Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Will This Be India’s First Homegrown Supercar?

BOLD RIDE

Posted by George Kennedy

India isn’t a place one might readily associate with supercars. Far more common modes of transport are bicycles, motorcycles and diminutive passenger cars. But one young businessman is trying to change that notion, by bringing India’s first supercar to the world.

His name is Sarthak Paul, and he is a 21-year-old entrepreneur.

With a team from India’s Manipal Institute of Technology, Paul has created the company Mean Metal Motors (MMM), and in addition to several planned concepts, one physical car planned for debut at the 2016 Paris Auto Show.

The car is called the M-Zero, and according to CNN Money, it will have a mid-mounted engine making about 500 horsepower, paired to have hybrid drivetrain. The plan is for the M-Zero to do 0-60 mph in under three seconds, and hit a top speed of 200 mph.

But the M-Zero has more tricks up its sleeve. For one, You don’t use keys like a normal car. It has a fingerprint system that opens the car, and also has a driver profile saved for that fingerprint. They profile includes personalized settings for seat position, climate control and even music playlist.

The M-Zero will be made from a new material called “carbo-flax,” which is claimed to be stronger than carbon fiber, but at a tenth the cost. The plan is to sell this material to Indian satellite companies in order to fund the M-Zero.

If all goes according to plan, the M-Zero will cost $125,000 to $200,000. We can’t wait to see if this comes to fruition, and if a car will be ready for the Paris Auto Show, in October of 2016.

Mazda Unveils RX-Vision Concept In Tokyo

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Posted by Jonathon Klein

Enthusiasts have reason to rejoice this evening, as Mazda just unveiled an all-new sportscar concept, the RX-Vision. Prior to the RX-Vision’s unveiling, Mazda teased the world with a very dark, very vague picture of what appeared to be a new sportscar.

No one could figure out what it showed. Was it the long-awaited revival of the RX platform, or was it just another variant of the new ND Miata? Finally, we have answers.

According to Mazda, the RX-Vision, “represents a vision of the future that Mazda hopes to one day make into reality.” Using the KODO design language that now makes up the Mazda lineup, the company built a brand new front-engine, rear-wheel drive sports car.

However, the most interesting aspect of the concept car is the engine it uses. Powered by what Mazda call the, “next generation of SKYACTIV-R rotary engine,” the RX-Vision returns to the illustrious Wankel engines of Mazda’s past.

Mazda remains the only manufacturer to bring rotary engines to commercial production, and due to the unique engine, Mazda has developed a loyal rotary fan following. Since discontinuing the last rotary engine in the RX-8 in 2011, those same fans have been waiting for the company to bring out the next generation car.

Little besides what’s offered above is known about the RX-Vision Concept, or whether or not this represents a car that will see production in the near future.

What should give hope to enthusiasts around the world is that in the presentation, Mazda stated that the company is working to mass-produce the next generation of the SKYACTIV-R rotary engines.

As the car just debuted a short time ago, more information will likely be gleaned over the next few days. Stay tuned as we cover the rest of the Tokyo Motor Show.

Don’t Have a Spare $1 Million? Here’s Your Mercedes Gullwing

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Posted by Zach Doell

Remember that Ferrari from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—the 250 GT California Spyder? Thankfully the one they crashed was a replica, but if you were to buy a genuine example, it would cost you north of $10 million. That’s certainly not what you’d call cheap, and it isn’t an outlier either.

Icons like the Shelby Cobra Daytona and Porsche 550 Spyder can also demand well into seven digits for a chance at ownership, and for most classic car buyers, that’s just a bit too much. But thankfully nowadays you don’t have to pay a million bucks to…well, look like a million bucks.

Meet the “Gullwing Coupe”—a car built in the likeness of the legendary 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL. If you fancy an original 300SL with gullwing doors, you’ll need about $5 million. Fancy this late model replica? You’ll only need about a 25th of that. Talk about pinching a penny.

