Rambler’s Amazing New Rotary Engine!

| среда, 7 октября 2009 г.

Rambler's rotary (artist's concept)

Add this to the many ways we already witnessed connections between Renault and Rambler/American Motors. Of course, the former bought the latter in the 1980s, and Rambler provided the bodies for the IKA venture between Kaiser and Renault in Argentina, and now, via the October 1964 issue of Mechanix Illustrated, we see that Rambler worked with Renault to develop a rotary engine. It appears the project never got very far, and we can almost infer that from the article, which speculates wildly that Rambler might use it in a front-drive application – or maybe a rear-engine, rear-drive – and doesn’t offer up any proof that AMC had even built a running prototype by that point. Of course, AMC’s flirtation with rotary engines flared up again during the development of the Pacer almost a decade later; one has to wonder whether those were isolated incidents, or whether some engineer at AMC really wanted to see a rotary in production.

Thanks, Paul Bellefeuille, for discovering and sending us the magazine!



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Giovanine/Spurgin Roadster

| вторник, 6 октября 2009 г.

I’m still on the road… We flew into Oklahoma City last night and as of this morning, I’m now in the car headed back to Austin. As such, I only have time for a quick post today. Luckily, Jimmy B did my work for me. In 1996, Curt Giovanine sat down with his dad, sister, and brother-in-law and pointed a modern video camera at the same wall in which an old 8mm video was playing. The result is some incredible footage of the Geovanine/Spurgin roadster matched up with a knowing voice over. It’s hard to watch just once.

………………



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The Fifty-Year-Old Urge to Compete

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You may remember my friend LG—the guy I chided here for driving his Audi S4, now an S5, like a fixated hypermiler. Well, he and I go back a long way, some 50 years: We were both in grad school, and I helped crew in some of his SCCA meets. Anyway, he wanted to set the record straight about his driving techniques.

First, I employ few of the techniques practiced by the hybrid-driving lunatic described in yr blog. Essentially I always try to minimize the effects of inertia while not interfering w/ following traffic. This doesn’t amount to much more than (a) braking as little as possible, (b) getting into 5th or 6th gear as soon as feasible and staying there as long as possible (with the sophisticated refinements of current fuel injection, lugging isn’t a problem), (c) only speeding downhill, and (d) coasting through isolated or empty stop signs in 2nd or 3rd gear (the only tickets I’ve gotten in several years were for this maneuver).

My first race car was a used Austin-Healy Sprite. (I could almost run faster than it.) I took the SCCA competition license course at Wilmot, the little track cum ski resort across the state line in Wisconsin. The first year I raced there & at Meadowdale Raceway, I think, west of Chicago. I was a cautious if not cowardly driver that first season, & I remember being nerfed from behind in one race, by the class leader, Bob Somebody, as he lapped me coming around a corner. But I had one of the classier rigs at the track: a VW van to tow the Sprite on a custom-made trailer, and my friend’s Morgan as a chase car—all of them painted white w/ orange stripes & trim.

The second season I graduated to a Triumph TR3 that I bought from my friend Brooks Johnson, tr3-22the sprinter, jazz promoter & U. of Chicago law school dropout (Si Hersh was his dropout classmate), and which I spent a long winter tearing down to its frame and then rebuilding for racing. All the clever trick work was done in our garage on 54th St. by Jim Hartman, who, a year later, took an identical TR3 to Road America and, eschewing belts or a harness because he had read that Stirling Moss disdained them, killed himself in a rollover on turn 11.

I don’t practice “hypermiling” out of any devotion to the environment (though I’m as Green as yr average sustainable citizen), or to save gas money (though I’m as close to insolvency as most American debtors), but only because I became transfixed by the mileage readout on my 2001 S4, and raising the numbers became a new expression of my congenital competitive instincts.

Yes, my driving style in the Audi S4 could hardly have been more extreme. My obsessive-compulsive capacities just overcame me, and squeezing another 1/10th of an mpg out of the display became the dominant purpose of my mobile life. But, the S5 has loosened me up. One example: In my regular 10-mile drive every day in Marin County, CA, I get on 101 at the bottom of a steep grade and I can’t resist standing on 360 hp and running through 6 gears as I drift over to the fast lane on my quick way to 90/100 mph (for an instant). So far none of the other Hot Wheels at that time & place have challenged me.

As for the 50 years, I’m aware of some diminution of my reflexes & I’m more cautious making certain moves, such as quickly changing lanes in traffic. Some of the ergonomics of the S5 are awkward, such as the large mirrors on the A pillars which obstruct my vision on certain turns, and I wonder if I would have been as distracted & irritated when I was younger. But the car seems very forgiving, the Quattro is super, and I can’t resist an occasional blast.

Is driving (for some of us) really all about competition? Leave us a comment.

—jgoods



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SSC Ultimate Aero: Record Breaker For Sale

| понедельник, 5 октября 2009 г.


