Cars and Driving Experiences

My experiences in driving and learning new rules, techniques and how cars work.

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Warming up Tyres

The tyres of a vehicle are one of the most important components of having a good vehicle. They are the driver’s only source of contact with the ground that allows the vehicle to accelerate, brake, and provide grip when turning through a corner. Installing them is just the first step to having a good run, preparing them is the next step so that their performance is maximized before starting the race and to be able to use it as soon as a race starts.

The type of tyre that is being used should be taken into account before giving taking them out to warm up. A regular treaded tyre should not take as long to warm up and can be accomplished through a few corners or a lap before reaching the optimum temperature and giving its peak grip. A slick tyre could take much longer to warm up depending on the type of compound that it is made out of and could take as much as a few laps. Other factors that should be taken into account is the weather, track temp, and the use of preheating tyre tools such as blankets, or tyre ovens. The safest way to warm up is to try to warm up the rear tyres because since the tyres are cold, it is easy to get oversteer when testing the throttle or when turning through a corner and it can happen very abruptly. Doing this will allow a higher chance of understeer, where the front tyres lose grip, which is more favorable than oversteer, where the rear tyres lose grip.

To warm up the rear tyres, accelerate hard in a straight line for a few seconds then brake. Using the brakes is also important because when creating friction on the brake pads, there will be heat and the heat will transfer to the wheel which will warm up the core of the tyre. Locking the tyres and creating a scrape against the floor will only cause the surface of the tyres to heat up but not the core and doing so might cause some damage to the tyre. Warming up the front tyres is a bit more difficult and can cause an accident if not careful. Weaving on the track puts more load on each tyre as the driver turns and it is ideal if the driver takes wide turns to increase the amount of time on each load. When weaving it is also important that the acceleration of the vehicle isn't too much as it can cause an increase in weight transfer and can cause major oversteer.

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Braking Systems

Other than accelerating, braking is also an important part of driving so that the driver is able to slow down. This is accomplished through the brakes that are equipped on both front and rear wheels. The most commonly used brakes are fixed type and floating type disc brakes.

The wheel of a vehicle is connected to the brake rotor and they are able to move freely. The brake caliper is stationary around the rotor and inside the caliper, there are one or more pistons and the brake pads are connected to the piston. There is also another brake pad on the other side of the rotor that is connected to the caliper. When the brake pedal is pressed the piston is then pushed out towards the rotor by the brake fluid that runs through the lines. The other side on the caliper also moves towards the rotor and this contact between the rotating wheel and the brake pads causes friction that makes the rotor slow down.

A fixed type brake disc system is similar to the floating type but instead of only having one piston that moves on the inside of the caliper, there is another set of pistons on the outer side. The brake lines run through the caliper and attach to the other pistons and allow a much more even pressure. These types of brake calipers are generally more expensive but they do have better performance than the floating calipers.

These multiple piston disc brakes have some advantages than the single disc brakes. They are able to apply more pressure much more evenly and have much larger calipers leading to less brake fade. Single piston brake brakes are cheaper for the simplicity, lighter, are able to be smaller, and are just enough for simple everyday driving.

Drum brakes are another type of system of brakes but are usually operated by the handbrake or emergency brake. The tires are attached to the drum through bolts and that drum will be connected to a rotor that goes to the normal caliper brakes. Inside the drum will just look like a simple cylinder but there will be a mechanism that pushes plates out and towards the inside of the cylinder causing friction. The mechanism can be the piston that is powered by brake fluid and the piston is what pushes the plates outward. These drum brakes are cheaper but there are more parts involved and are not as effective as regular disc brakes.

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Power Steering

Steering is an important part of driving because it is what allows you to turn into any direction the driver wants. Back when cars were new, steering was one of the hardest parts of driving because it was either extremely difficult to turn the wheel or it took forever just to turn around a corner. This was due to the basic rack and pinion gear system that was used on old cars. The way it worked was that the steering wheel is attached to a shaft that connects to the steering rack. At the end of the shaft, there is a pinion gear that touches teeth that are on the steering rack. Turning the wheel rotates the pinion gear that pulls the rack from one side to another. Depending on the pinion gear size, the amount of teeth the gear has determines how fast and how easy the wheels will turn.

Hydraulic power steering is similar to the original rack and pinion steering but it has more components to it. It still has the basic setup but it also has a type of cylinder on the steering rack that is filled with fluid. Inside the cylinder, there is a piston that divides both ends of the cylinder equally when the steering wheel is straight. With this system, there is also a reservoir of fluid, a fluid pump, and a rotary valve. The pump is powered by a belt that is connected to an engine but if the engine ever goes off, the driver is still able to steer but it would take more strength to turn the wheel. As the wheel is turned when the engine is on, the rotary valve will rotate and open different valves to allow more fluid into one tube into one side of the cylinder and will also allow the fluid of the other side of the cylinder to flow out.

