Corvette Engine

The Corvette is the icon of American sports cars. Now there is a new even more powerful and faster 'vette that is called the ZR1. The ZR1 has an all new engine that is called the LS9. The LS9 is GM's most powerful engine ever built. It has 8 cylinders that take up a displacement of 6.2 liters. However, the cherry on top of the ice cream is the supercharger. Similar to a turbocharger a supercharger's job is to boost oxygen into the engine cylinders in order to get more power at the high rpm's. However, what I learned, is that it widens the torque curve and therefore develops nearly 320 lb-ft of torque at only 1,000 rpm. This low end torque means that the Corvette can literally jump off the line and get the car rolling faster. This supercharger really amazed me how so many factors come into play when developing an engines performance. No one wants an engine with all of its power at 6,000 rpm so that if you are in 3-5,000 rpm's you get no power. When you press your foot down you want acceleration not a delay for the engine to rev up to 6,000 rpm then acceleration. The weight of the components of the engine also play a big roll in the rpm red line. I knew that if you get more rpm's the more power you get out of the engine. Thus if you can get a V8 to 9,000 rpm's it will produce a boat load of power. I learned that in order to do that you must make the moving components very light weight. This not only helps the total weight of the car but it makes the effort of spinning the crankshaft less stressful. For example, if you had a string and attached a baseball to the end you can spin it quite quickly, but if you attach a pool ball then there is much more stress on that rope and thus cant rotate as fast. This article I read was very informative but a lot of the language went over my head. Therefore I am excited to research the basics of internal-combustion engines.

http://www.corvettefever.com/techarticles/corp_0712w_gm_ls9_zr1_corvette_small_block_engine/index.html

Fastest Car In the World

The world's fastest car, one might think Bugatti or the famous McClarin F1 or the wild Konneggsegg CCX, but as of 2008 there is a new record holder who is surprisingly American. The SSC Ultimate Aero TT is the fastest production car in the world, and it is made right here in the states. This supercar is can reach the amazing speed of 257 miles an hour because of two distinct features, weight and power. The car weighs just under 2,900 pounds which is 110 pounds lighter than a corvette and a Carrera GT and has twice the horsepower. This is because of the formula F/M=A where F is force, M is mass, and a is acceleration. Thus if you keep the power high and the weight low the acceleration of the car will be extremely high, and that is what SSC did. The power plant is a 6.3L twin turbo charged aluminum block engine with 8 cylinders. Jerod Shelby chose to make the engine out of aluminum and "only" have 8 cylinders to keep the weight down. In contrast, the Bugatti Veyron has a 16W engine which is basically two V8's strapped together yet only has 1001 hp. Where the V8 squeezes out 1183 hp and 1194 pound feet of torque. This achievement is credited to the two turbo chargers which produce 14 lbs of boost pressure. A turbo charger is basically two connected fans. One fan is spun by the exhaust which in turn spins the second fan that pulls air and precious oxygen into the engine. This oxygen is necessary for the extra boost because of the combustion in the cylinders. SSC chose to make the car entirely out of space age materials such as carbon fiber and EBX-1208. These two materials make up the chassis and the body panels of the car. It is because of these two materials that the car can stay under 3,000 pounds. Thus the car has an extremely high power to weight ratio that is more than double the Corvette's and Carrera GT's giving it extreme acceleration. The Aero can go from 0-60 in 2.78 seconds and can do a 1/4 mile in under 9.9 seconds. However, there are many American made cars that have souped up engines with massive amounts of horse power that are just as fast but when it is put around a track it cannot go around a corner. This is just the typical American car syndrome, fast in a straight line but terrible in the bends. So you might ask is the Aero any good on a track. The answer is yes. The Aero has an incredibly sturdy chassis that sometimes driving up a steep driveway, a wheel might come off the ground 3 inches. Also there are no driver aids. There are no abs and no traction control. This means it is a true drivers car and "you can not only throttle with your right foot, but steer with your right foot." The owner of the company, Jerod Shelby, is saying that because there is no traction control the Aero can go into a corner flick the tail out and get out of the slide with power from your right foot. There is no technology holding you back from doing an amazing drift around a corner with the gas peddle. The lack of technology is crucial in making the driving experience amazing. When Jay Leno took it out for a drive he said, "the more I drove this car, the more comfortable it gets, the more you settle into it. It really is a drivers car. There's no aids at all. When I drove the Bugatti Veyron, although it was incredibly fast, it felt big and cumbersome. This car seems to shrink around you." Instead of being detached from the actual driving experience by a lot of technology in the Veyron, the Aero gives the driver all the control. This allows the driver to feel everything working through the steering, the clutch, gearbox, the sound of the turbos, and spin of the wheels. Allowing the driver to feel in control gives them a feeling that the car is an extension of their body and shrinks around them for optimal maneuverability. As a result, this car is an amazing piece of engineering, and it should be at $621,000. However, that is around half of the price of the Veyron. In my opinion, this car is ten times better than a Veyron because of the simplicity. It has a powerful engine and a light weight body; that's it. It gives you that x factor that you look for when buying a supercar. Something that doesn't show up in the statistics of the car, or the description. It is something indescribable, something that gives you a smile and that amazing adrenaline rush every time you see, touch, or drive the car. The Aero has the x factor for me.

