Posted on 08/14/2010 2:15:22 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
CARS around the world are making do with fewer cylinders to save fuel; the engine of the Tata Nano, to cite one extreme case, has just two.
Yet this is America, land of cheap gasoline and home of the brave V-8, a country where 4-cylinder engines have mainly populated rental fleets and econocars. So the question nags: how low are we willing to go in the cylinder count, especially for models that stake their images on power and prestige?
Ford has already made waves with the announcement that its EcoBoost 4-cylinder will be available in the redesigned Explorer. But cowboys, urban and otherwise, might swallow their Skoal if they see 4-cylinder engines in a new, smaller pickup that carries an F-Series badge, an idea that Ford has said it is considering.
Chevrolet has tested a turbo 4 in its muscle-car Camaro. Efficient power aside, that might spark bad flashbacks to the Iron Duke, the notorious 90-horsepower 4-cylinder that came in the Camaro beginning in 1982.
Jesse Toprak, vice president for industry trends at TrueCar.com, a shopping site, said that automakers will largely test America’s small-engine appetite in safer categories.
“If you’re looking at a starter Camaro, there might be merit in offering a powerful 4-cylinder,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
But I queued for gas with my parents in the 70s. Gas rationing and those hours-long lines were indelibly imprinted into my memory. That's why I'll never own a gas guzzler. And when I need way more horses under the hood, I borrow or rent 'em.
I will freely admit, however, that if the US ever does the drill-baby-drill thing, gas guzzler here I come :)
Funny thing about these econo-cars is that my Suburban and Sierra will be with me for 15 to 20 years. In that time these POS will have been to the car crusher 4 times over. I also have 3 kids which would take me driving two of these to get my family anywhere.....oh wait, I probably shouldn't have 3 kids either, if I cared for the Earth.
I had an I-6 4.0 Litre High-Output in an 1996 Jeep Cherokee Country and loved that motor. Anytime I popped the hood I knew what I was looking at and how to service it. Great motor, simple design, took tons of abuse and just kept going, and going, and going ...
Sold it with 185,000 miles on it, all I ever did to it was tune-ups, oil changes, brakes, tires, and an occasional battery. It'd still smoke the rear tires from a dead stand-still the day I sold it.
Still looked like new too...
““If you’re looking at a starter Camaro, there might be merit in offering a powerful 4-cylinder,” he said.”
He can go shove it up his ass!
Ummm... fact check time??
The Battle of Britain was won by the Royal Air Force over a year before the US entered the war.
The RR Merlin was a V-12 of 1647 cubic inches, the German Daimler Benz 601 (not "Messerschmitt") engine was a V-12 of 2070 cubic inches.
The Merlin made its max power at 3000 rpm compared to the DB 601's 2500 rpm.
Far from being a disadvantage, the fuel injection on the DB engine gave the German pilots more combat manueverability because they did not need to worry about fuel starvation to the carbs. Later Merlins had an redesigned carburetor which was a quasi-fuel injection type.
Not sure about the rest of your post, but I hope you know more about cars than you do about WW2 aircraft.
If I could have any engine ever built in a new car, and needed to count on that car for 200,000 miles, I would need about 0.01 seconds to make up my mind.
"I'll take a Chrysler 225ci slant 6, please."
I had a couple of cars with the old Mopar slant-6. Can't say much for their power, but the damn things just wouldn't die. My '69 Dart, I unloaded when the frame and suspension and pretty much every other piece of metal was shot, but the engine was still running strong; the '77 Aspen was still chugging away when my dad unloaded it because it wouldn't pass emissions.
Yep, smaller cars rust out faster too. A co-workers 96 Geo Metro frame in front rust so fast at 11 years, the sub-frame in front weakened and the axle was slipping out of the transmission, he gave it to me for parts on my older 91 Metro, seems the older body design is thicker. His car looked much better, but was built lighter, hence, Minnesota sand and salt will erode smaller lighter cars making them road hazards if they fall apart as you drive, as my buddy was going home from work.
Nice spin, as you know, both A/C underwent considerable evolutiuonary change throughout the war. It depends on when and what you are talking about, as you well know.Playing the one up game is inetersting is it not? A spit Mark one to mark 9? A Daimler version what? You didn’t say? Why?LOL. I really don’t care.
I hope yo know more about being genuine than you know about being a spinny winny artist.
In any event my point is that the V design is American
innovation, and that its just about the best gasoline powered engine design.
I don’t really care about your base ball stats either.LOL.
I live in Texas so I didn’t even consider the brutal winter conditions of the Midwest and North. Good point on the salt and sand.
Your post 14 made that clear.
When you say "Battle of Britain" you are talking Spit I and II (or Hurricane I/II) versus Bf109E. Nothing else fits.
And I have read the accounts of at least a dozen RAF fighter pilots of that era, and spoken to one personally. To a man they would have LOVED to have had fuel injected engines.
BTW, I played right field on a baseball team that twice made it to the state quarter finals, too.
I always thought the slant 6 was a fairly gutsy engine, especially the low end torque.
They can be hopped up quite a bit without reducing durability, too. The crankshaft and main bearings on the slant 6 are essentially the same materials and design as on the Hemi.
In due time the headline will read,
“In Some Classes, Buyers Are Not Ready to Give Up Their Cars.”
I love the 4-banger in my Honda Civic Si - 122 cu. in. (2.0L) normally-aspirated, 197 HP, 8000 redline pocket rocket. In this fairly light car, it goes like a scalded dog and still gives me 32+ MPG on the highway, averaging 78 mph.
But for the hauler - the big red truck, it’s a 5.7L HEMI V-8. It’ll tow 9000 pounds if needed, and it runs pretty quick on its own.
Who thinks up these names? Tata? As in Tata Tot? Too funny.
One should note that the new Explorer, even with its largest engine, loses almost 1/2 of its towing capability.
Yeah, but why mess around? You really should have the 6BT.
One thing I really love doing is blasting past the little greenie wagons with my 5.7 L Hemi Ram 1500. I’ve also been stopped at lights next to...of all things...an idiot in a Prius that thinks they’ll get off the line quick enough to get in front of me. For them, I drop it into 4 wheel, and when I stomp on it, there isn’t even a chirp....just takes off like a raped ape. Ah, the simple pleasures of making a liberal’s life miserable. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
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