Electric steering can also have a rack and pinion gear set but instead of a fluid pump, an electric motor is used to push or pull the steering rack through a type of worm gear system. On the steering shaft, a sensor is attached to detect the amount of torque that the driver places on the wheel and it controls how powerful the electric motor must work.

Many other brands today continue to improve power steering through different kinds of systems that do the same thing but through different ways

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Torque and Horsepower

Many cars are made differently and they are not all the same. Some are stronger than others and some are limited by their power. To identify the strength of these cars, automakers look at the car’s torque and horsepower. 

Torque is in the units of pound-feet and is defined as a force around a given point usually from a foot away from the center point. Horsepower is measured in units of foot-pounds per time and one horsepower is equal to 33,000 foot-pounds per minute and is measured by how much work can be done for a specific time like a minute. The equation for horsepower is torque x engine rpm / 5,252. The reason we are dividing the equation by 5,252 is that the torque and horsepower will always cross at an rpm of 5,252. As an example, if an engine is producing a torque of 161 lb*ft at 7,500 rpm then how much horsepower is created? We would use the equation and plug in the numbers and it would be 161 x 7,500 / 5,252. We would get 229.9 horsepower. As another example in cars to see the difference of torque let's say there is a truck and a sports car. The truck will have more torque but less horsepower and the sports car will have more horsepower but less torque. The car with more horsepower will be quicker which is the rate at which work is done so it is able to accelerate faster.

Horsepower can be measured at two points in a car, the first is the raw horsepower that the engine is able to accomplish at the flywheel. The other is wheel horsepower which is the power that the car can make after all the different changes in torque through the transmission and differentials at the wheels. In the end, the car will be losing about 15% of power due to any frictional forces throughout the transmission and differentials and any other component that moves in between the wheels and engine. There are many ways to increase horsepower and most are based on engine upgrades. To increase the power of each piston it is best to change how much fuel or air is entered into the chamber before igniting. A larger amount of fuel will increase the size of the explosion that acts upon the piston, but more air is also needed to allow the flames to be ignited. Increasing the efficiency of the engine can also help by increasing the compression ratio which is how much the piston is able to compress the fuel before igniting. Reducing friction on any moving parts can also help as it allows the parts to move more freely. If the engine has too much power, a result may be spinning tires when the throttle is pressed. To overcome this, installing wider tires or tires of a different compound can help increase wheel grip on the surface to increase the usable horsepower.

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Coolant Systems

As vehicles cruise along the highway, the engine will be igniting fuel into explosions that propel the vehicle forward. These explosions produce a big amount of heat and if not reduced, the engine will blow. The cooling system controls the heat of the engine and reduces it to a set temperature whether it is just as hot outside or if it is snowing.

   Today there are two types of cooling systems, air-cooled and liquid-cooled. Many motorcycles today use air-cooling, and cars and trucks use liquid-cooling. The system itself is made up of passages throughout the engine block and heads, a water pump, thermostat, radiator, a cap, and tubing to connect the parts together. It works by sending liquid coolant through the engine and as the coolant is in there, it picks up heat from the engine then makes its way back through a tube and into the radiator. Inside the radiator, the liquid then passes through thin aluminum flattened tubes and the airflow that passes through the front grill of the car cools the liquid, the coolant is then pumped out of the radiator by the water pump to then circulate through the whole process again. The thermostat is placed after the engine but before the radiator to record the temperature of the coolant after it is heated by the engine. If the temperature is too low after the engine, the thermostat closes a valve that allows the coolant to pass to the radiator and forces it to go back directly into the engine so that it is heated up to the desired temperature before being allowed to go through the radiator. But to help prevent the liquid from boiling, the entire system is designed to be pressurized so the boiling point of the coolant is raised. Since the system is under pressure, there is the possibility that the pressure will increase and cause a hose to blow. A cap is used to release the pressure if it increases too much, and another system is added to capture any liquid and stores it into a reserve tank to later return it to the system after the engine is turned off.

The coolant that is used for the system must be able to withstand temperatures below zero and to handle engine temperatures that are over 250 degrees Fahrenheit without boiling. The chemical must also have rust inhibitors and lubricant. The recommended mixture of today’s vehicles is a fifty-fifty ratio of antifreeze and water but in certain conditions, the mixture can allow a bigger portion of antifreeze of 75%.

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Limited Slip Differentials (LSD)

When turning in a corner, the wheels that are on the sides of a vehicle will be rotating at different speeds. The differential in a vehicle allows the outer wheel to rotate faster and the inner wheel to rotate slower while still having the capability to rotate the two wheels at the same speed when going straight.

