HP 427 small block. The body was kept relatively stock, save for the hood cutout, but they still managed to mount a pair of Hoosier slicks in back and still had room for wheelie bars that extend out far enough to effectively double the length of their little 500.
No word on how quick this baby is in the quarter, but we bet it's quick enough to embarrass just about anything else coming out of Italy. It's cars like this that make the trip to SEMA totally worthwhile.
Photos copyright (C)2009 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.
SEMA 2009: 427-powered Fiat 500 is the stuff dreams are made of originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments" Friday, 23 October 2009
Review: 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger causes smiles lasting longer than four hours
From Autoblog. Thank goodness that in this world of political correctness, where dissent is not tolerated and spin rules, someone has created a real car for real men. This reminds me of the Holden small-block-Chevy-engined Monaro 327 GTS of my youth in Oz where each year it fought it out with Ford to see who preached the Sermon on the Mount (aka Bathurst). They were even yellow too.
Side note for the Top Gear crew: Bathurst is pronounced "a" as in Ack Ack not "ar" as in arse. Extraordinary that neither Jezza nor the Hamster seem to know this - perhaps they've never been to the World's Greatest Saloon Car Race.
Review: 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger causes smiles lasting longer than four hours: "
Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Dodge
Before we begin, we have to state up front that we've rarely - if ever - had more fun with a car than we had with the Hotchkis E-Max Challenger. And the loud yellow Dodge was in our possession for maybe five hours. Why are we cutting to the chase like this? Why not structure this review like any other and start with the basics, describe the vehicle and then state a conclusion? First of all, just look at the bloody thing: 'dripping with sex' is the only proper description. But the truth is that this is more the recounting of an adventure than a plain old car review. Keep reading. You're going to have some fun. Though not nearly as much fun as we did.
But yes, we should start with the basics. Legendary suspension tuner Hotchkis took a 1970 Dodge Charger with a 340 six-pack and built themselves an autocrosser. The list of modifications is not only the stuff of which jealousy is made, but exhaustive. Though, Hotchkis claims the E-Max isn't so wild, 'Even in Auto-Cross trim, E-Max is a relatively stock vehicle compared to many of the auto-cross competitors.' Good to know. That said, it's still a long list.
Here's some of it: Custom Moroso oil pan, Be Cool aluminum radiator, Red Line synthetic oil, Optima Battery, MSD ignition, Classic 5-Speed Tremec TKO, Flowmaster exhaust, Stoptech brakes, Forgeline wheels and Yokohama tires, Sparco Milano 2 seat (as in just the driver seat), Hurst Shifter. Not bad, right? Then you got all the Hotchkis stuff that lies beneath, including tubular A-arms, front and rear sport sway bars, subframe connectors, sport springs, adjustable steering rods with a fancy Flaming River power steering unit and adjustable strut rods. Says Hotchkis of their handiwork, 'The bolt-on system creates a proper negative camber curve, sufficient positive camber for high speed stability and full bump and droop travel without bumpsteer. Prototype Hotchkis-Afco adjustable stocks provide high performance damping.' Got it? Good - let's get to the story.
Photos copyright (C)2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
Continue reading Review: 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger causes smiles lasting longer than four hours
Side note for the Top Gear crew: Bathurst is pronounced "a" as in Ack Ack not "ar" as in arse. Extraordinary that neither Jezza nor the Hamster seem to know this - perhaps they've never been to the World's Greatest Saloon Car Race.
Review: 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger causes smiles lasting longer than four hours: "
Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Dodge
1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger - Click above for high-res image gallery
Before we begin, we have to state up front that we've rarely - if ever - had more fun with a car than we had with the Hotchkis E-Max Challenger. And the loud yellow Dodge was in our possession for maybe five hours. Why are we cutting to the chase like this? Why not structure this review like any other and start with the basics, describe the vehicle and then state a conclusion? First of all, just look at the bloody thing: 'dripping with sex' is the only proper description. But the truth is that this is more the recounting of an adventure than a plain old car review. Keep reading. You're going to have some fun. Though not nearly as much fun as we did.
This is the type of experience that as a journalist you undeniably have to go through.
But yes, we should start with the basics. Legendary suspension tuner Hotchkis took a 1970 Dodge Charger with a 340 six-pack and built themselves an autocrosser. The list of modifications is not only the stuff of which jealousy is made, but exhaustive. Though, Hotchkis claims the E-Max isn't so wild, 'Even in Auto-Cross trim, E-Max is a relatively stock vehicle compared to many of the auto-cross competitors.' Good to know. That said, it's still a long list.
