W engines have been around since the dawn of the industry and the use a shape that looks like a “W” – one of the first, the W3, was built by Anzani, an Italian engineer in 1906 for use in a motorcycle but also ended up in Bleriot’s plane that crossed the English Channel. This motor used 3 banks of cylinders connected to one crankshaft. Many of the first versions of the W … [Read more...]
DKW
DKW wasn’t the first car company to supply other manufacturers however their name certainly appears in the history books of many other companies. Not only did they become the worlds largest motorcycle manufacturer for a while but also their engines went into quite a few other manufacturers models. DKW was founded in 1916 by a Danish engineer based in Germany. Jorgen … [Read more...]
5 Cylinder Engines
Most car engines are up to 6 cylinder in length – most larger engines are in a V formation – V8 and V12, which are 4 and 6 in length. These big Vs are sadly being phased out due to stricter emissions controls and at the other end of the scale, there have been two and three cylinder engines in smaller post war cars however in the last 40 years, most engines have been 4, 6 or 8 … [Read more...]
The Issues Around Car and Government Emissions
With voting soon to happen on 3 continents: the US Presidential Election, the UK’s decision on Brexit and the Australian General Election, we are all used to lots of emissions coming from Governments - mostly hot air and empty promises. We have also seen Governments around the world attack the car industry for failing to deliver on their own emissions test. Last year when … [Read more...]
Industry Finance – VW Could Ruin it for Everyone
What a difference 6 months makes! I read a report earlier in the year that “debunked” the myth that securitised loans in the car industry would fail in the same way that the subprime mortgage defaults contributed to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) back in 2008 across the world. Car loans just like the mortgages before the GFC are split into “securities” and repackaged up … [Read more...]
