Jalopnik: Engineering

Moving platforms let you get on high-speed train while it's still moving

Alasdair Wilkins — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:30:00 EST

Imagine boarding a tram in Manhattan, which then leaves the city to connect with a high-speed train. You leave the tram for the train, and next thing you know you're in downtown San Francisco...all without ever stopping at a station. More »

DARPA is one step closer to its flying Humvee

Robert T. Gonzalez — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:15:00 EDT

When you or I ask for a flying car, we get "Terrafugia's Transition," a roadable aircraft. When DARPA asks for a flying car, they get a Hummer like the one pictured up top — a Hummer that is capable of taking off and landing vertically; traversing off-road terrain with ease; and withstanding small-arms fire, all while accommodating up to four passengers. More »

Look at This MIT Grad's Diminutive DIY Off-Road Motorized Skateboard

Jack Loftus — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 18:15:00 EDT

Charles Guan, recent MIT grad, is certainly a certifiable tinkerer. Where I see a skateboard and a snowblower engine he sees a portable off-road skateboard. Completely DIY, it got noticed at the World Maker Faire New York on Saturday. More »

How a university punished a female engineering student for this bikini photo

Justin Hyde — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:00:00 EDT

A Canadian university suspended its student racecar-building team after one of the engineers in training had the audacity to pose with it while wearing a bikini. It's an independent study course in sexism, administrative idiocy and misplaced priorities. More »

GM's New Top Car Guy Is Named Mary Barra

Justin Hyde — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:30:00 EST

Meet the woman who's now possibly the world's most powerful female auto executive: Mary Barra, chosen by General Motors today to run worldwide vehicle development. Whether it's the right choice for GM will take a few years to sort out. More »

Tesla Offers Inside Look At Model S Sedan

Justin Hyde — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:30:00 EST

The fine folks over at Wired.com's Autopia took a tour of Tesla recently, including a close-up of the chassis of the Model S sedan. Now Tesla's posted three videos featuring the chief engineer touting the benefits of Tesla's ingenuity. More »

This Man Fought Toyota For Stealing His Hybrid Tech And Won

Sam Smith — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:35:00 EDT

Alex Severinsky, a Soviet emigrant who began his career developing antitank-warfare instrumentation, patented a system for powering gas-electric hybrids in 1994. Toyota used his system for the Prius without permission or payment. Until this week. More »

The 240 Greatest Achievements of Japanese Automotive Technology

Murilee Martin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:30:00 EDT

If you ask the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, the greatest milestones in their industry range from the ABS system on the '71 Nissan President to the Subaru Impreza WRX STI... and 238 more. More »

11 Terrible Automotive Engineering Decisions

Matt Cramer, Bangshift.com — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:00:00 EDT

The world of cars is full of mistakes — nasty ones, dumb ones, even fun ones. Bangshift's Matt Cramer assembled this list of eleven of the worst automotive technological and engineering disasters. More »

If You Buy Just One Book About Engines This Year, Buy This

Pete Vack, VeloceToday.com — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:00:00 EDT

Veloce Today's Pete Vack recently took a look at Griff Borgeson's The Classic Twin Cam Engine, a dive into the origins of the modern overhead-valve powerplant. Tech geekery? Intrigue? Crazy Frenchmen? This is where your engine came from. —Ed. More »

Nightwind 2: The Future Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Ben Wojdyla — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:30:00 EDT

This is the Nightwind 2, a compact, unmanned aerial vehicle made of carbon fiber. It's powered by an amazing new direct-injected, 88-cc, two-stroke hybrid boxer engine developed by Ricardo, and it's going to change the future of UAVs. More »

Is This The 2012 Indy Car?

Sam Smith — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:40:00 EST

2010 was originally set to be the last year of competition for the aging Dallara IndyCar chassis. Political turmoil has postponed the changeover, however, and the IRL is currently evaluating its options. This car is part of Swift Engineering's proposal. More »

How To Make A Prius Sound Like a Spaceship

Peter Orosz — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:30:00 EST

Using Lotus’s Halosonic noise control system, pedestrians used to being freaked out by silent hybrids can now be freaked out by intergalactic buzzing. More »

GM-Chrysler Merger Rumor Roundup: Deal To Be Done By Halloween, Mandatory Two Month Furlough For Chrysler Engineers?

