In the last 8 years the Japanese car makers have been using CVT transmission is most of their cars with the exception of Mazda and Suzuki. All the other Japanese brands such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, subaru and Mitsubishi use the CVT transmission extensively in their model range. The most extreme being Subaru who actually used the CVT transmission for the new Subaru WRX. Unlike the Japanese, the Koreans and German car makers either did no adopt the CVT or abandoned it quickly after 1 generation of models.
CVT is suppose to be more fuel efficient than regular torque converter type automatics but it dulls down the driving experience to the point where the car is boring to drive. The simulated gear shifts programmed into the CVT transmission makes it feel like it is changing gears but the driving experience is still numb to say the least. Furthermore the transmission is unable to handle sudden increase in torque if the car's engine is modified.
I am wondering when the Japanese car makers will wake up and switch twin clutch gear boxes.
Tuesday, 26 August 2014
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
evolution of tyre technology
The black round things that keep our cars on the road that we call tyres or tires (US spelling) has been around for more than 100 years but the concept of it has not really changed. It is still filled with air or nitrogen and will puncture if it hits a nail or a sharp object. Tyres of course have become stronger, more durable and also more resistant to heat and also is able to withstand more damage. Comparing a tyre made in the 1990s and a tyre now, the new tyre is able to withstand much higher speeds (high performance tyres) and offer much better grip and return better fuel economy.
Materials used to make tyres have also evolved in search for better performance.
Many years ago a concept developed by Michelin appeared in some car magazines and this concept tyre did not use air. The outer tread is suspended on rubber spokes on the inside (kind of like a bicycle wheel). Many observers thought that this idea was brilliant since the tyres will never go flat due to a nail or damage from sharp objects. It is still unsure why until today it has not gone into production. Perhaps the tyre companies probably thought that they would loose a lot of money from the reduction of replacement tyre sales resulting in damaged tyres. The tyre companies would only make money on selling replacement tyres that had no more tread left. There is also the possibility that the spokes inside could make the ride harder since you cannot alter the air pressure inside.
Materials used to make tyres have also evolved in search for better performance.
Many years ago a concept developed by Michelin appeared in some car magazines and this concept tyre did not use air. The outer tread is suspended on rubber spokes on the inside (kind of like a bicycle wheel). Many observers thought that this idea was brilliant since the tyres will never go flat due to a nail or damage from sharp objects. It is still unsure why until today it has not gone into production. Perhaps the tyre companies probably thought that they would loose a lot of money from the reduction of replacement tyre sales resulting in damaged tyres. The tyre companies would only make money on selling replacement tyres that had no more tread left. There is also the possibility that the spokes inside could make the ride harder since you cannot alter the air pressure inside.
Tuesday, 5 August 2014
going electric
As far as we can think back the car has always run on gasoline or diesel but due to the ever rising cost of fossil fuel this will eventually come to an end. Electric cars seems to be making big in roads into the automotive world. Initially many people were skeptical about electric cars with many commenting about the possibility of electromagnetic radiation, short driving range and long charging times and the possible dangers of the car being stuck in a flood. Toyota's hybrid cars were a good in between solution that offered the best of both worlds but the problems came with the recycling of the batteries and the diminishing battery life.
Some car companies took it one step further by developing sporty electric cars to make it more appealing since the regular electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf was boring to say the least. Tesla Motors took the concept and made it much better by introducing better driving range, luxurious interiors and more efficient use of the power. BMW on the other hand turned their attention to the i3 and i8 both of which are revolutionary to some degree. Keeping true to their motto of making "ultimate driving machine", BMW made the i3 as the city car with an optional gasoline range extender motor and the i8 as the first electric sports car.
Despite earlier criticisms by motoring journalists, BMW managed to prove that their electric cars are worthy of the BMW badge and made the car enjoyable to drive.
The number of pure electric cars sold worldwide is less than 1% of the total volume of cars sold but the number is growing steadily, more so in developed countries where the charging infrastructure is better. Countries like Japan hybrid and electric cars are common as many car parks have charging facility for electric cars.
Once car companies are able to squeeze out a range of 500km on a single charge I believe will be a big impact on the sales of electric cars. The range anxiety problem is still common until now since many of the current electric cars only offer up to 250km range but in reality most of them run out of power by 180km. this basically restricts the owners of driving long distance with the electric car.
The introduction of the induction charging system will help with the sales of electric cars to some degree but someone has to bear the cost of installing the system in public places to allow the electric cars to be charged while stationary.
More evolution of the electric car is yet to come. It will get seriously interesting when the electric cars are self driven and is capable of driving ranges in excess of 500km on a single charge.
Some car companies took it one step further by developing sporty electric cars to make it more appealing since the regular electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf was boring to say the least. Tesla Motors took the concept and made it much better by introducing better driving range, luxurious interiors and more efficient use of the power. BMW on the other hand turned their attention to the i3 and i8 both of which are revolutionary to some degree. Keeping true to their motto of making "ultimate driving machine", BMW made the i3 as the city car with an optional gasoline range extender motor and the i8 as the first electric sports car.
Despite earlier criticisms by motoring journalists, BMW managed to prove that their electric cars are worthy of the BMW badge and made the car enjoyable to drive.
The number of pure electric cars sold worldwide is less than 1% of the total volume of cars sold but the number is growing steadily, more so in developed countries where the charging infrastructure is better. Countries like Japan hybrid and electric cars are common as many car parks have charging facility for electric cars.
Once car companies are able to squeeze out a range of 500km on a single charge I believe will be a big impact on the sales of electric cars. The range anxiety problem is still common until now since many of the current electric cars only offer up to 250km range but in reality most of them run out of power by 180km. this basically restricts the owners of driving long distance with the electric car.
