Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato
In 1960, Aston Martin produced one of the most memorable low production sports cars ever, with the help of the Italian carrozzeria, Zagato, when it launched the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato at the London Motor Show. The foundations for this model lay in that period of Aston Martin's history that saw the marque bought by David Brown.More...
Tesla Roadster production officially begins
Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley (California, USA) startup producing laptop battery-powered sports cars, has started production of the Tesla Roadster as of last month (March 2008). The 2 seater is powered by more than 6000 lithium-ion batteries in a liquid cooled battery pack which drives a small electric motor mounted amidships.More...
Volkswagen Passat CC
VW have released the specifications of their interpretation of the 4 door "coupé" theme, the new Passat CC range. Of course, there is no such thing as a four door coupé, let's get that out of the way immediately.More...
Hyundai Genesis Coupé
Hyundai have released the preliminary specifications of their impressive new rear wheel drive coupé, the Genesis Coupé. Two versions are available initially, the Hyundai Genesis Coupé Turbo and the Hyundai Genesis Coupé V6.More...
Caterham and Russel Savory produce a V8 Seven
Caterham's first production V8 has been released, produced in conjunction with engine developer Russel Savory. The Caterham Seven RST-V8 features a lightweight 40 valve V8 engine.More...
2008 Detroit Show: Audi TTS preliminary data
Audi have released some details of their beefier TT models, the TTS Coupe and TTS Roadster. These models were unveiled at the 2008 Detroit Show.More...
2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
Chevrolet have released preliminary data for the eagerly-awaited Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. It was thought it was to be called the "Blue Devil", and generated intense interest and was the subject of numerous rumours, especially when spotted in disguise tacklingwhilst undergoing development around the famous Nurburgring circuit.More...
Monday May 05, 2008
The "Tin Lizzie", or "Flivver", as the Ford Model T is affectionately known, is 100 years old this year. Introduced in October of 1908 as a 1909 model, the Ford Model T was the first car to truly bring motoring to the masses. By the time production wound up in 1927, over 15 million Model Ts had been produced.
The ubiquity of the Model T meant that it became a cultural icon as much as a motoring one, with many popular songs, jokes and stories mentioning the Model T - in fact, it was sometimes said that Henry Ford had two production lines - one for the cars and the other for the jokes. Certainly, Henry Ford realised the power of "viral marketing" even then, and was all too happy for the Model T to be incorporated into contemporary culture this way.
Over the course of the model's production run, many detail changes were made to the Tin Lizzie, almost always in an effort to lower production costs or to facilitate supplying the immense demand. Henry Ford's famous "any colour you like as long as it's black" was said to have been so because the black paint dried faster and the cars could be delivered quicker as a result, not due to any aesthetic considerations. The basic technical specifications however, remained fairly unchanging despite this.
In terms of the technical specifications, the Model T was not especially interesting. It had a side valve in-line four cylinder engine in the front, driving the rear wheels through a two speed planetary gearbox. The swept volume of the engine was a modest 2896 cc, and the cylinders had slightly undersquare dimensions of 95.25 mm x 101.6 mm. Live front and rear axles were located by leaf springs - that they were made of Vanadium was a fact proudly espoused in all Ford marketing blurb at the time - and braking was courtesy of expanding drums on the rear wheels only. Power was a modest 20 bhp and the basic weight of early models was about 545 kg (1200 lb).
By bringing large-scale mass production and assembly line techniques to the automotive world, Henry Ford was able to give more people the freedom of driving than ever before, and set an industry into overdrive as the other manufacturers scrambled to catch up.
Tuesday April 29, 2008
Chevrolet have released the certified output of the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Official figures for the LS9 motor are now given as 647 PS (476 kW, 638 bhp) DIN power, and 819 Nm (604 ftlb) torque. No indication is as yet available as to where in the powerband these occur, but we estimate around 6400 rpm for peak power and 4700 rpm for peak torque. As soon as Chevrolet releases further updates, we'll update our specs.
Tuesday April 22, 2008
Two new specification values have been introduced to Carfolio.com specifications tables today. They are both derived values, both relate to the performance and efficiency of the engine, and they have a little in common.
Firstly, brake mean effective pressure (bmep), an indication of the efficiency of an internal combustion engine, is calculated from the peak torque of the engine, and is expressed in both kilopascals (kPa) and pounds per square inch (psi). Bmep is always given for the peak torque rpm value. A good value for bmep for a naturally-aspirated petrol engine is around 200 psi. A couple of relatively modern cars with really good bmep values (for naturally aspirated petrol engines) are the 2008 Maserati GranTurismo S and the 2003 BMW M3 CSL, with 210.4 and 207.8 psi bmep respectively. Values for turbocharged engines tend to be higher, for obvious reasons.
