As cars evolve, markets change and new propulsion methods come and go - electric is one that came, went and returned - the classic petrol powered internal combustion has had to evolve as well. Even some of the old technologies have returned to help with the balance of economy, emissions and power. Recently I wrote an article about variable valve timing, one method of keeping … [Read more...]
Variable Valve Timing
Engineers and designers have spent decades trying to figure out ways to get more power out of an engine. One question that all engineers have is what the motor will be used for - will it be for an economical commuting car, will it go into a supercar or will it be used in a wagon where torque is more important than raw power. Subsequently, the design of the motor will differ … [Read more...]
Hybrid Power
For this weeks technical article, I thought that it would be good to cover the current and ongoing trend for hybrids. Nearly every time I talk technology I start with a comment that the subject is not new. Well, guess what - hybrid cars aren’t new and are certainly not 21st century vehicles. Back in 1901 the famous engineer, Ferdinand Porsche designed and drove a prototype … [Read more...]
Jaguar V12
In its first 20 years, Jaguar only produced two engines – the Jaguar XK and the Jaguar V12. I wrote about the many variants of the XK engine in a recent article and this is about the V12. The first thoughts about a V12 engine came in the mid 1950s. Jaguar had gained great success at Le Mans with the C and D Types using the XK engine. They needed a larger, more powerful motor … [Read more...]
Sumitomo’s Superconducting Motor
Back in 2008 when I started podcasting, I discussed a new story about Sumitomo releasing a prototype of an electric car using a superconducting motor. This was hailed as a world first. The benefit of using such a motor was to provide greater torque from a lower voltage. Sumitomo had plans to test it in larger vehicles such as buses and trucks. At the time Sumitomo had built a … [Read more...]