http://www.shelbysupercars.com/video-jay-leno.php

Top Gear Video

Top Gear is the world’s leading car show. The hosts review many supercars and talk about modern issues of the supercar. For example, they talk about speed cameras, high gas prices, taxes on cars, and even the terrible construction on the roads. However, during a review of a brand new Aston Martin V12 Vantage, the host, Jeremy Clarkson, gives very little figures about the car. Instead of informing the viewers about how unbelievable the Vantage is and how powerful and beautiful it is, he says that this amazing car makes him feel sad. He believes that the car will end the era of great supercars. "Thanks to all sorts of things, the environment, economy, problems in the Middle East, the relentless war on speed, cars like this will soon be consigned to the history books." Jeremy Clarkson believes that because of the high taxes and the terrible economic situation, the government will inevitable dwindle the amount of supercars on the roads and dissuade car companies from ever making them again. The huge 6 liter engines require massive amounts of fuel to rev up to 8,000 rpm, and thus they have terrible CO2 emissions and miles per gallon. Jeremy Clarkson is worried that the government will not listen to the people and keep encouraging car makers to produce the cars that they love. Jeremy believes, "what I am driving here is an ending." The massive 12 cylinder engine that the Aston has under its hood does not please the government. The odds of another car company coming out with an engine as big as that and amazing as that is very slim. Many supercar makers are ending a few lines of supercars. Lamborghini is even ending the Murcielago series of cars, one of their most powerful lines to start a less explosive 2 wheel drive line of cars. I however believe that people will still buy supercars because of the euphoria and adrenaline that comes from just looking at them, but we cannot hide from the fact that the Jeremy Clarkson is right. The supercar era is over.


http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/aston-vantage-v12

The Red Convertible

My short story, The Red Convertible, matched the themes of my topic and even themes we have went over in class. In the story, two brothers go on a drive together and find a red convertible with a fore sale sign on it. The next thing they knew they were driving it home and fixing it up. The car brought these two brothers together and took them on an adventure. The next summer they decided to go on a road trip, nowhere particular, just to drive and enjoy each other and the car. They travel were ever life takes them. The two brothers run into a girl hitchhiking and pick her up. It ends up that she is going home to Alaska. Stephan and Marty enjoy their time in Alaska and admire the natural beauty of the land. However, when it comes time to go home reality sets in. Stephan has to go to Vietnam and he leaves Marty the car. Stephan comes back a changed man, and he has not changed for the better. He doesn’t laugh, doesn’t joke, and is always jumpy because of his experiences in the war. After months of his post traumatic stress, Marty finally decides that the only way to get his brother back was to remind him of the great times they had in the red convertible. Marty takes a hammer and smacks the car left and right; he makes it look like a wreck. A month later, Stephan sees the car and immediately starts working on it. He works every day and almost every night. Fixing the car becomes an obsession for him. However, I believe that it was not an obsession; the car saved his life. It was the only thing that meant something in his life. Fixing the car gave him a purpose and drive to do something. Where as right when he got home from the war, he had no motivation to do anything in his life. Slowly the effects of the war dwindle on him, and when the car is finished he offers Marty a ride. They take the car to the river and start talking about Stephan’s change. Then they start arguing about who gets the car, and just like brothers do, they started fighting. Stephan starts to laugh; this is what Marty has waited for. Marty was successful at getting Stephan back to his old self, and his first laugh since he went to ‘Nam made his transformation back to his old self official and complete. They start to drink a lot and they finish an entire cooler of beer when Stephan decides to go for a swim. Unfortunately the river is very strong and he gets sucked away and drowns. Marty cannot handle this and decides to drive the car into the river. I believe that he does this as a tribute to his brother and their relationship. The car represented the fun that they had together and when that bond was broken he had to end the car too.
Stephan and Marty were able to experience true happiness because of the way they lived that summer. The two brothers had no worries, and experienced life as it came to them. Most people plan an entire trip so they can get every little drop of fun out of it that they could. However, the two brothers “just lived our everyday lives here to there.”(136) They did not care that they were on a trip; they went with the flow. There was no money to worry about, no appointment to attend, and no one to impress. This freedom allows them to truly enjoy life and the company of each other. For example, Marty was sitting in the shade of a willow tree and, “it was comfortable. So comfortable. The branches bent down all around me like a tent or a stable. And quiet, it was quiet.”(136) The comfort of the tree made a natural home for Marty. He was able to feel protected and peaceful because of the beauty of nature. This idea of living day to day and living with nature mimics Emerson’s way of life. Stephan and Marty were able to experience happiness and pleasure from each other and from their trip because of this way of life. If they had planned a route to go on then they would be constantly comparing their trip to their planned trip to see if they were “on schedule.” However, by having no cares about where they are and when they are there, the two brothers are able to truly experience the beauty of life and be carefree.
The red convertible was not just a machine that got them from one place to another but an important piece of the trip that gave them adventure, bonding, and peace. The adventure that they experienced was all due to the car. The car allowed them to be free from their home on the Chippewa reservation. It took them many places, for example almost the entire state of Montana and even up to Alaska for a while. One thing was certain where ever they went it was always better than the last place. The two brothers always traveled “on to greener pastures.”(137) Leaving one place was never sad for the two brothers because they knew that as that chapter ended a new one would start. This amazing adventure that man and machine went on together brought each one of the three closer together. The car was at the center of the brothers bond. This became evident at the end of the short story when Stephan was experiencing post traumatic stress. Marty decided the only way to reverse the effects of the war was to remind him of his former happy days with the red convertible. However, you cannot just jump back into a memory, Stephan needed to get reacquainted with the car just like old friends. Therefore, Marty took a hammer to the car and destroyed it so he could fix it up. After working on the car day in and day out, Stephan started to become himself again. The ultimate success came when Stephan said to Marty, “Lets take that old shitbox for a spin.”(141) It was just like the adventures they shared before the war. The two brothers would finally be back together and enjoying each others company like before. They start to casually talk at the river and when they start arguing about the car Stephan finally laughs. “For some reason this cracks me up and so we’re really laughing for a while then, and then we drink all the rest of the beers one by one and throw them into the river to see how far the current takes them,”(144) This shows their carefree lifestyle is back and they are just enjoying one another’s company. It goes to show that the car can be more than a tool for transportation. The Red Convertible was a symbol of brother hood and adventure.