A standard open differential will be at the axle of the driven wheels so front wheel drive will have them in the front, rear-wheel drive will have them in the back and four-wheel drive can have multiple. For a differential on a rear-wheel drive car, an input shaft will rotate from the engine with a pinion gear and is connected to a gearbox housing with a ring gear on the outside. As the driveshaft spins with the pinion gear, the entire housing will spin. Inside the housing, there is a pinion shaft that has two pinion gears connected to it but they are not fixed to the axle so they are able to move freely. Both of these pinion gears then mesh together with the side gears that are connected to axle shafts that go to the tires. All four of these gears are connected together and as the housing rotates the entire gear system will rotate as well, making the axle shafts rotate. When going straight, the pinion gears inside the housing will not move but during a corner, they will rotate. If the left axle shaft is stopped and is not moving while the input shaft is rotating to turn the differential. As the left axle is not moving, the pinion gears will rotate around the side gear. Combining the original speed of the rotating housing and the speed of the pinion gears, the right axle shaft will then spin faster because the pinion gears are rotating.

In a limited slip differential (LSD) allows for the same thing but limits the difference between the two axle shaft speeds. The gearing is the same but there are pressure rings that are around the inside gearing, there is a clutch pack on each of the axle shafts and the pinion shaft isn’t connected to the housing anymore. The pressure rings are connected to the housing and they are also in contact with the pinion shaft but the pressure rings are free to move to the sides towards the clutch pack. Depending on which type of LSD you get, the cavity on the pressure plate that allows room for the pinion shaft will be shaped differently. A one-way differential will only lock up when you accelerate, a 2 way will lock up when both accelerating and braking and a 1.5-way differential will lock up on acceleration and will partly lock up when braking.The way it locks up is when the vehicle is either speeding up or slowing down, the extra space where the pinion shaft is will cause the shaft to move front or back. When it moves, it causes the pressure plates to expand to the sides to try to make more room. As the plates expand, they apply pressure to the clutch packs causing the axles to lock up at their current speed.

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Suspension Tuning

The suspension is one of the most important parts of a vehicle because this is what attaches the wheels to the car. These systems support the handling of the vehicle and the quality of the ride. They are in charge of keeping wheel contact with the floor which is the only contact that the car has with the road. Although there are different types of suspension systems that are used today, adjusting these systems can help change the way they perform.

Camber is the angle of the tire relative to the vertical axis of the car. Positive camber is when the tires lean outward from the top of the tire and negative camber is when the top of the tire leans inward. Most vehicles will have a small amount of positive camber because of steering axis inclination which is how the wheel is turned. Since the bottom center of the wheel is not the pivot point of the steering, there will be a distance from the actual pivot point to the tire. This distance is called the scrub radius and the tire needs to overcome this radius and scrub along it instead of rotating freely on its center. To overcome this, the steering axis is at an angle to move the pivot point to the bottom center of the wheel. As the scrub radius is much smaller, slight positive camber is then used to make the radius smaller which allows the driver to turn the wheel easier at lower speeds and it decreases tire wear from the smaller scrub radius. Since the steering axis is at an angle there will be a slight increase in height as the wheel is turned because it will be pushing down instead of rotating horizontally. This type of steering also causes the wheel to rotate back into the straight position due to the resistance force caused by the steering axis. Negative camber is used mostly for off-road and racing vehicles for a wider stance that allows for greater stability which is better when the driver is going around a corner.

Caster is like the steering axis inclination but instead of at an angle viewing from the front of the car, it is from the side of the vehicle. Positive caster being angled to the center of the car from the front of the car and the top of the steering axis. Negative caster is the opposite where the front wheels will be leaning outward. Toe in and toe out is the adjustment of wheel alignment when looking above. This adjustment is usually for the front wheels to increase stability when steering. Toe in is used for rear wheel drive vehicles and helps with stable steering when turning in a corner due to the steering axis inclination. Toe out is used in front wheel drive cars because the front wheels are applying force to move the car. Adjusting the tires to this will help straighten out the tires when accelerating.

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Exhaust Systems

After igniting fuel and burning it to power an engine, the engine needs to get rid of the gases that are left over in the combustion chamber. At the end of the power stroke, the exhaust stroke starts with the exhaust valves opening to allow the burnt fuel to leave and allow room for a new amount of the fuel mixture to enter the chamber in the next intake stroke. After leaving the cylinder the gases enter the exhaust system where the gases would be directed out of the vehicle through various systems to clean up the gases and make the engine operate quieter.