The shapely Gullwing Coupe was the product of Clearwater, Florida’s Speedster Motorcar Company, which had been building replicas of classic cars like the Auburn Boattail Speedster since the early 1990s. But by 2006, the firm was looking for a new endeavor, and found it in the construction of these realistic gullwing coupe replicas, of which around 20 were built.

On the exterior, the cars stay quite faithful to the original Mercedes-Benz 300SL design, albeit using a fiberglass body instead of Mercedes’ steel or alloy option. Underneath, the coupes’ backbone is comprised of a steel space frame chassis, which comes equipped with a nimble coil-over suspension.

Under the long, sloping bonnet of the original cars you’ll find Mercedes’ heroic 3.0-liter straight-six. Fast forward six decades, the two dozen Gullwing Coupes could be fitted with a variety of GM Vortec V8 engines, spanning 4.8- to 6.0-liters, and either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission.

This car opts for the mid-range Vortec V8, a 5.3-liter mill, which made around 320 horsepower in the contemporary Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban. It may not be the most exotic of powerplants, but then again it only has 2,700 pounds of fiberglass and steel to haul around.

Inside, things are a bit less convincing than the original cars. The dashboard follows the 300SL mold with the absence of a few knobs, and the red leather seats look fairly spot on.

However, the shift boot and steering wheel will have purists crying foul.

All in all, if you’re looking for a budget Mercedes-Benz 300SL and you aren’t interested in rusted-out barn find SL coupes, then the “Gullwing Coupe” might be your next best option.

Investing in an Automobile? The BMW Z8’s Stock is Rising

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When making a careful financial investment, a car is generally not your best bet. With depreciation and upkeep costs, many owners will be lucky to profit—if they ever break even. But invest in a classic or “future classic” car and you could see your investment grow…sometimes exponentially.

In recent years these investment-caliber cars have included the Lamborghini Countach and Maserati Ghibli, and now you can add the BMW Z8 roadster to that high performance short list. While it’s not exactly a science to figure out which cars are big future money makers, a few conditions tend to inspire appreciation—rarity, performance, and style—three things the Z8 delivers in full.

Dressed in a slender aluminum body, the striking BMW Z8 roadster arrived in 1999 to rave reviews and represented both a styling and performance throwback to BMW’s classic 507 roadster of the late 1950s.

Like its progenitor, the Z8 fitted a potent V8 under its bonnet—now a 4.9-liter unit, which it shared with the contemporary M5 sedan—and it provided the Z-car with an eye-opening 394 horsepower and a dash from zero to 60 mph in under 4.7 seconds.

All original Z8 roadsters came equipped with six-speed manual transmissions. Combined with their equal front-and-rear weight balance and relatively minimalist interior—it’s clear that these were meant to be purpose-built driver’s cars.

In 2003, at the close of the Z8’s production run, vaunted BMW tuner Alpina evolved the car into its own “Alpina Roadster V8,” which came fitted with a stroked 4.8-liter engine and mated exclusively with a five-speed automatic.

Though slightly down on horsepower, these Roadster V8s sported more torque and were designed to be longer distance tourers. A scant 555 examples were built.

When brand-new, the Z8 roadsters retailed for around $130,000, and only 5,703 were produced in the car’s four year production run. Today, Hagerty values the average Z8 at around $146,000 with the rarer Alpina models a tad higher at $168,000.

But here’s the kicker, since September 2014—just one year’s time—the value of these cars has leapt a stunning 44 percent on well kept examples and near 57 percent on concours-level examples. Online auctions generally seem to reflect those figures with some extremely low mileage examples asking upwards of $300,000 for entry.

So is it time to grab up a Z8 before they all go stratospheric? You won’t likely double your money any time soon, but give it 10 years and these sinewy Bavarian coupes ought to earn a very nice return.