The Red Convertible

Blogging Experience

Science and technology is my favorite topic; there is just so much that I enjoy about it. It was extremely easy to pick topics for me to narrow down and research on. I had a list of at least ten. However, picking one was so hard. I was interested in war and especially the arms race, but I did not care about all the politics that came between the US and the USSR during the arms race. I experienced the same story with the space race. However, the power of the weapons still mystified me. I was excited learning about how the atomic bomb was made between the two world wars, how the two smartest men in science were put on a job to create the most destructive weapon ever used. The idea of power was also found in cars. The invention of the internal-combustion engine made automobiles much more powerful and efficient in the turn of the 19th century. I found that the car meant more to the people than just a way to get from point a to b. It was a status of wealth and royalty to start off. Then it became dependable and common with the model T. However, the true automotive appreciation came when cars were made to please the costumer. They were not made to just get them from point a to b, but to get them there, comfortably, quick, fun, in style, or even just take them away from life. The poem I read about the Oldsmobile is a perfect example; the two teenagers wanted to be alone together and go on an adventure to experience something new. It was the car that allowed them to actually do this. The car brought them together and gave them freedom. However, the type of automobiles that interest me the most are the ones that put a smile on your face. Whether it is because of the unbridled power the engine puts out or the sharp precise handling or maybe even the beauty of the car itself. However, it is really hard to write and research about a cars handling and the feeling you get when you hit an apex pulling .9 g's. Therefore I decided to concentrate on power and speed, more specifically engines. There is so much that can be researched about engines. Today I know a little about engines, but I feel like it would be fun to learn about every detail in the common engine and how the new Bugatti W-16 engine is so amazing. I feel like I will go into aeronautical or mechanical engineering and will be working with engines in the future; therefore this topic will be very beneficial for starting off my knowledge of power.

Cars Seperating People from Society

The automobile has given the young generation the freedom to express their emotions and live life. In this poem a young couple share their love for the freedom that the Oldsmobile gives them. It says, "You can go as far as you like with me, In my merry Oldsmobile." The phrase "as far as you like" refers to marriage in the fact that latter in the document it talks about them going to a church to get married. However, that phrase also can show how they can go on an exciting adventure some place foreign. The male character is using the car as a way for the couple to escape their ordinary lives and start a new adventure together. The bonding between the couple is shown through the car and its metaphors. For example, the line, "They love to spark in the dark old park as they go flying along" could have multiple meanings. The sparks could be interpreted as the spark plugs of the engine igniting the fuel producing power for them to fly up and down the dark park. However, this could also be a metaphor for how the spark plugs ignite the fuel of the engine and the car ignites the fuel for their love. These sparks are the beginning of love between car, and man and woman. Then the car could also make them feel like their flying like they get a high from being with each other in the car. Overall, the car had brought these two lovers together and gave them a way to be alone and appreciate each other.

Vincent Bryan " “In My Merry Oldsmobile”," Annals of American History.
<http://america.eb.com/america/article?articleId=386695&query=engine>
[Accessed February 1, 2010].