JUST TINT IT

Christmas is just around the corner and I don’t know about you but I just can’t decide what to get. There are plenty of things I could ask “Santa” for Christmas but there are also plenty of things I need. However, since it is Christmas I think I’d rather choose a want rather than a need. I’d really like to tint the windows of my car and I figured if I don’t want to spend my money I’m sure my parents, I mean Santa, can help me out.

The reason I want tint for my car is for looks. That’s why anyone in their right mind gets tinted windows, but it does actually serve a purpose. Some tint can reduce the heat in your car on a hot summer day by 78%. It also protects the interior of your care because it can block out nearly 99% of harmful UV rays that fade your dash and other interior plastics and reduces the glare. That’s helpful for me because normally when I need my sunglasses the most they’re nowhere to be found. And not to mention if you would happen to get into a wreck bad enough to where your windows shatter, the tint actually acts as a net and keeps a lot of the class together reducing your risk of further injuries you may suffer. But let’s face it, while all those are good reasons I just want it for the appearance.

Honestly, I don’t want to dark but I still want it dark. 30% is actually the legal limit in the state of Indiana but I would be willing to bet around 75% of tint is illegal. I’m shooting for about a 20-25% tint all the way around. Just enough to make it look good but not get me in trouble either. Not to mention “Santa” isn’t going to buy me 10-15% if she knows the legal limit is 30. Just in case you were wondering 25% looks like the picture above.

Fuel System

With gas prices like they are today, putting fuel into your vehicle is a topic that is on everyone’s mind. But what happens once the nozzle has been removed and the car is full of gas? You probably just get in, turn the key, and you are on your way, never truly thinking that you just put gas in the rear of the vehicle, yet the engine is in the front. Gravity is not on your side either, so how does the fuel get from the tank to burn within your engine? The fuel system is one of the most crucial parts in running an internal combustion engine.

When you put fuel into your car it builds up in your fuel tank, a big usually plastic or metal container located in the rear of the vehicle. The fuel tanks on newer cars have baffles inside of them to make sure that the fuel does not slosh around. They also have an inlet tube, outlet tube, and a vent. This vent is not venting freely into the atmosphere but instead runs through a filter and into the engine to let the vapors burn. The liquid fuel is pumped into the carburetor or fuel injectors by a fuel pump. The pump allows the fuel to be forcefully pushed through the fuel lines without running into problems like gravity pulling fuel away from the engine. There are two main types of fuel pumps, mechanical and electrical. The mechanical fuel pumps were made for the older carbureted cars, and the electrical pumps are what cars with fuel injection nowadays use. The electric fuel pumps can be low pressure or high pressure, making a huge difference when replacing them.

The fuel is pumped then towards the engine where it is turned into a vapor gas to be burned by either the carburetor or fuel injectors. If you catch my next blog I will be writing of fuel injection and carburetion.

Ignition System

This posting will be the first of a small series of entries that will explain some of the basic systems in a car that are necessary for the car to function normally. It only makes sense to start out with a system that starts an automobile, the ignition system. Many drivers just turn the key and they are on their way, not even thinking about what happens, but there is more that goes on between when the key hits the ignition and when the car actually starts.

Car’s used to have, in most cases, a distributor; when the ignition key was turned, a current ran from the battery, to the ignition coil, then into the distributor. Once the current hit the distributor it would be sent out to all cylinders via the spark plug wires and spark plugs. The coil basically magnified the current from the battery to a much larger current that allowed for enough voltage to start the engine. The distributor cap sent out current to each cylinder. Depending on how many cylinders a car had, the cap would have that many numbers of spots where the current could be sent out. The rotor was a small plastic piece that spun inside the cap, only making one point of contact to the inside wall of the cap. This contact point on the rotor would then touch each point on the cap as it spun to send out the electric current to each different cylinder in a specific order. If this order was wrong for any reason, such as the wires lead to the wrong cylinder, the car wouldn’t start.

Now, many cars are going to distributor-less ignitions where the ECU has total control over the ignition. Each spark plug has its own coil built onto it. This is a much more efficient system because there is no need for a distributor which wears down over time and there is no need for high-voltage spark plug wires which can also break down. This system is completely run by the car’s computer system, thus making the timing even better.
So next time you get in your car think about what happens when you slip your key into the ignition and turn it, it will surprise you how fast all of this happens.

