Engine design trends fascinate me. I do agree that we have not seen the last of the horsepower wars, as this decade has seemingly been dubbed.
We truly have not. It's probably reasonable to assume that Bugatti has established the extreme top end. The 16.4 Veyron likely won't be surpassed soon in raw, bench-racer, spreadsheet data, possibly not ever, but we're far from seeing the ends of class-average horsepower.
Whatever the case, I like to tinker - I hope that we don't need a degree in advanced engineering just to fit a lower restriction intake on your performance twincharged super engine.
There'll likely never be a time when that's a blanket necessity. Porsche packaging makes working on their machines a bit more difficult, but for all the wailing over electronic engine control and other modern widgets, customization and tinkering has hardly slowed.
My car has a turbo and all the additional plumbing jammed up in the engine bay, what amounts to still-new direct fuel injection, and an ECU that controls the fuel map, selects AWD torque-split based on a combination of road conditions which it assesses probably by
magic and on-the-fly stuff like individual wheel slip and braking and all of that. Even so, I could tear it apart if I wanted to and swap to beefy forged internals, replace the full intake and exhaust, including the turbo, and tune it for 400hp on pump gas within a day on a dyno. Just plug this little doohicky into that little port right there and bam: mission accomplished.
At the end of the day, crazy valve-in-cam arrangements are still just cams, direct injection is still just pumps, lines, and injectors, and ceramic pistons (if that technology ever takes off) are still something you can order from a catalog.
What DOES excite me, at least concerning the near future, is a temporary step back from high horsepower, high weight cars. There is a lot of talk surrounding a return to the lightweight, precision handling school of thought.
I remain skeptical of just how light we can get a car that passes all the regs, but this is certainly something to anticipate excitedly. When the horsepower wars have truly quieted down, the lb/hp war will already be in full swing for sure.
A lot of older guys get really nervous about all of the crazy performance divisions and special editions and climbing horsepower we see now, as if they expect the sky to fall at any moment. I can understand how there'd be some anxiety for anyone who lived through 1974, but it's never going to happen again. Every single manufacturer is on their game this time around. No amount of crazy CAFE or CARB cracking down is going to stop these guys.
What I fear is a return to 55mph. For all the crap people spew about how carefully designed and monitored Germany's autobahns are, well-maintained sections of interstate are 90% of the way there anyway. I don't believe in open-highway speed limits and I certainly don't want to see the current limits lowered again, though the current climate of for-your-own-goodism certainly makes it likely.
There are some freeways in this country where there is no logical reason to forbid me from running my whole tank down at 160mph.
Take Corvette, for example. It looks like the next generation will feature a smaller displacement, smaller horsepower engine but will combine this with an even lighter chassis that takes more advantage of advanced compounds in construction to save weight.
And if anyone can do it, the Corvette guys can. Certainly, slightly smaller proportions might help the Corvette in terms of styling, since it's quite sprawled-out right now. The basic SBC is so compact and light already I'm waiting for them to do something real crazy like develop a new engine. Some kind of W8 or other crazy design would be amazing.
Chevrolet has already announced that the mid engine super vette has been cancelled (boo!!) so it seems there may be some truth to this (although the racing version will still be produced.)
The mid-engined Corvette is just this weird little fairy tale GM likes to shake off and trot around every now and then to get the motoring press all hot and bothered. I hear tales of abominable snowmen, but I don't expect I'll ever meet one.
These cars might not rocket to 100 in quite the same way, but they might be even MORE fun on the road because it will be easier to drive them hard without going to jail...maybe.
They'll probably just be even faster. You're definitely right that faster doesn't mean more fun, though. Cars that you can really wind out without getting a ticket are a whole class of awesome by themselves. Since I'm mentioning it for the second time, I'll post the
link for everyone - Jay Leno's Honda S600 fits the bill perfectly. I'll be damned if that doesn't look at least as fun as anything you can do in a ZR-1.
I really, really hope you're right. I'd hate to think the golden ages are behind us. I already think I should have been born in the mid 30's, flown P-51's in the War, and then drove Camaros and Mustangs to my big business job in advertising. I don't need ANOTHER reason to think I'm stuck in the wrong time period.
You'd be the youngest fighter pilot in history.
I think racing should be somewhat based on reality.
I agree, and will elaborate as I continue.
ALMS - Super excited for this year.
ALMS is probably the best thing we've got going right now, in terms of high-profile series.
That looks to be an AMAZING race.
Yes, it does. Last year was excellent as well, and anyone who likes cars at all will probably get a kick out of
Truth in 24, which is available free through iTunes.
I hold out hope, however, because despite the smaller field, diversity is way up!