The next field that has been added to the database is the RAC rating. This is an ancient derivation for calculating horsepower, and for a (very) short time it was (somewhat) accurate in predicting the actual horsepower of an engine. It used a formula which theoretically could have produced an accurate value for horsepower, but it assumed certain variables to be fixed for all engines. As design, materials and technology improved, these variables deviated substantially from the generalised values used in the formula. The formula was used from about 1909, and in 1921 the UK Treasury used it to determine how much tax a vehicle was to be levied - hence the terms "taxable horsepower" and "Treasury rating". Whilst this formula was in force, from 1921 to 1947, it more or less dictated the trend of undersquare engine design, and also was the reason for the old model designations, for example the 1923 Alvis 12/50 SB - where the "12" was the taxable horsepower and the "50" the actual horsepower - the engine was making over 4 times that predicted by the already-obsolete RAC formula. This has been included for academic interest only of course, due to all of the preceding.
Ford's Model T is 100 years old this year
The ubiquity of the Model T meant that it became a cultural icon as much as a motoring one, with many popular songs, jokes and stories mentioning the Model T - in fact, it was sometimes said that Henry Ford had two production lines - one for the cars and the other for the jokes. Certainly, Henry Ford realised the power of "viral marketing" even then, and was all too happy for the Model T to be incorporated into contemporary culture this way.
Over the course of the model's production run, many detail changes were made to the Tin Lizzie, almost always in an effort to lower production costs or to facilitate supplying the immense demand. Henry Ford's famous "any colour you like as long as it's black" was said to have been so because the black paint dried faster and the cars could be delivered quicker as a result, not due to any aesthetic considerations. The basic technical specifications however, remained fairly unchanging despite this.
In terms of the technical specifications, the Model T was not especially interesting. It had a side valve in-line four cylinder engine in the front, driving the rear wheels through a two speed planetary gearbox. The swept volume of the engine was a modest 2896 cc, and the cylinders had slightly undersquare dimensions of 95.25 mm x 101.6 mm. Live front and rear axles were located by leaf springs - that they were made of Vanadium was a fact proudly espoused in all Ford marketing blurb at the time - and braking was courtesy of expanding drums on the rear wheels only. Power was a modest 20 bhp and the basic weight of early models was about 545 kg (1200 lb).
By bringing large-scale mass production and assembly line techniques to the automotive world, Henry Ford was able to give more people the freedom of driving than ever before, and set an industry into overdrive as the other manufacturers scrambled to catch up.
Tuesday April 29, 2008
Corvette ZR1 - official certified power figures
Tuesday April 22, 2008
New data fields in Carfolio.com database
Firstly, brake mean effective pressure (bmep), an indication of the efficiency of an internal combustion engine, is calculated from the peak torque of the engine, and is expressed in both kilopascals (kPa) and pounds per square inch (psi). Bmep is always given for the peak torque rpm value. A good value for bmep for a naturally-aspirated petrol engine is around 200 psi. A couple of relatively modern cars with really good bmep values (for naturally aspirated petrol engines) are the 2008 Maserati GranTurismo S and the 2003 BMW M3 CSL, with 210.4 and 207.8 psi bmep respectively. Values for turbocharged engines tend to be higher, for obvious reasons.
The next field that has been added to the database is the RAC rating. This is an ancient derivation for calculating horsepower, and for a (very) short time it was (somewhat) accurate in predicting the actual horsepower of an engine. It used a formula which theoretically could have produced an accurate value for horsepower, but it assumed certain variables to be fixed for all engines. As design, materials and technology improved, these variables deviated substantially from the generalised values used in the formula. The formula was used from about 1909, and in 1921 the UK Treasury used it to determine how much tax a vehicle was to be levied - hence the terms "taxable horsepower" and "Treasury rating". Whilst this formula was in force, from 1921 to 1947, it more or less dictated the trend of undersquare engine design, and also was the reason for the old model designations, for example the 1923 Alvis 12/50 SB - where the "12" was the taxable horsepower and the "50" the actual horsepower - the engine was making over 4 times that predicted by the already-obsolete RAC formula. This has been included for academic interest only of course, due to all of the preceding.
Feedback
16068 models in database
The following 10 randomly-selected cars have pictures in addition to the specifications: