Have you ever noticed that in many car races, drivers often drive there cars kissing the tail of car in front. But have you ever wondered why is that so? You may think, as to make the race more thrilling and exciting. This could be one reason but answer lies in “aerodynamics”. Aerodynamics plays a critical role in racing. Good design can stick a race car to the track better and allow it to move faster through the air.… Read More…
December 28, 2012 Leave a Comment
Physics Behind Race Car Drafting
October 28, 2012 Leave a Comment
Tech Talk: KERS
First of all, tell me what is KERS?
KERS stands for ‘Kinetic Energy Recovery System’ and in short its main aim is to harness the kinetic energy of the vehicle (which is lost in form of heat under braking) , stores it in some other form energies(like electrical or rotational ) that can boost acceleration by pressing a button on the steering wheel under acceleration. Now a days this system is not very common in road-cars but it is extensively used in racecars. Actually the whole idea of harnessing the kinetic energy was invented way back in 50s when physicist Richard Feynman proposed an idea of storing vehicles kinetic energy by the use of flywheel but no serious attempts were made in field of energy recovery until 2006 when the FIA, F1’s governing body, elected to allow teams to integrate Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) into their vehicles starting in the 2009 racing season. And this rule forced the engineers to brainstorm and come up with an efficient yet lite weight KERS system.… Read More…
October 20, 2012 2 Comments
Magnetorheological Shock Absorber – Comfort Just Got A New Definition
In the old days all vehicles whether a stage coach or a train or an automobile used springs for absorbing shocks taken by the vehicle off the uneven roads. The purpose of these springs (leaf or coil spring arrangement) was to prevent the people inside the vehicle from experiencing a sudden shock when it hit a bump. However, these springs while absorbing shocks were set into an oscillation which died after a considerable amount of time.… Read More…
August 8, 2012 Leave a Comment
Tech Talk: Traction Control System
One of the greatest inventions of the 21st century in the field of safety of the Automobile’s, is the traction control system. There has been a significant decrease in the figure of road accidents after the technology was made a standard feature of the Jalopy. Traction control offers drivers the benefit of space-age electronics that improve a car’s contact with the road. Naturally, that’s not saying much about what traction control is; not as much as you’d like to know anyway 
. So let’s unwrap the secrets of yet another technological splendor of the 21st century..shall we?… Read More…
August 2, 2012 Leave a Comment
Tech Talk : The Largest Diesel Engine In The World
Ginormous is a word penned by combining gigantic and enormous, two words that, if you’re not a mobile dictionary, mean essentially the same thing. Then why pen it in the first place? Well, it certainly seems necessary after you learn of a diesel engine so “ginormous” that they had to put walkways on it. The Wärtsilä RT-flex96C is a two-stroke turbocharged low-speed diesel engine designed by the Finnish manufacturer Wärtsilä. It is currently considered the largest reciprocating engine in the world, designed for large container ships, running on heavy fuel oil.… Read More…
July 30, 2012 Leave a Comment
Smartphone – Now A Life Saver
GM researchers are working on technology that will use the Wi-Fi Direct peer-to-peer wireless connection standard to allow smartphones and other connected devices to communicate with cars. Wi-Fi Direct would be integrated with existing driver-assistance systems that use sensor-based object detection to identify pedestrians and others carrying smartphones equipped with a Wi-Fi Direct app that the automaker is also developing.
According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-Fi Direct has an effective range of just over 200 yards, or roughly more than two football fields. And unlike the type of Wi-Fi you sponge off of at Starbucks, where each user connects to a central access point, Wi-Fi Direct is an ad-hoc network that allows device-to-device connection. “Seven to eight seconds is the amount of time it takes to connect to a Wi-Fi access point,” Donald Grimm, GM’s Global R&D senior researcher of perception and vehicle control systems, told Wired.… Read More…
July 19, 2012 Leave a Comment
Tech Talk: Dual Clutch Transmission
The best of both worlds is what most petrolheads describe a Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) as and not many argue that this is probably the first meeting ground of the manual and automatic transmissions. Imagine having just the right amount of torque at absolutely the right time while simultaneously being able to get rid of the clutch pedal (any learner out there? Get my point?). And the best part is that like any absolutely brilliant technology the answer is simplicity itself. Instead of the same lone clutch engaging and disengaging everytime you wanna fiddle with the gears one clutch disengages while another engages. The name is pretty self-explanatory, a DCT has two clutches, one for odd and the other for even gears.… Read More…
