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10 Techno-Cool Cars
mrv writes "The IEEE Spectrum picks their '10 Techno-Cool Cars'. The article picks vehicles from the 2003 or upcoming model years, that feature significant jumps in performance, convenience, or comfort, are technologically bold, and otherwise cool (for engineers, not just the 'motorhead' type)."
It puts out more horsepower per liter then any other naturally aspirated engine in production (120 HP/L, 240HP total) and revs to 9000 RPM. Does the quarter mile in 13.8 seconds stock, and handles better then most cars on the road.
Why is it not mentioned in the article?
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
With separate bubbles for the kids!
Doesn't speak well for American engineering. Mostly European and Japanese makes it looks like. Maybe when GM gets their fuel-cell cars in production, America will look a little more updated. Or maybe the Ford Model U.
Scott, Keeper of the Crystal Flame
Glad to see that the BMW-Windows hybrid is NOT on the list....showing these guys are impressed by well thought out, practical solutions, not gimmicks and gadgets
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Man that just ticks me off that they are not putting the RX8 in there. I mean the Rotary engine is coming back and it is suppose to be pretty nice with the RX8. These engines are amazing....why not point that car out?
So when the computer crashes, so do you? No thanks.
sulli
RTFJ.
1.) Smokey Diesels.
Diesels do not have a history of being smokey. 1 diesel engine, the 70s GM diesel V-8. It was an America only engine. EU doesn't have a problem with diesels.
2.) 8/4 Cylinders.
Lets hope it fares better than GMs infamaous 8-6-4 of the 80s.
The masses are the crack whores of religion.
...all these cars have PUSSY written all over them.
These cars couldn't even push themselves out of a wet paper bag!
I am the nightmare of nightmares.
Why is it that only the Asian car-makers are the only ones making any effort to reduce their cars' fuel-intake? Why are only Asian car-makers selling hybrids? Where is the competition in the other parts of the world, particularly the US? There's at least the Fiat from Europe in that list, but none of the US brand cars seem to make any headway in this area, and don't even seem to make any effort.
I had one of those abominations. It was called an V-8-6-4, or at least that's what the metal logo on the side of the car said. It was truly horrible. I think the V8, like most American made ones at the time, had about 120 HP. I know that doesn't sound like much now, but the same model year Corvette only had 160 HP. The biggest problem with the car was lack of power despite the claimed rated power. I think it was rated at about 13 seconds to 60 MPH. In real life, it took about 20! I didn't time it, but running off of four cylinders I think it was somewhere around 30 seconds to 60. I had a four cylinder Regal from the same year that only had (if I remember correctly) 70 HP, and it was faster to 60 than the 8-6-4.
The next problem was spark plug fouling. Because two or four (depending on the load) of the cylinders don't always fire, they don't stay hot enough to burn the oil off of the plugs. After the plug gets covered with oil, it doesn't fire so it can't ever get hot enough to fire again without removing it and cleaning it by hand. Fortunately under the hood, it wasn't cluttered at all and changing plugs was a 10 minute operation. The new Trailblazer also has this problem, but changing the plugs is about an hour long operation in the new ones since you have to remove other parts to get to the plugs. As far as I know, all most all of the complaints about the engine only running on four cylinders was due to plug fouling.
The other problem, and this made the plug fouling worse, is that oil was sucked past the rings by the low pressure in the cylinders that aren't firing. Until I disabled the 8-6-4, I had to put a quart of oil in the car about every 250 miles! Lotus has a new system that changes the exhaust valve timing to keep the pressure in the unused cylinders high, so you don't end-up sucking oil from the crankcase into the cylinder. The new Chevy engine has no means of dealing with the problem.
After disabling the 8-6-4 crap, I got just over 24 MPG on the interstate. I don't know why GM thought it had to get better mileage than that. I replace it with a new Honda Accord. The Honda got no better gas mileage than the Cadillac, and I literally spent more than I paid for the in repairs the five years I had it. If the Caddy just hadn't been so slow, it wouldn't have been a bad car.z