Andrew Stoy — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:20:00 EDT

The WSJ reports today (via Automotive News) Cerberus and GM are moving full-steam-ahead in their efforts to get a GM-Chrysler deal done by the end of October. Today also brings news Renault may have their hand in the cookie jar too, negotiating for one or more parts of Chrysler and leading to speculation the Auburn Hills, MI-based automaker could be divvied up among several companies: Basically the worst-case scenario envisioned when Cerberus Capital Management took over in 2007. Finally, we've got an unsubstantiated rumor engineering employees at Chrysler may be getting two months off sans pay beginning...drumroll please...November 1st. Coincidence? Maybe. Also, David Faber of CNBC had a chance to sit down with ChryslerCo CEO, Bob "The Builder" Nardelli; while we haven't had a chance to run through it in its entirety, hit the jump for the a full transcript of the CNBC interview with Nardelli. UPDATE: We now hear from a Chrysler source that rumors of an engineering furlough are not true; that's why we call them "rumors." More »

Next Friday To Be A Black One For Ford?

Ray Wert — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:20:00 EDT

We're hearing from our sources that something's going down in Dearborn at Ford's PDC/Engineering center this upcoming Friday. All employees have been asked to be in the building for a meeting of an unknown nature. If the chit-chat from employees is any indication, the meeting's not because Alan Mulally's buying the entire team ice cream sandwiches. Unless "Black Friday" is some kind of euphemism for the really good ones coated in hard chocolate. But we doubt that. More »

Why Do Cars Have Crumple Zones?

Ben Wojdyla — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:00:00 EDT

A lot of times when people see a modern car accident or push on a plastic bumper, they wonder why cars aren't built the way they used to be. Well, a lot of it has to do with human survivability. If you've ever had high school level physics you'll understand the following formula: More »

Ford and NHRA Create Black Blue Boxes For Nitro Cars

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:00:00 EST

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There's an old Chris Rock joke that goes "How come every time an airplane crashes, all they can ever find is the black box. Why don't they just make the whole plane out of the black box?" That's all a setup for this story about Ford and NHRA teaming up to provide Blue Box sensors for all dragsters in the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes. They've already been tested in the past by the likes of John Force Racing, who knows how to knock the crap out of a car. Besides good times for the engineers, the raw crash data will be used to help develop better and safer cars. Press release below: More »

Death-Proofing The Golden Gate

Davey G. Johnson — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:00:00 EDT

The Golden Gate bridge, for the deaf, blind and comatose people who haven't noticed, is an icon recognized for its beauty; a symbol of all that is good and wonderful about the Golden State. And it's also most-definitely an engineering triumph. So let's face it, if one's despondent and wants to end it all, why wouldn't one choose to meet one's final fate in view one of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous vistas on the planet, using one of one of man's great engineering feats as a springboard? For years, however, authorities have gone back and forth on how best to prevent folks from using the bridge as the embarkation point for a quick journey to their own personal terminus. Frankly, we say, if they've got the guts to get out there and do it instead of just dumping a bottle of reds into their bellies at home, let 'em go. If barriers must be installed, do not let them ugly up the bridge. Also, all jumpers who clog traffic deciding whether to do so or not should be pushed. Everybody hurts sometimes, but that doesn't mean you have to screw it up for everyone else. – Davey G. Johnson More »

Six is for Peasants: ZF Unveils 8-Speed Automatic

Jonny Lieberman — Thu, 03 May 2007 13:30:00 EDT

When the Bangled 7-series dropped just a few short years ago (2002), one of its high-tech highlights was the world's first 6-speed automatic by transmission maker to the stars, ZF. Shortly after the Bimmer dropped, Jaguar, Audi, Bentley, Land Rover and Ford (in their Australia only RWD Falcon) adopted the smooth and torque hungry slushbox. But then Mercedes-Benz came out with a 7-speed auto. Worse, Lexus scooped everyone with an 8-speed. For all those fancy marquees a 6-speed automatic ain't going to cut it. And it won't have to, as ZF just announced their new 8-speed autobox. Aside from the two-extra cogs, ZF is claiming about 6% better mileage compared to the old 6-speed. The new transmission will also send more engine power to the wheels, which we salute. Additionally, the 8-speed has been designed with AWD and hybrid applications in mind. As for the bigger question, will we see a 10-speed auto in 2011? Oh yes, we hope so. Unless DSGs replace conventional autos in high end cars. – Jonny Lieberman More »

Toyota, Subaru Play Engineer Swap: Who Gets The Hot Ones?