The Last First

Okay, so what car guy didn’t or still doesn’t want a classic Chevy like the Camaro? Arguably the best Chevy ever, you know you have a hot rod if you’re cruising around in a 69’ Camaro. Designed for speed and more speed and then more speed you were king of the road if you had the 69 Camaro, but not just any of them it had to be the ZL-1!
Chevrolet only made 50 and only because that was the magic number to be able to race it. The engine alone cost more than the car ($4,160) which brought the cars total to roughly $7,200. Its quarter mile time was spitting out low 11s at 122MPH. That was the fastest car ever produced by Chevy; I know what you’re thinking, so what right, don’t forget that Chevrolet at the time was on top of the speed world with cars like the corvette and Impala.
Okay so the ZL1 was an Aluminum monster. All aluminum head, aluminum block this engine weigh as light as a small block but produced nearly double the horse power. The engines’ rating was right at around 500bhp. You could spin the tires off anything with that kind of muscle. The engine turned the newer style of the Camaro into probably the meanest car of its era and even before!
When you see that perfect Camaro rolling down the road, don’t think of this car, this car was better. That may be a lie, I’m sure someone in the world could prove me wrong; but common, this car was years before its time. It was a street legal race car that blew away the competition. Camaro sold more cars in 69 than ever before if that can’t prove my point I don’t know what will. The late 60s were by far the muscle car era but never has a car dominated its time like the 69’ ZL1 Camaro.

ATVs I Want

Growing up I always wanted a four wheeler, but being in a family of boat riders and jet skiers there was no way I was going to get one! Don’t get me wrong I like the water there is nothing like throwing people off the back of a jet ski but lately I’ve just wanted change! If I had a bit of extra cash, which I don’t, I would defiantly get an ATV (All Terrain Vehicles).
I know I probably am not going to get one till I’m out of college what that’s the beauty of the internet you can always look at stuff that you can’t have! I was looking around and the best “bang for your buck” on Kawasaki’s website was there Brute Force® 650 4x4. And for a newbie like myself its nothing too powerful yet it can get the job done when needed. Priced at just fewer than eight grand I might have to get me one once I graduate college of course.
The only trouble I’m having with picking and ATV of my choice isn’t price or color it’s what kind? I could get a wheeler for mudding and going on trails or I could get a sport utility designed for speed. Yamaha has a new 2009 Raptor 700R out on the market and its fast! Today’s day and age there are so many options I wish it were easy to just pick one out and buy it. Anyway, I was just venting about more wishes I had and hopefully I could get a job good enough to where I can just get both. Its too hard to just choice one.

What do you want to know about?

Most likely if you are reading this blog, you are of the age to drive. You may get into your car every day (or use to when you weren’t on campus), start it up, and take off without even thinking about what all goes on to get you where you need to be going. We all use our cars but never stop and wonder why it does what it does. A car is a complex combination of many different systems that allow the car to perform all the things necessary to work properly and get the driver to the preferred destination. Many people drive blind and don’t understand the simple things on a car, and when these things break the person gets upset and storms into a automotive shop or dealer demanding an explanation on why its not working properly.

So here at Automotive Advancements I am going to start writing about different functions a car performs so that you, the reader, can understand the basics of what all goes on under the hood that allows you to get where you need to be. These functions a car performs have changed over time to new forms of technology that have made life even simpler for a driver, therefore causing the driver to take for granted even more that the car will work when they put the key in the ignition. So if you have often sat in your car and thought: “I wonder how that works?” Leave a comment, and I will try to answer your questions!