Here's some of it: Custom Moroso oil pan, Be Cool aluminum radiator, Red Line synthetic oil, Optima Battery, MSD ignition, Classic 5-Speed Tremec TKO, Flowmaster exhaust, Stoptech brakes, Forgeline wheels and Yokohama tires, Sparco Milano 2 seat (as in just the driver seat), Hurst Shifter. Not bad, right? Then you got all the Hotchkis stuff that lies beneath, including tubular A-arms, front and rear sport sway bars, subframe connectors, sport springs, adjustable steering rods with a fancy Flaming River power steering unit and adjustable strut rods. Says Hotchkis of their handiwork, 'The bolt-on system creates a proper negative camber curve, sufficient positive camber for high speed stability and full bump and droop travel without bumpsteer. Prototype Hotchkis-Afco adjustable stocks provide high performance damping.' Got it? Good - let's get to the story.
Photos copyright (C)2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
Continue reading Review: 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger causes smiles lasting longer than four hours
Review: 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger causes smiles lasting longer than four hours originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments"Tuesday, 29 September 2009
PICTURE: First A400M fitted with flightworthy engines
PICTURE: First A400M fitted with flightworthy engines: "Airbus Military has released this image of the first A400M fitted with four flightworthy engines and propellers. This marks another step forward in the development of the long-awaited transport aircraft, which had its formal roll-out in June 2008.
Louis Gallois, chief executive of EADS, Airbus’ parent company, said yesterday that it was looking increasingly likely that the A400M would make its debut flight in December. He also expressed confidence that the countries involved in the project will all commit to continuing it when they meet for negotiations in October. “Our hope is to fully convince them" by the end of this year, he said.
Well they're slowly getting there. What a waste of taxpayers money when more C-17s and C-130s would do a better job. MoD procurement strikes again!
Louis Gallois, chief executive of EADS, Airbus’ parent company, said yesterday that it was looking increasingly likely that the A400M would make its debut flight in December. He also expressed confidence that the countries involved in the project will all commit to continuing it when they meet for negotiations in October. “Our hope is to fully convince them" by the end of this year, he said.
Well they're slowly getting there. What a waste of taxpayers money when more C-17s and C-130s would do a better job. MoD procurement strikes again!
Friday, 11 September 2009
The Greatest Road Ferrari?
What is the greatest road Ferrari of them all? What a question! Before you can answer a question like that you need to define what "greatest" means. Fastest? Most Successful? Best looking? Most valuable? Purest (whatever that means)? or some mystical combination of all or some of these with some other qualities thrown in for good measure. I like to think greatest means that car which is closest to what we think Enzo was aiming for but how can you retrospectively discern what Il Commendatore was thinking about!
In the beginning he wanted to make racing cars but needed to fund his habit. The best way to do that was to sell road cars and use the proceeds to make racing cars. So he started making racing cars that could be used on the road such as the 159S etc. But there were limitations to using racing cars on the road - uncomfortable, beasts to drive, rock-hard suspensions, peaky engines etc. So next came the road cars that could be raced such as the 250 series. But it was not enough to race you had to win and win they did with cars like the 375M, 250TDF, 250GT, 250GTO, 250LM and 750 Monza, to name but a few. These cars were so desirable because they had that indefinable blend of performance, drop dead good looks and race success.
I suppose most afficionados, if asked my question would unhesitatingly say the 250GTO and it would be hard to disagree. But like all of these matters it's personal taste in the end that makes one choose. And although I see the force of the argument I don't choose the 250GTO. For me there is only one.
The 250GT SWB Berlinetta. The last of the true front-engined road/race cars which you could drive every day and beat anyone on Sunday (except of course Moss in Rob Walker's 250GT - no-one could do that).
It is utterly gorgeous and embodies what the French would call le pur sang of what Enzo was thinking. And then the rot set in.
Back
In the beginning he wanted to make racing cars but needed to fund his habit. The best way to do that was to sell road cars and use the proceeds to make racing cars. So he started making racing cars that could be used on the road such as the 159S etc. But there were limitations to using racing cars on the road - uncomfortable, beasts to drive, rock-hard suspensions, peaky engines etc. So next came the road cars that could be raced such as the 250 series. But it was not enough to race you had to win and win they did with cars like the 375M, 250TDF, 250GT, 250GTO, 250LM and 750 Monza, to name but a few. These cars were so desirable because they had that indefinable blend of performance, drop dead good looks and race success.
I suppose most afficionados, if asked my question would unhesitatingly say the 250GTO and it would be hard to disagree. But like all of these matters it's personal taste in the end that makes one choose. And although I see the force of the argument I don't choose the 250GTO. For me there is only one.
The 250GT SWB Berlinetta. The last of the true front-engined road/race cars which you could drive every day and beat anyone on Sunday (except of course Moss in Rob Walker's 250GT - no-one could do that).
It is utterly gorgeous and embodies what the French would call le pur sang of what Enzo was thinking. And then the rot set in.
Back
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