First, the gases leave from the engine and enter from each individual cylinder into the exhaust manifold. The exhaust manifold collects the gases through tubes that are connected to each cylinder and are brought together into usually one pipe where they will enter other systems. After exiting the exhaust manifold there will be an oxygen sensor to check the air/fuel mixture from the engine and see if it is burning too rich or too lean. A lean air/fuel mixture is when there is too much air than the desired ratio of air and fuel. A rich mixture is the opposite of a lean mixture where there is too much fuel than then the desired ratio. The sensor checks if there is a problem like leftover air or if there is none, it then sends data to the engine management system to correct the problem by injecting more or less fuel into the mixture before entering the chamber.

Then the gases enter the catalytic converter where it will eliminate harmful gases. In a three-way catalytic converter, it tries to eliminate nitrogen oxide(NOx) emissions, carbon monoxide(CO) emissions, and hydrocarbon(CxHx) emissions. Inside a catalytic converter, there are two blocks, a reduction catalyst that is made out of platinum and rhodium, and an oxidation catalyst that is made out of platinum and palladium. The gases first pass through the reduction catalyst that is made up of thousands of little micro ducts to maximize surface area. In here the nitrogen oxides are passing through but the bond of the nitrogen with the oxygen isn't as strong as the bond of the nitrogen and the catalyst so the nitrogen is pulled away from the two oxygen molecules and sticks to the catalyst while leaving the two leftover oxygen to bond together or find other oxygen molecules to bond together. The individual nitrogen molecules that are bonded with the catalyst will keep moving and bond with another nitrogen molecule and detach from the catalyst. At the end of the block, there will only be oxygen and nitrogen which are harmless. In the oxidation catalyst, carbon monoxide and oxygen will bond with the catalyst surface. Then the oxygen molecules will separate and bond with the carbon monoxide to create carbon dioxide and the carbon dioxide will have a weaker bond with the catalyst and separate away. The leftover oxygen molecules will then mix with the hydrocarbon emissions to create more carbon dioxide and H2O gases. Overall you are then left with mostly nitrogen(N2), oxygen(O2), carbon dioxide(CO2), and H2O gases. After the catalytic converter, there will be another oxygen sensor to check the efficiency of the converter.

Then there will be a resonator but not all vehicles are equipped with this. A resonator is used to drown out certain engine rpm ranges by breaking up sound wavelengths and bouncing them back onto each other to cancel each other out. In the end, there will be a muffler that reduces noise overall. These are three types of mufflers that are used, a chambered muffler, straight muffler, and a turbo muffler. In a chambered muffler the purpose of it is to cancel out the sounds by splitting the sound then bouncing them off the wall and turning them onto each other. In a turbo muffler, it uses perforated pipes and a sound deadening material to eliminate the noise. The gases just pass through the perforated pipes but the sound goes out of the pipes and into the sound deadening material where it will be eliminated. In a straight muffler, the pipe is also perforated but the materials used around the pipe is steel wool and a fiberglass insulator where the sound is then converted into heat.

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Keiichi Tsuchiya

Keiichi Tsuchiya, born January 30, 1956, is a Japanese professional racecar driver. He is also known as Drift King for his unusual use of drifting in non-drifting events and popularizing it as a sport.

Wanting to race since he was young, he faced the problem of lack of wealth to fund his passion. He was inspired by Kunimitsu Takahashi, a former racing professional, who was known for tail slides on the track and is also considered as the “father of drifting”. So instead he dedicated himself to touge (mountain pass) driving in the 1970s, grabbing the attention of fellow street racers and honing the skills that would define him in the future.

The car he drives is a Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno and it has received a lot of popularity through his performance on an old car and through popular comic books and manga Initial D where the main character, Takumi Fujiwara, also drives an AE86 and is loosely based on him. A video known as Pluspy shows Tsuchiya’s touge driving in his AE86.

After becoming a popular street racer with many followers, he became a pro racer and took his technique to the track. Starting his career through the Fuji Freshman series in 1977 he gave a spark of excitement to the crowd with his oversteering slide on the track. Although he did lose his freshman license for stunning but illegal street racing, he introduced drifting to official racing and legitimized the sport. He was then crowned “Drift King”.

Now as he is in his 60s, he had been professionally racing for about 25 years and has competed in contests such as the Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTCC), Toyota Cup

and at LeMans where his proudest achievement was accomplished in 1995. Through these years he had driven in a Toyota Supra GT500, a Porsche 911 GT1, and a Honda NSX GT500.

What most people thank him for is the Drift 1 Grand Prix (D1GP). Starting in Japan with Daijiro Inada who is the founder of Option Magazine and Tokyo Auto Salon, it is now an international series that has brought drifting to many people and has introduced many new professional drivers.

Although Keiichi Tsuchiya is now retired, he still promotes drifting as a Drift Muscle judge and trains young drivers. He has also coordinated the stunts in the movie Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and has appeared as a fisherman in the movie.