Big Bud

Driving home from Purdue back to Indiana I noticed a lot of corn. Granted I’ve lived my whole life on the west side of Indianapolis, I really only see this much corn when I’m like 20 minutes from home. For those of you who take interstate 65 back to where ever is your home town you know what I’m talking about. Besides the open road, all you see is corn and gas stations but mostly corn. It kind of intrigues me to see the monstrous machines chewing threw the corn and ending up with just the neatly corn ear. But all of the corn made me think of tractors and then I asked myself I wonder how big the biggest tractor in the world is?
It name, BIG BUD. Built by a northern manufacturing company in 1978, It is 14 feet high and 20 feet wide! The sucker weighs 100,000 pounds. It need eight, yes eight, 8 feet tall tires to drive this mammoth of a machine. The gas tank holds 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Its powered by a V-16, 1,472 cu.in. that pushes out around 900 horses. The best part about this machine of all machines it its work load.
This tractor can honestly pull anything so it has no trouble pulling its 80-foot wide chisel plow. Big Bud can till 800 to 900 acres in a day. In words you and I can recognize, a square mile is roughly 640 acres; so, it can till about one and a half square miles in a day. Big Bud cost $300,000 when it was made, but today it would be worth around $600,000. That’s more than my house; I don’t think I would want to live in that thing. I guess it’s a good thing it does its job very well.
Competitors may try and match the supreme results that Big Bud creates but none come close. John Deere’s 9520 may be a close as it gets, and really it’s a little more than half of this tractors size. Big Bud really is a massive tractor. It would be pretty awesome to get a hay ride in this tractor for Halloween!

The Title of Luxury

If you have ever watched a James Bond movie then you’ve probably seen some kind of Aston Martin. The Aston Martins has a fine legacy of being a top designed and speedy roadster. These cars need little introduction in the car world and not just because of Bond. Too bad in the boring normal world the Aston Martin isn’t built with missiles that can come out of the headlights.
The Aston Martin is British manufactured in Gaydon, London. The car company was founded in 1913 and since then has kept it head above waters to build a legacy of luxury. It has change owners upon numerous occasions and has been in at least 10 movies from what I have found out. They have three award winning cars; the DB9, DB9 Volante, and the prestigious V8 Vantage.
Enough about Bond and all the little facts though, what you need to know is what Aston Martin has in store for the world. What I am talking about is the V12 Vantage RS Concept car. The 6.0 liter V12 engine is expected to have around 600hp propelling the car to 100 mph in under 8.5 seconds. The newly designed car has a 0-60 speed of less than 4.0 seconds making it the fastest produced Aston Martin EVER!!!
I watched James bond last night and honestly it made me want one so bad. The best part about Aston Martin vehicles is that you seriously cannot go wrong. There is no runt of the liter! From 1913 to 2008 to beyond, you can’t go wrong. So for now I can dream, but maybe someday I will be able to add an Aston martin to my Car collection.

Jay Leno The King!

Those of you who know anything about the late night show host Jay Leno; you know that he may be the biggest car fanatic ever. He owns around the sum of 84 cars and 73 motorcycles. These aren’t your normal every day cars either, most of them are vintage cars worth well over 100,000 dollars. Just a taste of his collections is full of classic Bentleys, Mercedes, and Corvettes. The one I personally like the most could be his rare 1932 Duesenberg SJ.
This was a one of the types of cars that is best described as before its time! It was a supercharged strait eight that generated 325 horse powers and top out at a speed of 130 miles per hour. People, most cars today can’t top that. Jay has only 1 of 36 of the supercharged models meaning his car is basically worth a pretty penny. The funny thing is, most collectors leave the cars tucked away in their garage out of harms way. Jay seems to think otherwise, he believes cars improve the more you drive them.
Jay also has newer cars such as the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 and the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren exactly like I showed you Paris Hilton had. Personally I like the Challenger but I would take either one! His challenger is pushing around 425HP bringing back American muscle. And let’s just say it makes the new mustangs look like children’s toys. He has Corvettes, Harleys, basically if it’s a classic Jay probably has it!
His garage is roughly 17,000 square feet. His oldest car is oldest cars are a 1906 Baker electric car and a 1906 Stanley Steamer, which makes the span in years of his garage at 100 year because he owns an 06 Vette. He has a whole crew of mechanics and engineers working on his cars. Unfortunately, I count find anything on the overall net worth of his cars and motorcycles combined but I can say that he finds them all Priceless. As a car guy, I am very jealous of this man. Who knows maybe one day I’ll be able to go see them and maybe drive one. Probably not =]

A Flash of Lightning

Most car enthusiasts love the thrill of neck whipping speed and amazing styling. These cars primarily have come with large, powerful gas engines that are usually very inefficient. While this love for cars can’t be taken away from car lovers, a new company is trying to change the way people look at performance.

