Archive for 'Future car' Category
Electronic Wedge Brakes Outperform Hydraulics
24 May 2007Electronic wedge brakes being developed by Siemens VDO were tested against similar cars equipped with hydraulic brakes and the electronic brakes consistently stopped in a shorter distance. We covered electronic wedge brakes in November of last year and discussed their development as part of the Siemens eCorner concept which combines the drivetrain, steering, shock absorbers [...]
Chrysler Planning Hemi Hybrids
1 May 2007Chrysler is about to make its first foray into hybrid vehicles with the introduction next year of the 2008 Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen SUVs. Unlike some hybrid vehicles, however, these will not have a little 4 cylinder engine or even a V6, instead, these will be equipped with the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8.
Overall fuel efficiency [...]
Automotive Design Summer Camp
30 April 2007If you’re a high school junior or senior or a college student and auto design sounds like your dream job, Lawrence Tech will be running a summer camp June 25th - 29th, 2007. Top camp designers may be able to win a scholarship to Lawrence Tech’s Transportation Design program.
There have been some pretty amazing designs [...]
Performance and Economy - High Mileage Horsepower
16 April 2007The SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) 2007 World Congress will convene in Detroit this week with a theme of “Engineering for Global Sustainable Mobility — It’s Up to Us.” One of their tech sessions is titled “High Performance and Fuel Economy: Can We Have Both?”
Increasing fuel economy while maintaining or even increasing performance is something [...]
Build Your Own 225 mpg Diesel Plug in Hybrid
20 March 2007If the names Trimuter, Tri-Magnum or Urba Electric ring a bell, you probably read a lot of Mechanix Illustrated or Popular Mechanics back in the sixties and seventies. Robert Q. Riley was a prolific designer of these build it yourself vehicles along with many, many more that were available as plans enabling you to construct [...]
Electronic Wedge Brakes Signal Future Electric Cars
10 November 2006Electronic Wedge Brakes, scheduled to appear on a German production car, probably in 2008, are the first part of a multi part concept called “eCorner” by Siemens VDO. Electronic Wedge Brakes or EWB, eliminate the hydraulic system used to power the brake pads in current automotive systems and substitute 12 volt electric motors that move [...]