“I drift not because it is a quicker way around a corner, but it is the most exciting way” – Keiichi Tsuchiya

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Body Modifications

A body kit is a packaged set of aftermarket body parts to install on a stock vehicle to alter the appearance or to improve performance. Using body kits can enhance your vehicle’s performance aerodynamically by increasing downforce and minimizing drag, through engine performance by cooling or to make more room for component modifications like wider fenders for wider tires. Splitters are installed at the front of the car that is attached to the bottom of the bumper and is an edge that sticks out to try to keep the pressure on top of the car instead of going under the car. It builds up high air pressure around the bumper causing it to migrate around the car. Some modifiers combine splitters with a front air dam to direct the air into productive areas such as for brake or radiator cooling. While attempting to keep the air out, it can also act with the high pressure to create downforce at the front end of the car. They are usually supported with rods that keep its angle parallel to the ground. Side skirts are a bit similar to splitters but only prevent high-pressure air from entering underneath the vehicle.

Dive planes or canards are fixtures that are located on the left and right sides of the front bumper. They are small triangle wings that are curved and when installed, create some downforce by redirecting the air upwards. Since this is only a small amount of downforce, canards are usually used for trimming purposes to fine-tune the vehicle's handling. Canards can also be installed with a vortex generator which is another triangle but is smaller and is installed a few centimeters above the canard to generate strong vortices that travel along the side of the car to act as a barrier. If they are positioned correctly they can prevent high-pressure air from entering the underbody and in doing so, create more downforce.

Ventilated hoods allow for increased cooling. They can either bring in more air under the hood or let air escape. A hood scoop can allow more air for cooling such as a top mount intercooler or for an engine inlet like an air filter. Using a hood scoop without enough ventilation from the underside will cause increased pressure at the hood scoop which is called spillover and will create drag. A hood vent allows for a clean exit for air passing through the radiator and allows for airflow through the engine bay. This is especially useful in a racecar where it has a full undertray and the air cannot ventilate underneath.

NACA ducts are scoops that are designed to intake airflow while minimizing the disturbance of air flow and drag. They can be used in almost any application that needs air such as an air intake or cooling where the engine components are not directly exposed to airflow. They can be placed anywhere such as the roof or side body panels.Side vents are the opposite of NACA ducts and can be used for airflow to exit like a hood vent. They can usually be seen behind the wheels where the turbulent from the wheel rotation remains.

Underbellies and diffusers are body mods for underneath the car. Underbellies are often smooth and flat to minimize drag and to reduce turbulence under the vehicle. A diffuser is a portion of the underbody that is shaped to create a larger air volume at the rear of the car that allows low-pressure air that is moving fast under the entire car to decrease in velocity and expand at the end. It helps increase the velocity of the air under the car while reducing its pressure, thereby increasing downforce.

Spoilers are used to decrease lift by placing a barrier in the way of lift-creating airflow at high speeds. They are not to be confused with rear wings as their main purpose is to not create downforce. Spoilers create a pocket of air between the rear window and spoiler causing the main airstream flow to go around the pocket of air and not have much contact with the actual spoiler. Wings cause downforce that allows better rear wheel grip and lets the car achieve higher speeds at corners. They are designed to directly deflect air flow upwards as it pushes down on the vehicle. This creates drag and decreases the top speed of the vehicle.

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Forced Induction

There are many ways to mod your car for it to output more power such as a better intake filter, a performance chip or a more free exhaust. A cool way to enhance your car is by using forced induction. Forced induction is the process of increasing the air input to an engine by using a type of compressor. These compressors increase density, pressure, and temperature of the air. Engines without this type of system are considered a naturally aspirated engine because it intakes air without the aid of another component. Forced induction is used in the automotive and aviation industry to increase the power of an engine and its efficiency. They are basically a double compression engine with the separate system feeding the compressed air and the engine taking that compressed air and compressing it again to detonate in the cylinders. This greatly increases the total compression ratio of the engine, this increased pressure is called boost. Two common systems of forced induction are turbochargers and superchargers. Turbochargers are driven by the exhaust gases of the engine and superchargers are powered by the rotation of the engine. Turbochargers rely on the volume and velocity of the exhaust gases to spin(spool) the turbine wheel which is connected to a compression wheel through the same shaft.The pressure created by the compression wheel can be regulated through release valves and electric controllers before going into the engine so that it does not reach a dangerously high compression ratio that causes the fuel mixture to prematurely detonate due to high temperatures, this is called pre-ignition or knock that can severely damage the engine. To overcome this drawback an intercooler is used to greatly decrease the chance of knock. This is done by cooling the charged air with the ambient flow of air or liquid causing the density to increase but the temperature to decrease. 

