My Technology

Overview

That is the primary of a collection of articles that highlights the virtually unbelievable advances that have occurred in the past 10 years in car technology. It can deal with what have been the driving forces behind this.

Within the 1990's one had the feeling that there could not be any more advances in the know-how in automobiles, growth had reached its zenith. Nevertheless ever growing stress by governments, the looming scarcity of fuels and other clear air legislation have forced the engineers to develop more environment friendly vehicles and engines.

Advances in engine effectivity the previous couple of years have been fairly thoughts boggling. Manufacturers comparable to VW/Audi, BMW and Mercedes usually quote fuel savings of 20%, 25% and even 30% on new engines and vehicles that exchange previous ones. This nearly sounds like the typical discuss of snake oil salesman. I specifically point out these manufacturers as they've been within the forefront of this development.

How Did This Come About?

To put it quick and candy: electronic computing power. Without electronics all this might not happen. At this time's automobiles have computer systems in them that control each minute operation in an engine. There have been mechanical advances too that run hand in hand with the electronics.

Engines are downsized and ever more power is squeezed from these engines so that you've got regular manufacturing engines with more energy per dimension (capacity) than racing engines of years ago. One could imagine that these high powered engines could be fuel guzzlers, however they're not.

I remember in the 1950's and 1960's you had these large American barges with giant engines that slurped gasoline. Gas was low-cost and if the V8 gave eight to 10 mpg, it was no massive deal as the powerful torque and the easy way they moved about was too enticing. In the so-referred to as colonies these automobiles have been common due to this and their robustness on poor roads was legendary.

Vehicles from Europe and Britain were more compact to go well with their cramped cities and roads and the engines smaller and used much less gasoline because it was rather more expensive than in America, being taxed to the limit.

Within the 1970's came the gasoline disaster and the governments, particularly in America tried to extract downsizing and extra efficient cars from their manufacturers. All types of remedies had been tried and the end result was sometimes abysmal. Electronic and other controls had been launched into these engines however the technology was not but as much as the usual required.

The 1980's and 1990's noticed a more relaxed state of affairs but the engineers had been at work. Digital controls started to grow to be extra refined as the technology advanced rapidly. Then within the new millennium there came a veritable explosion in achievements.

In subsequent articles I'll increase on this subject and describe the various methods by which the exceptional economic system of at the moment's automobiles is achieved. Low gas consumption shouldn't be only affected by the design of the engine and the auto itself.

A serious contributing factor is also the best way a car is pushed but that is quite another subject and never the main target of this series.

MF