This years Dakar is proving to be exciting right out of the starting blocks. Stage 4 of the greatest race on Earth continues this trend. Hit the jump for Spanish glory and upside down Hummers.
Jan 08
Tech Tuesday: Intakes part 2
We pick up where we left off on intakes from last Tuesday. We finished with throttle bodies last week so logically it’s time to move on to manifolds.
Intake Manifold
The next stop on our trip towards the engine is the intake manifold. There are three factors that determine if a manifold is helping or hurting your quest for more power: volume, distribution to cylinders, and the runner openings. Ideally the plenum will equalize flow to all cylinders. This is done by slowing the air down as it enters the plenum and being shaped so that it doesn’t direct air towards one cylinder more then others. Often times with a stock manifold this is the problem because due to the desire to have an appealing looking engine bay, symmetry, and even cost factors the plenum is usually a uniform size across it’s entire length which means pressure drops the further away from the inlet air goes resulting in a suction action towards the furthest cylinder from the inlet. A well designed manifold will have a slight taper to compensate for this pressure drop that helps to keep pressure equalized across the entire plenum.
Jan 07
Dakar 2013 Weekend Recap
As you might have heard, the greatest race on earth started last weekend. Dakar continued it’s 35 year legacy (the fifth in South America) on Sunday with an opening stage in Lima Peru.
Hit the jump for some official video and a cursory American biased overview of the first three stages.
Jan 07
Mazda’s Sky-Activ Diesel ALMS/Grand Am car
Mazda race cars have a rich heritage of innovation and winning. It looks like Mazda has no plans of stopping that now with the Mazda 6 Sky Activ diesel coming to the Rolex 24. Featuring a bad ass twin turbo diesel motor it’s ready to race. Mazda is still teasing images and say they will release the full thing at Detroit in a few weeks. Until then we have teasers.
Mazda has 23 class wins already and this year it hopes to land number 24 with the Mazda 6 Sky Activ. Mazda teamed with the race gurus at Speedsource to get the sedan race ready and it will debut at Daytona. You can hit the jump for the full press release and a couple more pictures, including a small engine shot.
Jan 06
Sunday Commentary: Jan. 6, 2013
Sunday Commentary week in review
by Jason
As the doldrums of Winter drag on like a review of a Toyota Prius I’ve been looking back at some photos I took that didn’t quite make the cut. I’ve been pouring through photos to get an intersting look at some of the details I found on cars through the last 14 months of hitting up the shows.
This up coming week is kind of the calm before the storm. With the North American Autoshow coming up in just a few weeks activity will be picking up around here quite a bit. Of course anticipation of the new Vette is high and you can bet we will be on that as soon as it breaks. That’s not all we are working on though. Hit the jump for a little review and some preview.
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Tags: ALMS, Corvette Racing, Dakar, diesel, Grand Am, Mazda, SkyActiv, Sunday commentary, turbo