What I find interesting is that the larger vehicle manufacturers are still developing the internal combustion engine. Clearly development has been ongoing for decades despite the recent desire of several Governments to ban them - which is something that I feel is shortsighted. I still think that there are a market for this type of power unit with oil or vegetable based … [Read more...]
From Oil to Electrons
I read an interesting article in The Economist magazine recently that described how some oil companies are “cross-dressing”, in other words, making them look like the opposite to what they are. It is clear that today, Governments and the mainstream media are in love with electric cars. This means that the oil companies are seen as the enemy and although Governments get … [Read more...]
The 1973 Oil Crisis
There are many similarities between the early 1970s and our current political environment and not just with the US Presidents of then and now. During the early 1970s, the US walked away from several important agreements and cozied up with countries that caused further issues - one such issue was the 1973 Oil Crisis. There were two main players in the crisis and many others … [Read more...]
Leaded Petrol
Today, every car sold on the market that has a petrol engine uses unleaded fuel. That wasn’t always the case - leaded fuel was available for about 50 years and for a purpose. Refined fuel, namely petrol, has a habit of auto-igniting, i.e the ability to detonate on it’s own without a spark and this meant that cars up to the 1920s could run roughly as the fuel ignited at the … [Read more...]
Universal Oil Products
I was prompted to write this article after the recent death of Don Nichols, who owned the Shadow Formula 1 team in the 1970s. I remember from my youth, the F1 cars with UOP sponsorship. UOP is short for Universal Oil Products, a company founded in 1914 on the back of inventions in chemical cracking developed by Jesse Dubbs and his son Carbon. Cracking is the process by which … [Read more...]
