Haje’s Brain

(If any of you are MC riders, I’d love your input and opinions on any of this)

So, this week-end, I’ve spent a lot of time riding around on a motorcycle (Honda XR, to be exact, which is a 125cc, road-legal, 5-speed trail bike). This morning I handed it in and stepped straight back onto my scooter (Gilera Runner VX Special – twist and go continuous variable transmission (CVT), 125cc). The difference between the two bikes are so vast that it’s almost unbelievable that they both share some traits (2 wheels and a 125cc engine)… (more…)

Anti Lag is a system used in highly tuned turbocharged vehicles, to reduce the effect of turbo lag.

How a turbocharger works

A turbocharger works by exploiting the pressure of the exhaust gasses moving out of an internal combustion engine. It consists of a turbine – driven by the exhaust gasses – which is connected to a compressor.

The air pump forces air into the inlet manifold. The higher density of the compressed air means that more fuel can be injected into the engine, which leads to much higher power output compared to a non-forced-induction car (also known as a ‘naturally aspirated’ engine) (more…)

The sport of Drifting has been around for quite a while, but with movies such as Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, and a recent increase in popularity in the D1 and Formula Drift championship, the newest motorsport on the block (or, more likely, around the block) is gathering speed.

Back in the day, you could drift with just about any car that’s got rear wheel drive – Sierras and Cavaliers were tremendously popular in the early years of UK drifting – but as competition levels went up, more is needed from the cars. (more…)

I found a wicked little animation on YouTube:

But it isn’t annotated. So I decided to see if I knew what all the parts were… (more…)

Jesus, we’ve come a long way since the 1960s. Surely, they can make a taxi that doesn’t look completely ridiculous? With the launch of TX4, I guess the answer is ‘no’.

For some reason, we get tons of press releases about how great black cabs are, and how hard all other hackney carriages suck. Of course, it’s a bit tiresome, but we could live with that, if it hadn’t been for the fact that the LTI taxis themselves are complete dinousaurs, with ancient engines and ridiculous performance. (more…)

VTEC is a technology invented and developed by Honda, for used in internal combustion engines. It can in theory be used in all engines that use camshafts, but has in practice only been used in cars, motorcycles, and 4×4 vehicles.

VTEC stands for Variable Timing Electronic Control, and is short for Variable valve Timing and lift Electronic Control. It is a technology which allows cars to behave differently at different engine speeds, by actuating different cam lobes at different speeds. (more…)

Horsepowers, shiny alloys and the badge on the front of the car are all good and well, but it is of no use if you do not arrive at your destination in one piece. Vehicle safety is very much in the public consciousness – and so it should be: After all, nobody has time to spend time in hospital, or worse.

In the automotive world, the NCAP crash test – NCAP stands for New Car Assessment Program – is the main player. For us in the UK, the Euro NCAP is the most important influence: it tests most of the new car models by subjecting it to the infamous NCAP crash test, in which crash test dummies are placed inside the car, and the vehicle is subjected to various crash tests. (more…)

Quite frequently, when I search for parts for my car on eBay, I come across auctions for power boosting chips promising the world. Based on the description, however, it becomes quite clear what it actually is, and what it does:

you would be buying a Performance Boost Resistor, which would add 5-20 BHP to your engine. it will fit any fuel injected vehicle that has an ECU, but not turbo or diesel models. it takes about 5 minutes to fit, and can be removed without any adverse effect to your engine. so you can put it in your next car.

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In the automotive world, from a consumer’s point of view, a “platform” is a set of characteristics shared between several vehicles.

From a manufacturer’s point of view, it is the other way around: The platform on which a vehicle is built is the fundamental basics on which the rest of the vehicle can be built. This can be compared with building a house: If you build a foundation and then stop building, a skilled architect can turn the building into a whole array of different buildings, limited only by the limitations of the foundation. (more…)

Diesel-fuelled internal combustion engines have traditionally had a big problem with soot particles, and a particulate filter aims to solve this problem. A particulate filter is a device that goes in the exhaust system. They will be mandatory on all new Diesel engines sold in the EU in 2007, when the EU5 emissions regulations kick in.

The interesting bit of this whole malarkey is the Particulate filter – it is so simple, yet rather nifty technology at the same time. (more…)