The Lightning Car Company in the UK has developed a car that combines amazing styling, speed, and efficiency. Their car, the Lightning, is completely electric and can run 0-60 times in just 4 seconds. This is faster than almost all cars on the road today, and especially the hybrids that contain some of the same technology the Lightning does. The Lightning’s complete electric system allows the car to have full power at all times while driving, unlike a gasoline engine where the full power is only obtained when the engine is at high rpm ranges. The car plugs in directly to anyone’s home plug-in and will be fully charged in just a few hours.

What sets this car from the rest is the innovative styling and the use of technology never used before. The car has no engine, axles, or gear boxes, making it virtually maintenance free. The electric motors are built into the wheel hub which allows the car to harness and apply all its power directly to the wheels.

With this car’s amazing technology and no fuel needed, it is sure to sell. The styling of the car is that of a supercar and will catch the eye of any passerby. The car has not made it to the United States yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long before people in the U.S. are itching to get their hands on this piece of sports car history.

Car Audio; iPods

The way people listen to music in their cars is always changing. There was first just the simple radio, then the 8-track, the cassette, and eventually the CD player, but lately there has been a huge outbreak of connecting iPods or MP3 players into the car’s audio system. This allows the driver to personalize playlists and have all of their favorite songs at their fingertips. Just a few years ago the automotive industry did not even consider putting this option into production because of the scarcity of the use of MP3 players and iPods. Today 58% of cars that are manufactured will have iPod direct connection capabilities in them. IPods seem to take over the handheld music player scene with the other MP3 players just having 33% of cars that are able to connect directly with them. The percentages of cars that have these news adaptations in them are staggering between the different model years. USB interfaces, iPod connections, and hands-free Bluetooth have almost doubled in one year for the amount of cars they will be available in.

Many people think that this ability to hook up music directly from a hand-held music player is one of the best things since sliced bread, but others think that this may be just another distraction for those on the road. Many people using this new technology would be of the younger, more novice driving crowd and could ultimately lead to less attention spent on the actual road and more accidents. This concept is not much different than the use of a cell phone while driving, and some states have outlawed cell phone use while operating a vehicle. Could the states start to ban music players?

RiDeS!!!

This week I have decided on a special theme! This week is my version of cribs, except without the cribs and just the rides. I’ll take you in depth on what some of the hottest celebrities are driving and what most of us wish to have half of one day!
Up first is Paris Hilton. I really don’t like Paris a whole lot but I can tell you she sure knows how to pick them. She rides in her very own Mercedes-Benz Mclaren. Let me break this down for you in case you don’t know much about cars. It’s a half a million dollar car! That in its self explains the wealth and elegance needed just to be able to buy this car. The funniest thing that I’ve found out so far was that Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears drive the same car.
The entire body of this car is made up of carbon fiber. It comes equipped with a 5.4 litter supercharged, all aluminum V8. This car was built for the sole purpose of performance! Its 0-60 time comes in around 3.6 seconds making it THE fastest automatic transmission car in the world. It has a top speed of just over 200 MPH. the only thing I can think of for why a girl like her would need a car this fast is to out run the cops.
This car was defiantly designed more for the road than the red carpet! Too bad the people that would actually have fun in this car can’t afford its half a million dollar price tag. I can’t even imagine driving half a million dollars, that nearly two of my houses. It must be nice to have that much money. Maybe someday you or I will get the pleasure of driving something close to a standard set this high!

Parallel Parking Dread is Over!

One of the dreaded tasks while driving is the infamous parallel parking. Drivers have to pass the task to get their licenses and it seems to be the most feared chore for inexperienced drivers. What if the driver did not have to parallel park at all, but rather control only the foot brake pedal? Toyota has come out with technology where the car will virtually park itself.
While this technology was largely introduced by Lexus, a Toyota made company, Toyota is starting to put this option I some of their less expensive vehicles. One in particular that everyone is familiar with is the Toyota Prius. Not only does this hybrid get good gas mileage, it could possibly park itself.
The way the parking assist works is when the driver pulls next to a spot he or she wants to park in and puts the car into reverse, a rear bumper camera turns on and displays all that is behind the car. The driver then pushes a button on the dash and the car calculates how much it needs to turn in order to fit in the parking space. A green area appears on the screen telling the driver where the vehicle will end up and a yellow path describes how the car will get there. Then it is just a matter of controlling the car with the brake.
There are some flaws in this feature though. It does not tell you if the spot the driver is trying to back into is too small for the car to fit. This could lead to some major problems and may actually make parallel parking more of a pain if the driver can only rely on the computer to park. The only thing that scares me is if my car is the one sitting behind where this computer savvy vehicle is trying to park.