Variety is critical to a good race, as far as I'm concerned. It's why the LM series are so much more interesting than, say, NASCAR. It looks like it'll get even more varied, since I've heard Panoz wants to throw down in LMP1. Front-engined, in that obstinate way that makes them charming.
The great GT1 Corvettes are finally switching to the GT2 class mid-season after the 24 hours, so they'll add even more competition(one more attempt at Aston Martin at the 24.)
I really hope Corvette can take the 24 one last time, to cap off such a spectacular run in GT1. It would be funny in a depressing way if they're able to nuke GT2 as hard. Nobody wants to play when King Kong's at bat.
I had no idea there was such a requirement. That completely baffles me. Fuel type is one of those things I think should be left entirely out of the rules, as it carries its own trade-offs with it. I love to hear tales of wacky teams that take a different path, like those thoroughly evil Auto Union cars of the 30s and their bioweapon exhaust.
F1
I used to hate Formula 1, but it is having an incredible season this year. Ferrari is no longer dominant, and two teams that have never won before have tasted victory. The points are completely lopsided, veterans are struggling against newbies, and the races are actually exciting to watch - replete with more passing!
Let's be honest about this, though: the reason for all of this is the disagreement over aero. It will not continue into next season. F1 is basically a spec series, and while that may be terribly interesting to the drivers, and gentlemen with suspenders and beards, it doesn't get my blood pumping at all. It's supposed to be a
Formula league, and what do you know, suddenly it's more interesting when they
accidentally mess up a rules change allowing the cars to be at least slightly different.
Anyway, F1 is full of prancing fairies, and I can only tolerate a very tiny amount of their frolicking before I feel ill. Racing should be for badasses, not teen idols.
IndyCar is pretty cool too, now that all the stars are together and the formats are mixed.
My interest in IndyCar spiked from zero to quite a bit when they reunited with CART. I want to see growth and expansion on this, and I want to see IndyCar come to represent legitimate American alternative and threat to Formula 1. It'll take careful governance of the rules and aggressive marketing, but it could be accomplished.
I really wish we could get a mud pit for Danica to duke it out everytime she gets upset.
She just likes to get into collisions and lecture other drivers so much because she's discovered that's all she's good at. I'm sure you could put almost anyone in an Indy racer and they'd miss just as many shots at the podium as she has.
NASCAR
...My opinion? We have AWESOME new muscle cars in the market - we should be using these. Go back to your roots - keep the cars simpler, even slower, but lower the cost to play, and make the cars unique and representative of actual vehicles.
Not going to happen. I completely agree, but it's just out of the question.
Who cares if they're not all aerodymanically similar?
Chevrolet, circa 1970. The story of NASCAR is one of bitchy manufacturers threatening to take their ball and go home unless the rules get changed to outlaw someone else's better car.
The whole fun of NASCAR used to be homologation specials. NASCAR gave us the Charger Daytona, which is possibly the most insane car ever built in America. I respect the legacy, but I could never watch that garbage. It's not even the overload of speedways that's the problem. The cars just suck and are total prototypes completely divorced from the real cars they're supposed to represent.
I could spend hours outlining my perfect NASCAR, but I won't bother. Instead of NASCAR, can we get Trans-Am back the way it used to be? That was just plain good racing with real - if heavily modified - cars people could recognize. Additionally, the cheating was some good stuff, and racing isn't truly excellent unless you've got some good cheating going on. (See: F1 this season.)
WRC is just a sad situation...Maybe it was always meant to be a private affair, but I miss the factory teams, to be honest.
It'll be back. I think it makes for awesome videogames, but I can't follow it too closely. Half the cars you can't even buy here (all of them, now,) and... I don't know. I just don't feel it. I love the concept, and I'd love to participate at an amateur or semi-pro level in this country, but I don't feel like I need WRC on my television at all.
I think of the example of Paul Newman all the time; maybe I'll be able to get into racing at a later stage in my life. I can only hope.
I think that's an entirely reasonable hope, and one I share. It'll give us something to do with our lives after retirement, unlike every other ape out there.
I know I've left out a lot of my thoughts on racing. For example, I didn't speak a word about what I think of F1 trying to make competition cheaper (BAD BAD BAD,) but I'm happy to leave it here. I can definitely tell you know more of racing and follow it more closely than I do. I catch mostly Indy and ALMS when it occurs to me, but that's about it.
A note to everyone else:
Feel free to post whatever you feel like, be it picture of your car or crazy pictures of other cars that you think we might find interesting, or stories, or whatever. See some news that applies? Link to it. I don't want to drive anyone away from the discussion.
As long as it is interesting and meets the requirement of being about cars, it can go here.
other then the fact that I live in THE most socialist state, what possibly made you think I smoke weed!?