What the Hell Is Horsepower? Everything You Want to Know

POSTED BY OWEN BRADY

CREDIT / COURTESY : AUTO CHEAT SHEET (COPYRIGHT)

@ WWW.CHEATSHEET.COM

SOURCE MAGNAFLOW

When I was training to be a mechanic in high school, the conversation in class often surrounded the mods that had been made to our cars. Cold air intakes, expensive spark plugs, needlessly oversized exhaust systems, you name it! All in pursuit of that automotive holy grail … horsepower. The fact is that horsepower is an odd construct in the automotive industry and it’s time we clear up what it is, why it matters, and why it doesn’t.

To begin with, Google “horsepower torque curve.” Go ahead, I’ll wait. What you should have found is something that looks like this:

Source: Magnuson Superchargers

This graph displays horsepower and torque relative to the speed of the engine. What you’ll notice on this curve (and on the majority of others you’ll find on the Interwebs), is that the crossover point for horsepower and torque is often 5,252 RPM. This seems oddly specific until we realize that horsepower on a dynamometer is a calculated value based off of the torque curve for the engine and the RPM.

The simplest way that I can explain it is this: Your car is like a multi-stage rocket. The amount of torque (power) the car creates is the thrust of the individual rocket stages, like an M-80 vs. a little firecracker. The amount of horsepower (power/time) that your car creates is how quickly the stages fire in succession.
Modern cars tend to have a lot of rated horsepower for three reasons.

First, lighter engine internals and better quality control for building and balancing engines means that redlines can be higher, which allows for higher potential horsepower. Second, modern lubrication and machining have limited the impact of high engine speeds on torque, which allows for torque curves that don’t drop off as quickly. Finally, the past 100 years of automotive development have made engines more intelligent and capable of handling air — and for engines, air is the X-factor.

This might seem counterintuitive, given that air seems pretty abundant, but the real challenge is how to get air moving quickly enough to support these high-revving engines. If you swap out the fuel injectors in your car for larger capacity ones, it won’t increase the power output of your engine; there’s plenty of fuel available already.

The reason that we fantasized about things like exhausts and intakes back in high school is that they’re rated for substantial horsepower gains and come at a relatively low sticker price. But if you can get more air in and out, the engine can add more fuel, which gives you more torque. The higher torque output of the engine means increased horsepower ratings as well.

So should we abandon horsepower ratings altogether and merely talk about torque? No. Horsepower is a useful metric to determine how much power can be produced over a given period of time. It does have relevance to driving and racing; it’s just important to understand what it’s saying.

If you have a car that produces 10 pound-feet of torque and spin it to 18,000 RPM, it’ll produce 342 horsepower. A small engine that would struggle to get a car moving off the line can produce a huge amount of work if you can get it to apply that power many times per second.

Conversely, the largest marine engines in the world produce nearly 100,000 HP and are spinning at roughly 100 RPM, meaning that their torque output is roughly 5 million pound-feet — immense power applied at a slow rate.

Wärtsilä 31 Engine. Source: Wärtsilä Corporation

It would be a challenge to develop an engine that would be well-suited to the wide variety of situations encountered on a daily basis if it was directly connected to the wheels. Luckily, the transmission was developed. This allows the engine to continue operating within its physical limits while allowing for higher vehicle speeds.

Effective design of a transmission and engine allows for torque off the line and a high top speed. The Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) looked to refine this concept by varying the gear ratio continuously, which keeps the engine at the peak of the horsepower curve.

Electric vehicles, like the Tesla Model S, use a single fixed gear. This is due to the large RPM range that’s possible with an electric motor (up to 16,000 RPM). Electric motors tend to produce 100% of their maximum torque at low speeds, which leads to excellent performance off the line, but diminishing horsepower at higher engine speeds.

See an example in this drag race between a Tesla Model S P85D and a Ferrari F12. Off the line, the Tesla’s torque helps it get up to speed, but it ultimately is unable to compete with the power (and weight) advantage of the F12.

