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Hack Your Ignition (Before Someone Else Does)
guanxi writes: "IEEE Spectrum has an interesting article about hacking and specifically, the "hacker's nirvana on wheels", all the way from hot-rodding to reprogramming your digital ignition. Of course, I neither endorse nor recommend any of the procedures mentioned, any of which may be inherently dangerous to your life and your warranty. "
I've got a nice hack for ya.
New Ford F-150's, Expeditions, ect.
Unplug the main harness going to the digital display, and locate a gray wire, with a black stripe. (your VSS wire) Place a small strip of tape over the metal pin, and
VOLIA
no mo miles
Respectfully, I disagree.
p adakis.html - Stephan Papadakis - who broke just about every record for front wheel drive cars.
I believe many slashdot readers would be interested in your "rice burners". Racing a honda is an exercise in science over brute force, something slashdot readers can appreciate. To equate it, it would be the difference between getting just any old pentium 4 1.5 Ghz system, and getting an athalon 1.2 Ghz and tweaking it by using better hardware, a cleaner OS install, faster standards, and some code tweaking to get the performance level up above that of the P-4.
In the same fashion, you could take your '71 Nova SS 350 and blow away a stock 1995 civic. But you could also take the civic, add Nitrous, replace the hood with a fiberglass one, change the gears on the transmission, get a forced air kit, some traction bars, and a new set of cams, and run 11's. You have to remember with that big steel car and the small block 350, you're pulling a lot of weight. You're getting much more horsepower per liter out of a honda.
Just for kicks, check out http://www.nhrasportcompact.com/2002/drivers/S_Pa
And just for the record, I still cringe when I see a honda roll down the street with just the exhaust done, cause it sounds bad and looks retarted. My brother has a '71 Nova SS w/ 350, traction bars, lunati cams, poroso throttle or something, you name it, it's got it. It puts about 410 Hp on the ground and has an ET of 12.2. But it also gets about 5 miles to the gallon. I'd rather have the fast-if-you-want-it-fast honda, which also gets 37 miles to the gallon.
~z
sig?
I don't have the link, but I saw a video on Consumption Junction of a Viper getting owned by a shitty little Civic.
It's unlikely, but not impossible.
Acceleration is all about power to weight ratio, and then how well you get that power to the ground.
First off, economics. I can go to a wrecking yard, spend $50 for a used Chevy 350 from a junked taxicab, spend $1000 having it machined and then another $2000 on assorted parts, assemble it myself, and get (conservatively) 400HP from it.
To get anywhere near that kind of power from a smaller engine (1.6L = ~95 CID), the engine must be revved up all to hell, and the machining tolerances must therefore be extremely tight - spending lots of labor having pistons balanced to within 1/100th of a gram, versus 1/10th of a gram like you could do with the 350. Yes, the newer engine's head will flow better than a 350, yes, there's less reciprocating mass because it's just a sewing machine. But to get the volumetric efficiency and torque curves high enough to do that without grenading, you're adding a turbo, porting the heads, etc. Aftermarket parts are far more expensive for those motors, and the knowledge base of guys who've built up Civics for serious power is a lot less than the skill and number of guys who've built up 350s. Expect to spend $10-15k by the time all is said and done.
Now, gearing. A Viper's first and second gear are agressive, but the car is designed for top-end speed, which is reflected in the design of the brakes and suspension. The Viper will be quick off the line (1st and 2nd) but the motor will have more room to wind in 3-6, to allow the RPMs to be reasonable at 100+MPH.
If the Civic is anywhere near as quick as the Viper off the line, he's obviously not only built up the engine but also the drivetrain (which would break if too much power was applied to it). While building a tough engine, therefore, the guy in the Civic would have had to build a transmission to survive the forces the engine is passing through it. At the same time, he would have changed the gear ratios for acceleration.
A big strong guy on a bicycle stuck in tenth gear won't out-accelerate a puny guy shifting his derailleur from 1 through 5.
Having said that, even geared for speed rather than acceleration, a Viper still turns low 13s. That's about 13.2 seconds from stopped to the end of a quarter mile. It's quicker than most production cars, but certainly not fast when you're talking about building for performance. My (stock) 1976 Ram with the 400 (6.6L) engine does it in about 14.8.
By comparison, I built a Chevette with a Buick 3.8L V6 under the hood. It turned 12.8 seconds on the 1/4 mile - slightly faster than a Viper. But, there's no way it could attain let alone maintain 150MPH the way a Viper could. Buy a Mustang 5.0, slap headers, cam, 4-bbl intake and carb at it, and you're faster off the line than a Viper.
We still haven't even gotten into a question of driving skill. Lots of people who own Vipers know nothing about cars. They're dot-com CEOs and accountants who don't know anything about cars. Is he sidestepping the clutch to hold the engine at its peak torque curve? If he's not, he's not making full use of the power.
A V12 getting owned by whatever is in those Rice Burners..I'm not sure if it's possible for an inanimate object to possess another inanimate object.
Last Viper I drove had a V10, actually, rather similar to this one which you can order at the parts counter at any Chrylser dealership. And, while I imagine you understand the concept of cylinders, I will assume that you don't understand the concept of displacement. Here's the relationship in a nutshell: All other things being equal, a Ford 300 inline 6-cylinder would probably outperform a Ford 302 V8. Why? The 6-cylinder motor has two less pistons dragging up and down, two less pairs of valves, two less connecting rod bearings - but still pumps through almost (2 cubic inches difference) as much air as the V8.
Cylinders are not everything. You don't get your power from having more cylinders, you get it from having more displacement. Cylinders merely divide the displacement into manageable chunks.
By the way, you'll note that the Viper's motor is 488 cubic inches. About 8.0L.
Even if the dude in the Viper could not drive worth a shit, as the car approached 100 I am sure the V12 would have quite a bit of influence... If you were correct, then the Viper would have won.Yup. Though it does take nearly a quarter of a mile for a Viper to get up to 100MPH from a stop. Most street races are significantly less than that.
Even so, either the guy in the Honda spent more doing that than it would have cost him to buy a Viper, or the guy in the Viper was the typical Viper-driver.
Ask yourself this. The Viper has a large displacement engine (488CID) and is rear-wheel-drive. The Honda has a small displacement engine (~95CID, too lazy to calculate it right now) and is front-wheel-drive.
Virtually all performance cars have a large displacement and are rear-wheel-drive - From Aston-Martin to Vector to Viper, with Porsche, Ferrari, Llamborghini, 1960s-1970s American musclecars, NASCAR, NHRA, serious ralleye, etc. in there.
Virtually all economy cars have a small displacement and are front-wheel-drive. The Honda is in the same high class as Tercels, Ford Escorts, Renault 5, VW Rabbit, Dodge Aries/Plymouth Reliant, Nissan Micra, etc.
Ask yourself why.
Now, go play with your automotive Celeron.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.