Think your car is fast? Think again. Not even the 16 cylinders from the Bugatti Veyron or the Koenigsegg CCR, or any other production car for that matter, could keep up with the SSC Ultimate Aero. And now’s your chance to blow by everyone as this car, chassis number TT-02, the actual car that broke the Guinness World Record for speed for production car, is up for sale. What will you get for your million plus? Well, only a car that has 1183 horsepower which accelerates from 0 to 60 in 2.78 seconds, a commemorative watch, and the actual certificate from Guinness confirming the record. You’ll also get the original set of tires and rims used for the record breaking run if you feel like replicating the 257 mph the Shelby SuperCar achieved. $1,250,000.



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Ducati Monster 1100 S: Lightness, Power, & Exclusivity

| суббота, 3 октября 2009 г.


Indulge into your monstrous passion with the latest Ducati Monster 1100 S in minimum weight and maximum fun. It is an air-cooled legendary unit with a Desmodromic 1100cc engine with 95hp of a perfect Ducati character that ensures fantastic acceleration and a 9lb-ft of torque. The ‘S’ features a fully adjustable 43mm titanium nitride coated Öhlins forks and rising rate linkage Ölins rear shock absorber with adjustable pre-load and return damping with extremely lightweight 5-spoke wheels that help reduce unsprung weight. Let the Ducati Monster 1100 S get you excited with every twist of the throttle!



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From Pond Goo to Alternative Fuel: Algae the Diesel of Tomorrow?

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The news of algae as a potential source for bio-fuels broke in 2006 and then again earlier this year. As the cost prohibitive and resource draining processes of coal-to-liquid fuel and corn-to-ethanol have reached long discussions on the national bureaucratic scene, algae-to-fuel has received its push toward market efficacy in the private sector. A lot of time has been spent on this site discussing alternative fuels, hybrids and other forums of fuel efficiency and restrained pollutants. It doesn’t seem likely that the topic will end here, either. 

algae to bio fuel

Two small corporations are spearheading the push for this fuel source: Solix out of Ft. Collins, Colorado and GreenFuel Technologies Corporation out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Both companies have developed prototype algae farms in cooperation with other industries. Solix has joined forces with the sustainability conscious New Belgium Brewery Company of Ft. Collins and GreenFuel is collaborating with NRG Energy Inc and their Big Cajun coal burning power plant in New Roads, Louisiana. The algae farms will be redirecting the off-gassing CO2 from their respective industry associate into their contained algae farms. Overnight the algae will feed and grow where it can be harvested almost daily for its oils.
algae to bio fuelThe genius of the Algae farm approach is that it captures the CO2 emissions that are already being produced by most industrial complexes. The algae feed on the CO2, thus preventing the excesses gases from harming the environment. Since the Industrial workings are already in place (thank you, Industrial Revolution) and since the redirection of the CO2 emissions from those facilaties does not require any expensive retrofitting on site, it would seem logical (for both the environmentally conscience and the big business conservative) that algae farms might be the simple solution to a very complex and vexing problem. Now they just have to prove that this cottage industry is a viable and affordable decision. algae farming fuel

When the U.S. Department of Energy’s Aquatic Species Program completed its 18 years of research in 1996 it was deemed that the conversion of of algae to fuel was cost-inhibitive and could not compete against the low fuel prices of the 1990’s. Concerns about the environmental impact of the fossil fuels we were consuming then were still not in the mainstream subconscious, but as always would probably still play second fiddle to cheap yet polluting fossil fuels. Plus they were still relying on outdoor open ponds for their source of the algae for conversion. By partnering with Carbon producing industries and while the wave of concern over the sustainability of life of this planet is high, Algae as an alternative energy source may be sneaking to the fore front just in time (just without the fanfare and bureaucratic backing of Coal-to-liquid fuels). The other benefits of the conversion of Algae to fuel are also appealing.

In a fraction of the space required to grow other crops, such as corn, sugarcane, palm and soy, algae can be harvested day after day in one small area. Plus in the conversion process the byproducts that result can be used for other bio-friendly purposes. The proteins leftover from the processing of algae into fuel can be turned into feed for grazing animals; unlike the results of using corn and soy for ethanol which depletes those food sources for man and animal alike. This does not mean that research and development should be stopped on all ethanol refinaries that plan to use those crops. But such bio-refinaries could be facing some staunch competition from an energy producer that can recycle its own emissions and the carbon emissions of others to further feed its energy supply.

In the next post in this two part series I will examine algae farms and why other industrial recycling should be just as much a part of the Organizations of Industries as their final products are.

Source[PopularMechanics]
Source[Solix]
Source[NewBelgiumBrewery]
Source[NRG Energy Inc and GreenFuels Technology Corp]



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2008 Land Rover LR2 HSE Announced...More Luxury for The Smallest Land Rover

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The new Land Rover LR2 has only been on our shores since this spring, but this November there will be a new version of the LR2, the LR2 HSE.



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