While I’ve never been the type of person to be particularly stressed about getting every possible power gain out of my car (when I owned a car), I’ve always been skeptical that a performance air filter would actually have any significant difference over a standard one. But if you do some basic tests, it looks like I’m…

One of the first things you notice when you are in a supercar is the acceleration above 80 mph, which tends toward the stupid. The second thing you notice is how quickly modern dual-clutch transmissions shift—like video-game quick here on the McLaren 720S.

Horizontally-opposed engines are often referred to as “boxer” engines because the motion of the pistons sort of resembles a boxer, punching. Really, though, if any engine should be named for a boxer, it’s the other kind of opposed engine: the kind where the pistons actually “punch” right at each other. They’re called …

One pedal driving is available in many battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, allowing drivers the option to brake to a complete stop without actually pressing on the brake pedal. The car’s electric motors can use the regenerative braking power to great effect. Leave it to Engineering Explained to explain how…

Automakers are obsessed with turbocharging everything at the moment, being that consumers are demanding ever more power and low-end torque feel from their cars, while attempting to meet fuel economy expectations at the same time. That low-end boost is provided a number of ways, but effectively manufacturers desire the…

The Ford Flathead V8 was the first mass-market V8 and the starting point for uniquely American performance. What’s interesting about it is exactly what made it possible—simple and cheap to build—is exactly what doomed it as well.

Most people know that expensive cars are also expensive to own. But why is that? You would think that modern manufacturing techniques and expensive testing would make cars more durable. Our friends at Engineering Explained why this isn’t always the case.

Despite the onslaught of hybrid and electric vehicle announcements from automakers, they’re still busy squeezing as much efficiency out of internal combustion engines as possible. It’s Toyota’s turn to improve its engines, like tweaking its 2.5-liter inline four-cylinder in the 2018 Camry to be more powerful and…

Most automotive enthusiasts are familiar with Volkswagen’s long-lived VR6 engine. It is a 6-cylinder engine with fifteen degree offset cylinder bores so that it is more compact than a traditional inline six engine and less expensive to produce than a V6 engine (thanks to a shared cylinder head and manifolds). This…

Audi’s newest SQ7 is powered by a 4.o-liter twin-turbocharged V8 diesel engine with a third compressor powered by a 7kw electric motor, running on a separate 48v system. Large turbochargers create more power by flowing more air, but they take longer to spool up. By adding in this electric supercharger, Audi is able to…

You may or may not have noticed that, oftentimes, diesel engines produce more torque than regular gasoline engines. What gives? Here’s why.

Things got weird with Dieselgate when, last month, The New York Times reported that the company tested diesel emissions on ten monkeys. The development was a sad and somewhat ghoulish one and, in the end, pointless, since VW had defeat devices installed on many of their diesels. How did those work, exactly? Let’s go…

The internet has been crafting explainer videos and quippy analogies about how to explain the difference between an engine’s horsepower and torque figures. According to Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained you’re still just not getting it. You’ve likely heard the explanation “horsepower is how fast you hit the wall,…

Porsche has stuck with a rear-engine bias for their 911 sports car for decades. Originally a carryover from the days of the 356 (and by extension the Beetle), Porsche’s 911 has had the engine slung out behind the rear axle since its inception, with two motorsport-induced exceptions: The 911 GT1 of the late 1990s, and…

It’s a question that comes with a heavy connotation in the car world. If you can choose one way or another, it feels like picking sides in an age old debate. Do you want your increased engine horsepower to be linear and immediate, or efficient and a bit laggy? In an effort to prove which forced induction provides a…

When I finally learned what torque was in high school physics, I was absolutely elated because finally there was a term taught in the classroom that could relate school with my car knowledge. If you needed a simple yet effective brush-up on torque and horsepower, here’s a video for you.

Old automotive lore tells us that a car’s oil should be changed every three months or 3,000 miles. That hasn’t been explicitly true for a long time, but I still find myself wary of claims that an engine’s lifeblood can last 20,000. But it turns out, there really is science behind that sticker on the bottle.

It’s cold, snowy and icy outside for a lot of us, so we go and swap our summer tires for the winter ones. It’s the safe thing to do... on ice and snow. Things are a little different on pavement.

Oftentimes, you’ll hear terms like “boost threshold” and “turbo lag” get thrown around, sometimes mixed up and sometimes used as the same thing. They aren’t actually, and here’s the difference.

Though a battery researcher told me he thinks Tesla’s performance claims for its new Roadster are plausible, there are many other factors besides batteries that affect acceleration. So let Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained walk you through the basic physics of how Tesla might pull this off.