Did you know that the original version of the modern type of automatic transmission is nearly 100 years old? This is true, however it took about 20 years to reach the automobile! The first automatic transmission that we would recognise today was developed in the early 1920s by Alfred Horner Munro, a Canadian engineer, who developed his to use compressed air to act as the … [Read more...]
Cruise Control
This weeks technical article is about cruise control. This device is both useful and dangerous: useful because it can save you money when driving in a speed camera infested area but dangerous because drivers activate it on freeways and then drive in any lane at one speed – even if they are in the blind spot of a truck. Cruise Control is an idea that has jumped from … [Read more...]
3 Wheeled Cars
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the 6 wheeled cars that were developed primarily in the 1970s and I have written about 5 cylinder engines, now, we’re reducing the number further to three: 3 wheeled cars to be precise. Many of the very early cars including some designed by Karl Benz were 3 wheel designs – perhaps these were an extension of the 2 wheeled horse pulled … [Read more...]
Torque Converters
Torque Converters are a way to transfer power from an internal combustion engine to the driving wheels without using a mechanical clutch. Many automatic transmissions use them and most are fluid couplings. To confuse the topic further, vehicles have used fluid couplings to connect an engine to a transmission before the torque converter was invented! Fluid couplings as their … [Read more...]
6 Wheeled Cars
When I started Motoring Weekly back in 2008, I made a list of the weird cars that had been produced, mostly as a way of finding new technologies or a competitive advantage. The 6-wheeled car was at the top of my list! Pat Clancy Special One of the first true 6-wheeled car was actually a racing car - and built in the late 1940s! It raced at the Indianapolis 500 in 1948 … [Read more...]