The drawback of using a turbo is as the turbo benefits of using less power from the engine, the engine response is bad due to the time it takes for it to spool up. This delay is referred to as turbo lag and can be countered by an anti-lag or misfiring system that makes the engine to spit a bit of the fuel mixture into the exhaust duct before the turbocharger and is ignited by the hot ducting causing the turbo to spin when the engine is not delivering enough exhaust gases. To overcome turbo lag, it is also possible to get smaller turbochargers that spool up quickly and produce full boost pressure at lower engine RPMs but suffer at higher RPMs. Bigger turbos give better performance at higher RPMs but have a worse response. The response of turbos can give drivers a tricky challenge when driving because the increased torque can be received at a different time than desired.

Superchargers have almost no lag time and are always spinning proportionally to the engine. They are not as common because they use the torque produced by the engine to operate and results in a loss of power. There are three different types of superchargers, a roots-type supercharger uses lobes from two shafts to push air into the intake similar to a rotary engine but does not compress it. It is fed with air through the top of the casing and exits underneath, it is mounted on top of the engine. This supercharger also has the advantage of producing the same air/fuel ratio because, for each revolution in the supercharger, a fixed amount of air is pushed into the intake allowing a decent amount of power at low RPMs. 

A screw-type supercharger is also like a roots-type supercharger, but instead of lobes, it has a screw-like rotor that compresses the air as it moves along the threads. Due to the complex system and its need of perfection for it to actually work well, this type of supercharger is more expensive than others but are more efficient to operate due to cooler air output but uses no engine oil.

A centrifugal-type supercharger is very similar to a turbocharger but instead of it being driven by gases it is belt driven. Having the same problem of using some torque from the engine like any other supercharger, this type is smaller and more compact. The downside of this supercharger is that it has a poor boost at lower RPMs and requires engine oil but are able to be used with an intercooler.

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Hydraulics

Car hydraulic systems are commonly found in low rider cars and have the ability to adjust the height of the vehicle. These modifications enable the body of the car to lift higher off the ground or lower itself extremely close to the floor. With stronger kits, the car is then able to jump up and down off the ground. This ability has then led to car jumping contests and some are able to jump as high as 6 feet. 

These systems were originally used by Mexican-American communities in Southern California. They were extremely expensive to install and were only used in car shows, but after WW2, Mexican-Americans were then able to afford older automobiles. In the 1960s, the cars were beginning to be modified to ride close to the ground and many people began to like it, this was most of the reasons why many people installed them. As this trend spread, many other communities started to install them.

Originally, the pumps, valves, and cylinders were used for operations in aircraft.This required for extra batteries to assist in the hydraulics and would run the batteries down more often than the original usage for these batteries, so it was necessary for the owners of these automobiles to charge the automobile's batteries more frequently. Liftgate materials from trucks were then used because they were more manageable on the cars and required less maintenance. But in the early 1960s, before kits were sold in stores, most owners had to install it themselves due to the high prices for the service by auto shops.

The way it works is that cylinders, usually two or more, are connected to one pipe that is filled with oil. The cylinders are used to compress the oil and are extended by the pressure causing the car to lift itself up. The motion of the car is determined by the number of cylinder pumps and where the cylinders are determined the range of movement the car has.

To actually make the car jump, first lift the car all the way up. To visualize it a bit easier and to understand, think of it as jumping on a trampoline. When pulling the control switch down the perfect time to push the switch back up is when the springs are completely compressed, or you jump up on the trampoline when the mat is all the way down. Then repeat the process to continually jump and if you have perfect timing, the car might jump higher each time.

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Disappearing Manuals

In most new cars manual transmissions aren’t used as much anymore, they are starting to disappear as automatic transmissions are getting better. Back in the days, manuals were popular due to their better fuel economy, durability, lower price and they gave a better driving experience to enthusiasts. In 2016, U.S. manual car sales are fewer than 3%, according to Edmunds senior analyst Ivan Drury. With this data, it is clear that manual transmissions may be gone from production in the future because of the low demand. Today, they are mostly only on sports cars like the Mazda Miata or the Ford Mustang but aren’t found as easily found in exotic cars such as a Ferrari. Car and Driver magazine is even trying to bring them back through a campaign with the Twitter hashtag #SavetheManuals, but it hasn’t gotten much attention from the public or from automakers.

With developed automatic transmissions, they have now surpassed the benefits that used to define a manual. Quicker shift times, more-efficient highway cruising, semi-auto options, and lockup torque converters. Modern automatics have at least six speeds and many have seven or eight. New automatically controlled continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) have the potential to get even better gas mileage, and automakers are continuing to develop the automatic to increase MPGs. Their better performance makes drivers less interested in learning how to drive stick and other things such as traffic, infotainment systems, and autonomous driving are also factors.