Ray Wert — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:30:00 EDT

WardsAuto's reporting the number one super best automaker from the land of the rising sun's playing a little swap game with their ~~little bitch~~ stakeholdee Fuji Heavy Industries. Specifically, they'll be trading with Subaru, of which Fuji's the parent company. Subaru of America spokesman David Sullivan's telling them

"Toyota sent about 100-150 over to Subaru and vice versa...that exchange started a couple months after the agreement was reached for Toyota to invest in 8.7% of our parent (Fuji)...so there's some intermingling going on right now, and in a year or two I think you'll see that bear fruit for both companies."

But you'll want to use protection kids, or else you'll be having to explain to a future model year why they've got a hood scoop like the kids down the block. [Hat tip to Danny!] – Ray Wert More »

Eight! With Coming ZF Box, BMW Will Match Lexus

Mike Spinelli — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 09:56:13 EST

The great cog war of the 2010s may involve cars with as many gears as our first Schwinn. But let's not get ahead of ourselves — we're still on eight. Last year, Toyota broke the seven-speed threshold with an eight box for its Lexus models. Now, BMW will soon be offering a new eight-speed automatic transmission — developed by tranny powerhouse ZF — in its 7-Series as early as 2009. Benefits of the additional gears include more closely matching engine speed with gearing, faster shift speed and better mileage. Boy, we can't wait for those 21-speed "mountain" cars of the future. – Mike Spinelli More »

LUV That Pickup: Edag Prepares Truckish Concept for Geneva

Mike Spinelli — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:05:49 EST

We're plumb tuckered with Egad/Edag wordplay, so this one comes to you from our serious place. German design and engineering house Edag plans to show off a new concept truck at the Geneva show, dubbed LUV. But this concept is no Isuzu-built compact Chevrolet pickup from the 1970s; it's a maritime-themed hauler with a teak-covered loading platform. Maritime? According to the company, LUV means "luff" in German. Right, we had to look it up too — it's the act of sailing a ship nearer the wind, so that the sail flaps. Regardless, the company says it's considering custom shop partners to build the LUV as a limited series model. Egad! – Mike Spinelli More »

Nine Banger!

Mike Spinelli — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 08:35:09 EST

I guess we're not the only ones with a sick sense of engine-building humor. Thomas Johansson, an engineering graduate student at Sweden's Lule university of technology, created the engine some of the Jalops proposed last week in conversation — a W9. Why, we asked, couldn't someone create an engine with three rows of three cylinders — like a triple helping of the Bl riot XI aircraft's Anzani W3. We're not sure what Johansson plans to do with his creation, or whether it was just a because-I-can exercise, but we'd like to see it in an old rally Saab, or powering some manner of Eastern European flatbed (either one). [Thanks to David for the tip.] – Mike Spinelli More »

Blacktop Cadence: It's Tarmac!

Davey G. Johnson — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 21:45:00 EST

You've walked on it. You've most likely skinned your knees on it while playing kickball or four-square. We're willing to bet you've hooned on it. Yes friends, it's the reason we're not all driving Land Rovers today: it's tarmac! An evolution of John Loudon McAdam's road-building system, which involved breaking rocks in the hot sun, tarmac — introduced by E. Purnell Hooley as a way to cut down on dust produced by the vacuum created by fast-moving vehicles — used a crushed-stone aggregate bound with tar. More »

CAD Fiends!: Camaro Blueprint Leaked

Mike Spinelli — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 12:47:35 EDT

The new-Camaro watchers at Camaro5 procured some leaked shots of the next-generation Camaro, all blueprinted up and color coded for easy reference (ascertaining what the colors refer to is above our pay grade). Engineering geeks, however, have a wealth of information at hand. Click on with your pocket-protected selves. More »