Now that you know a bit more about the relationship between horsepower and torque, I hope it’ll help you better understand what you read about cars, recognize the importance of understanding measurement techniques, and get into massive arguments about the difference between pound-feet and foot-pounds. For extra fun, throw in the expression “pound-force-feet” and see if people’s eyes go crossed. Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

A V8 Heart Beats Inside this ’70s Porsche 914

BOLD RIDE

Posted on 26 October 2015 by Zach Doell

The Porsche 914 is certainly what you’d call a peculiar car. Developed jointly by Volkswagen and Porsche in the late ‘60s, the 914 was to be the affordable replacement for Porsche’s ever-more-expensive 912 sports car. And to that effect it was successful. It was light, it was nimble…it was very oddly styled.

This one however, is a bit more particular than most. Instead of housing a spritely four-cylinder Volkswagen engine mid-ship, this 1975 Porsche 914 gulps down an entire V8. That makes for twice as many cylinders and surely much more than double the power. Like the sound of that? The rowdy 914 recently hot-rodded its way onto eBay. 911s beware.

So which V8 engine uproots this car’s original four-cylinder? To be expected, a perennial favorite—a 350 cu. in. small block Chevrolet. While it won’t win over any hardline Porschephiles with its Detroit heart, the Porsche ought to be a winner on the track. According to the owner, the pumped up four-bolt V8 sports aluminum heads, a mild camshaft, and it shotguns that power to a modified 914 manual gearbox.

Interestingly, this 914 is said to borrow its front suspension from its 911 big brother, to which it fits Koni shocks. In the rear, an adjustable setup has been sourced in order to give the 914 the crisp handling it was famous for—not an easy task considering the big V8 hanging around in the middle. However, it certainly looks the part of a street fighter.

The Porsche forfeits bumpers at both ends, dons a wide-mouth cooling duct in the front, and sprouts some aggressive fender flaring in the rear…necessary for covering up a set of 17-inch Fuchs wheels. In the cockpit, things look equally racy. A pair of bolstered bucket seats sport G-Force racing harnesses, and an array of Ultra-Lite gauges stare down both driver and passenger. It’s track-day spartan, but then again, you don’t swap a V8 into a 914 to go on Sunday drives to the market.
While unloved by some, the Porsche 914 has seen a strong resurgence in recent years, though nowhere near that of the out-of-this-world classic 911 market. That said, with a 350 Chevy small block under the lid and 911 suspension under foot—this is one 914 you wouldn’t want to line up next to at a red light.

This Is What a Lotus Exige With a BMW V10 Looks Like

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Posted by Jeff Perez

The Lotus Exige is a lightweight, four-cylinder sports car designed for twisty roads and even twister tracks. But because it’s such a balanced, fun-to-drive car, it’s typically the subject for tuners like Hennessey—or in this case, one do-it-yourselfer.

About three years ago, a man named Johan set out to create the most bonkers Exige in the UK. According to CarBuildIndex.com, the goal was to swap out the peppy four-cylinder engine previously under the bonnet, for a snarling BMW V10. The same engine found on the previous-generation M5.

With a massive V10 being transplanted, it warranted some cutting and stretching of the body from Johan to ensure proper fitment. A 6-speed manual gearbox off a Porsche Boxster S was also added, being one of the few that would fit normally without too much finagling.

Johan wanted to also ensure that his creation was able to stop as good as it went, so he fit some race-tested Porsche 997 GT3 brakes. To keep the car sticky, some ATS GTR Motorsports 18″ x 9″ front and 18″ x 11″ rims and Kumho V70A 245s tires were added too.

At the end of the day, this V10-powered Lotus pushes out close to 500 horsepower. Finished off in a BMW Carbon Black Metallic, the project resembles something close to a mini Hennessey Venom. Though, much more subtle.

It’s a beautiful creation, and one that Johan says he’ll continue to tweak and perfect after spending some time on the track.