With these fewer sales, dealers are decreasing their stock of cars with a stick and with the higher demand for automatics, companies are discontinuing the production of stick vehicles to save money. It is also much easier to drive an automatic, just start the car, press the foot brake, release the parking brake, set to drive or reverse, release the foot brake and the car starts moving. In a manual it's different, press the clutch, set to neutral, start the car, press the foot brake, release the parking brake, set to first or reverse, then release the footbrake and slowly put gas and slowly release the clutch. Although it may seem easy, most people stall the car on their first try. It takes a lot of practice to perfect the manual and operate it smoothly, and it also takes a patient instructor. Those who wish to learn how to drive one may not have the right resources such as an instructor because some driving schools might not have a stick shift instructor. Or those who love to drive manuals, when buying a new car they have to think about their family and how they might be the only one who knows how to drive it.

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Manual Transmission

After the engine there is an important component that allows the car to move, it is the transmission. The power that leaves the crankshaft goes through a type of clutch system then enters the transmission. The transmission is in charge to give the right power the car needs at the current speed. It does that by switching gears and providing high power but low speed in lower ranges and lower power and high speed in higher ranges. This decreases the load on the engine and also improves the fuel economy. 

On the road, there are two popular transmissions that are used in cars, the manual transmission, and the automatic transmission. The manual transmission is much more simple to understand due to its simplicity in design. An input shaft that is connected to a clutch system is connected to an output shaft through a countershaft. The countershaft and output shaft are connected with gears but the gears on the output shaft are not fixed to it. Using the gear selector, the driver is able to connect a single gear to the output shaft so that it will have the speed of the selected gear. How it is able to do this is the main operation of the manual transmission. Each main gear has a synchronizer cone-teeth arrangement that consists of a friction cone and more teeth like a gear. A hub is fixed to the output shaft and a sleeve goes over the hub, the sleeve is what allows the gears to be connected to the output shaft by linking both the hub and the cone-teeth arrangement that the gear has. But since these two will be rotating at different speeds, a synchronizer ring is needed to help match the speed by applying pressure to the friction cone when the synchronizer ring is being pushed by the sleeve. The pressure applied by the ring will help the gear match the speed of the output shaft and allowing the sleeve to connect. The same concept is then applied to switch to other gears but two gears share the same sleeve. For a reverse gear, an extra idler gear is used to change the direction of the gear on the output shaft, it is pushed into the two gears that are not connected and changes the direction of the rotation of the gear that is connected to the output shaft. Since the reverse gear does not have a synchronizer cone-teeth arrangement, the rotation of the gearbox has to be completely stopped before it is connected.

Parts:

In Action (simple animation):

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Engines

A car is one of the most fascinating machines a person can own. It contains many different technologies that are special and some people don't understand all of it. Like most drivers, they understand that filling up the tank with gas feeds the engine and the engine makes a small explosion that makes the car move. Although most people are satisfied with this explanation, others are still curious about how it really works.

There are many different types of engines but the one most commonly used by cars is the internal combustion engine. For this engine, it starts with the air outside. The air is filtered by an air filter then mixed with fuel by a carburetor or a fuel injection system. This mixture is then sent through the intake manifold which directs it to the cylinder heads where the magic happens. Many cars vary on the number of chambers (cylinders) and can have four, six, or eight chambers, but to keep the engine running smoothly and for it to give power, the delivery of the fuel mixture needs and the spark to ignite the explosion have to be timed right. Valves are used to open and close the cylinders and to control the amount of the mixture enters and a spark plug is used to ignite the mixture with an electrical spark. Some engines like a Honda Vtec can change how much the valves open depending on the demand for power by connecting a bigger cam in the camshaft that pushes down the valves. 

How Vtec works

In the chamber, there is a piston that moves up and down that is connected to the crankshaft and the crankshaft is connected to the camshafts that open and close the valves. The most common is the four-stroke engine which has four stages that happen inside the chamber which are Intake, Compression, Power, and Exhaust. In the intake stage, the inlet valve opens and the downward movement of the piston sucks in the air-fuel mixture. Once the air is inside the compression stage starts, the inlet valve closes and the piston moves back up and compresses the mixture. At the end of this stage, the mixture is then ignited by the spark plug. The power stage starts with the explosion that creates pressure and pushes the piston down. This is what gives power to the crankshaft. In the exhaust stage, the outlet valve opens and the piston moves back up to push out the burned mixture. Then the process repeats but each piston is timed differently for the engine to be smooth and to give constant power.

