Now i don’t really understand replicas normally, but this is very interesting indeed.
I am interested as to how well the final finish will be and how well the car will drive (though its just a bigger Boxster) with a lengthened Porsche chassis and a much heavier V8/V10 in there. TBH, for the same money i would much rather by a Aston Martin, better build, more artchive and a much better investment, but that just what i think.
The 4 stroke engine has been powering most automobiles in the world for many years, with only small changes being made over time to make the engines more powerful, more economic and efficient. There is now a new engine design that uses an extra stroke to help achieve these goals with smaller engines.
The engine has been developed by Ilmor Engineering and could be the future of design for automotive engines. The design uses 3 different cylinders to produce power, but only the outside two actually fire. The firing cylinders go through the normal procedure of intake, compression, combustion and exhaust to make their power. This is where the 5th stoke comes in, as the cylinder located in the center receives the exhaust gas from one of the outside cylinders and allows it to expand even more, creating power.
The outside cylinders alternate to keep pressure even across the board. The result of this additional step is a torque curve similar to a diesel while still being able to ignite from a spark plug and without the emissions associated with diesel fuel.
The engine is currently only 700cc but the power output of the running test engine is 130bhp with 122lb.ft of torque. Ilmor engineering state that when the engine is running perfectly the little 0.7 litre engine should produce around 150bhp, which is amazing for such a small engine.
I am personally very interested to see if this new 5 stroke engine manages to make it into a production car and to see if anyone will further develop the idea to make a bigger more powerful version.
5 Stroke Engine
5 Stroke Engine Cut-out
I am very much a German car lover, as you may have noticed by the amount of German Car of the week posts so far, but i do have a soft spot for a good Japanese car and that is reflected in this weeks COTW.
This week I have spotted a stunning, high spec Nissan Skyline R32 on Pistonheads and just had to have it as car of the week. I have had a thing for R32 Skylines for a while now, i love the look of a subtly styled R32 and can’t help but appreciate the technology underneath what is now an 18 year old car.
the R32 Skyline was created back in 1989 as a road-going race car designed by Nissan to win. The car was created for the Japan Touring Car Championship in group A, because of this Nissan had to make a full production version for the road and so the Nissan Skyline R32 was born.
The R32 features ATTESA E-TS 4wd system which was well before its time. The system works similarly to the new Golf R32 system as when the front end starts to loose grip an electronic multi-plate clutch feeds more power to the wheels from between 0-50% depending on the slip and lateral G-force. so as you start lose the car you get more 4wd so you gain more grip. The R32 also includes a 4 wheel steer system that delivers small counter steer movement to the rear wheels.
The power plant of the R32 is a twin turbo 2.6 litre 24 valve straight 6 pumping out 280bhp @ 6800rpm. With a weight of 1430kg and 4wd a standard R32 Skyline would see 60mph in only 5.6 second, which is still fast by today’s standards.
The R32 Skyline that i have picked out has seen quite a lot of work and has motor-sport inspired styling traits while still keeping a lot of the original style of the car. The car was built by Top Sercret in Japan and remapped by Tweenie Rob from TR Racing. I won’t list the spec of the car just because it would fill up most of the page, but the bottom line is the car has been built to a very high spec and standard and must be pushing out some very impressive figures. Enjoy the pics…
Nissan Skyline R32
Nissan Skyline R32 Side
Nissan Skyline R32 Rear
Nissan Skyline R32 Engine Bay
As I said on Friday, the Mclaren unveiled their new team and car at the end of last week in preparation of the new formula One season that will kick off in Bahrain on the 12,13,14 March 2010. The new car in certainly no Van, but looks very different to last years car with the air intake carrying on all the way to the rear spoiler and the back of the car looking bigger to incorporate the new bigger fuel tank. I think it looks great and i cannot wait to see all of the cars in action in just under 39 days time. Here is some shots of the new car and of the launch.
Mclaren MP4-25 F1 2010 car
Mclaren MP4-25 F1 2010 car
Mclaren MP4-25 F1 2010 launch
Mclaren MP4-25 F1 2010 launch Lewis and Jenson