Parents Love MyKey

There has always been a struggle throughout the course of history between the snotty teenagers who thinks he or she knows it all and the older, so called wiser parents. It is only natural for the teenager to ask for independence through the high school years and especially when the independence turns into reality when they obtain their licenses. The more teenagers try to separate themselves from their parents as they mature into adulthood, it seems as though parents want to keep a tab on their children and make sure they are making the right decisions even more. Even though they cannot be there when their children head out onto the roads, there are still ways for the parents to feel secure and have reassurance that they will be safe on the road even when they aren’t riding shotgun. With Ford’s brand new MyKey technology it makes it simple for the parents to make the car as safe as possible for the children.

The MyKey has many features that will allow the parents to feel better about letting their children drive away alone. This feature will come standard in the all new 2010 Ford Focus Coupe and will have many more features than previous child monitoring systems. The system is based around the key to the car. It can allow parents to limit the speed of the car to just 80 mph, and will allow the stereo to only be turned on to 44% of the total volume. Also, if the children are not buckled up in the car, the car alerts the driver with chimes. Not only does it producing these annoying sounds to buckle up, it will mute the cars stereo until everyone in the car is wearing their seat belts. This is not all the key can do. It will also give the driver an early warning on how much fuel is left and alerts the driver when there is only 75 miles left on the tank of gas. The key can also be programmed to chime at certain speed levels to make sure that the novice driver pays attention to the speed he or she is going.

This technology sounds great on paper and will surely help those who need assistance when driving, but in my car these features would become a nuisance and would eventually be cut out. A way around this is to educate the drivers even more, and don’t hand out driver’s licenses to just anyone. They must fit a strict set of requirements in order to obtain their privilege to drive.

Cool Your Seat!

Perhaps one of my favorite car innovations is temperature controlled seats. We’ve all been there, on a hot summer day and the leather seats are scolding hot. Or in the dead of winter, sitting in your car literally freezing your bum off! But then, some genius thought outside the box.
Someone took car comfort to the next level and now we can control if are seat are heated or cooled. No more uncomfortably hot or cold seats. You know how that power at your finger tips.

In most new cars this technology is preinstalled before you even get it, but what about everyone else? I kind of want that sort of luxury in my car so I got to doing some research and found some reasonable prices for this. I found that a good price is $119.95. Unfortunately though, if you want your car to keep its stock appearance you’ll have to pay a tad bit more. The price for the $119.95 is just a seat cover that comes with the coolness and hotness.

I for one wish I had this in my car. I hate going into my car in winter and sitting on a cold seat; it would be one hundred times better if I got to sit on a warm cozy seat! Or in the summer it would be nice to have a colder seat that way my back doesn’t stick to the seat. I think I may have to put this item on my Christmas list!!!

Musical Roads

Growing up as a kid I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, and one thing my grandfather loved to do while he was driving was hit the rumble strip on the side of the road (where you are not supposed to be) and of course this would shake the car and he would yell “Wake UP!” I always found this to be funny, one probably because of the obscene noise it did make, and also because of my grandpa’s funny nature. As I grew older I came to realize that it was kind of scary that he was driving back and forth to hit the rumble strip on the shoulder of the road. But what if the rumble strip was brought onto the road?

The way it works is the road has been “tuned” to a certain speed a car must go, and also some have been based on a certain car’s wheelbase and tires to give it that almost perfect tune and sound. It seems to be a hit for kids, but the people living close to the road seem to not care for it too much. They must not like the same song being played day after day when they come home from work. I wouldn’t like it either if I had to listen to a poor humm of “The William Tell Overture” everyday after a long day at work.

I think that they should implement more of these though, maybe on two lane roads where people can choose not to drive on the musical path. Some of the roads have been complained about so much that they are being paved over.

The only thing that scares me is what happens when you want to rewind or listen to it be played faster?