Single Cylinder

Complete Engine

Another engine that is used in cars but is not as common is the rotary combustion engine. It has the same stages as a regular internal combustion engine but its chamber is different. Instead of cylinders there are rotor housings, next to it the mid rotor housing has an intake port but the picture shown below has it on the rotor housing. This type of engine has no valves because the rotor itself acts as a valve when it moves. The rotor is a triangle shaped object with seals on each corner and has a rotor gear inside that is connected to a stationary gear that keeps the rotor in position, but the rotor is connected to an eccentric shaft which has rotor journals that keep the rotor off-center.

How a Rotary Engine Works

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Electric Vehicles

An EV is an electric vehicle that runs completely on electricity which makes it less expensive to operate than other vehicles that are the same size. They don't create pollution and they provide smooth, silent operation. The problems about these vehicles are that they cost much more, most have a limited range of 100 miles, and they don't charge very quickly. They are powered by an electric motor that draws energy from a battery and is much more efficient because it only uses about a third of energy than a similar size car. These savings can grow huge over time, especially if gas prices rise. These cars don't have an engine so it makes it less complicated such as less maintenance because it doesn't require oil, coolant, spark plugs, or belts. To charge these cars, it is best to imagine like charging a phone. It does not take five minutes to charge like fueling up a regular car, it takes hours depending on what type of charging is being used. There are three levels of charging, level 1 being a regular plug in charger which is slow, and level three being the fastest but more expensive. Level 2 chargers are common in the houses of EV owners and are also used for public charging stations. In houses, they require a technician to install the charger to a dedicated circuit from the breaker box in a home.

The top rated EV car is the 2017 Chevrolet Volt. Capable of going 238 miles on a full charge and delivers 200 hp and 266 lbs of torque. It's high mpge rating means that it is one of the most efficient cars and uses the latest fast charge technology. Inside, it has a roomy interior with nice seating and is very quiet. It has a stylish interior with easy to use controls and an infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The standard model goes for $37,500 but the model with advanced safety features goes for $42,750.

A fun EV to drive is the 2017 Volkswagon eGolf. It has the second longest range of 125 miles that is not Tesla. It gives a sports car like enthusiasm in the corners and also provides a comfortable ride. The interior is nice and roomy with a decent sized cargo space and a modern infotainment system with an 8 inch touch screen display. The standard eGolf SE goes for a little over $31,000 and the SEL Premium sells for $39,000.

The Hyundai Ioniq Electric is similar to the eGolf but is cheaper and it comes with the largest warranty for five years or 60,000 miles of complete coverage. It has a driving range of 124 miles with decent power and a high mpge of 136. It is a comfortable ride with great acceleration but it's not as fun to drive as the Bolt or eGolf due to its loud and whiny noise. The standard version is $30,000 and the upgraded model comes with advanced safety features, leather, a sunroof, and an infotainment system but it  goes for $37,000.

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Sports Cars

The Ford Mustang is the number one sports car that is bought by Americans and is a western icon. It is very popular due to its stunning looks and it's high end performance. Although other cars can look much more nicer, it is likely that they will cost much more which is another factor that Mustangs are popular because of their lower prices. Selling 105,932 in 2016 it is recorded as the best seller in sports cars for 45 years straight. Delivering 300-526 HP depending on the engine and selling at an average of $25,000 for the 2016 models it is no wonder that they are top sellers due to their sport nature and are great for everyday use with an average MPG of 14-22 in the city and 21-32 on the highway. The trunk has a space of 13.5 cubic feet which is good but the rear seats are said to be strictly for kids.

The Chevrolet Camaro is next on the list selling 72,705 cars in 2016. Test drivers say that the Camaro’s six-speed manual transmission is quick and precise and that it has agile handling and firm steering. In the corners, test drivers say that the Camaro gives a little understeer on fast corners with the feeling of oversteer but no oversteer. This car gives 275-455 HP and has an average MPG of 16-22 in the city and 25-31 on the highway and sells for about $26,000. Reviewers also stated that the Camaro has a small trunk of 9.1 cubic feet with a small opening and has poor visibility and large blind spots and suggest to get blind spot alert and parking assist.

The Dodge Challenger sold 64,478 cars in 2016. It is reviewed as a better and smoother car than before but with the extra weight on windy roads is noticeable. The eight-speed automatic transmission is said to be top notch but the manual is said to have long throws and a foot operated parking brake pedal that gets in the way when reaching for the clutch. The ride quality is great and reviewers say that it is a champ on the highway soaking up any bumps. The seats are surprisingly roomy, especially the back seats which provide great head space and decent legroom, making the Mustang and Camaro look like they are for small children only and also delivers 305-707 HP. The cargo space is also very large compared to the other cars with 16.2 cubic feet and gets bigger when the back seats are folded down. The Dodge Challenger has an average MPG of 13-19 in the city and 21-30 on the highway and sells for about $27,000 or more depending on the engine.