The introduction of the induction charging system will help with the sales of electric cars to some degree but someone has to bear the cost of installing the system in public places to allow the electric cars to be charged while stationary.
More evolution of the electric car is yet to come. It will get seriously interesting when the electric cars are self driven and is capable of driving ranges in excess of 500km on a single charge.
Thursday, 31 July 2014
the impending Doom of Malaysia's automotive industry
In the wake of the reappointment of Dr. Mahathir as Proton's chairman has led to another set back for the Malaysian automotive industry. As expected by many observers that if Dr. Mahathir is reappointed as the chairman of Proton he will exercise his influence over the company and the government. Since his reappointment he has requested US$2 billion from the Government to pay for all the research and development Proton has done. This of course to any sensible person would sound ridiculous since Proton is a private company and the Government should have nothing to do with how Proton performs.
It is widely expected that Dr. Mahathir will ask the Government to provide some sort of protection for Proton again. Proton has struggled with their new models in the recent years and saw their market share decline substantially. Proton being his pet project since the 1980s he was not going to let it close down without some kind of help. The problem is the help that he seeks is again from the Government which in turn gets money from the tax payers. Asking any man on the street whether they would want to see Proton be bailed out and the answer is a flat "NO!". The average Malaysian is sick and tired of having to pay high prices for something that is a necessity and not a luxury.
It won't be long before the Government will cave into the demands of Dr. Mahathir and impose some sort of protection for Proton at the expense of the other car makers who have invested billions to build their facilities in Malaysia.
The Government's original plan of liberalizing the automotive industry will definitely take a step back and that also means the end of lowering import taxes on cars. Foreign car companies who invested millions in their production or assembly plants will feel betrayed by the Government. No one would blame them for wanting to relocate their facilities to India or Indonesia where the market is bigger and they would not face such inconsistent policies from the Government.
No one wants to pay more than they have to for a simple car, but in Malaysia it is a luxury to own car no thanks to a certain individual who has their own personal agenda.
It is widely expected that Dr. Mahathir will ask the Government to provide some sort of protection for Proton again. Proton has struggled with their new models in the recent years and saw their market share decline substantially. Proton being his pet project since the 1980s he was not going to let it close down without some kind of help. The problem is the help that he seeks is again from the Government which in turn gets money from the tax payers. Asking any man on the street whether they would want to see Proton be bailed out and the answer is a flat "NO!". The average Malaysian is sick and tired of having to pay high prices for something that is a necessity and not a luxury.
It won't be long before the Government will cave into the demands of Dr. Mahathir and impose some sort of protection for Proton at the expense of the other car makers who have invested billions to build their facilities in Malaysia.
The Government's original plan of liberalizing the automotive industry will definitely take a step back and that also means the end of lowering import taxes on cars. Foreign car companies who invested millions in their production or assembly plants will feel betrayed by the Government. No one would blame them for wanting to relocate their facilities to India or Indonesia where the market is bigger and they would not face such inconsistent policies from the Government.
No one wants to pay more than they have to for a simple car, but in Malaysia it is a luxury to own car no thanks to a certain individual who has their own personal agenda.
Friday, 20 June 2014
Supercar inter-car club endurance go kart race
Having been out of the racing seat for several years and minimal time in a go-kart in the last 5 years got me concerned when I represented the Porsche Club for the annual inter-car club Go kart endurance race. The odds were stacked against my team which was made up of former go-kart champions and hobby go-kart racers and we had to race against professionals who were active Touring car race drivers and former regional go-kart champions.
Looking ahead at the event endurance go-kart race is about consistency and reliability rather than outright speed. One of the drivers having the ability to put in super fast lap times every now and then will not cut it if the remainder of the team is slow. Finishing the race was also key to having the chance to win the race. We had to formulate our strategy in order to remain in the hunt.
Qualifying started and we qualified 4th in a field of 7 teams. Not good and not bad either. The top 3 positions were filled by teams who fielded professional drivers as expected. The crunch time came when the race started. Our objective was to always remain on the lead lap and never get ourselves one lap down. Driver 1 did a sterling job to keep our team on the lead lap and maintained our position of 4th overall when he came in for the driver change. Next up I had to take the driving honours and make sure that we remained in the hunt and not drop off a lap down. The other teams also chose to pit and change drivers.
The pressure was on me to made sure nothing goes wrong and not to wreck the kart. During my stint I was able to gain some advantage and passed 4 drivers (at this stage we unsure the positions of the other drivers) and made up ground and moved our team up to 2nd overall. Our 3rd driver once again continued the job and passed another 2 drivers (again not sure about the positions of other drivers) and moved us up to 1st.
Things started to get interesting as other teams started to have problems with their karts and were not pushing consistent lap times.On the second half of the race things got heated up as our team kept trading positions with 2 teams.
With the race coming to a close in 11 minutes we were 2nd overall but we had already done all our mandatory pit stops and the lead time still had to make their last pit stop. This gave us the advantage and our last drive was crucial to stay in the lead. The first team pitted and lost more than 30 seconds to us and were unable to make up ground.
On a day where we faced an uphill battle, our strategy and consistency prevailed and got us the trophy.
Looking ahead at the event endurance go-kart race is about consistency and reliability rather than outright speed. One of the drivers having the ability to put in super fast lap times every now and then will not cut it if the remainder of the team is slow. Finishing the race was also key to having the chance to win the race. We had to formulate our strategy in order to remain in the hunt.
Qualifying started and we qualified 4th in a field of 7 teams. Not good and not bad either. The top 3 positions were filled by teams who fielded professional drivers as expected. The crunch time came when the race started. Our objective was to always remain on the lead lap and never get ourselves one lap down. Driver 1 did a sterling job to keep our team on the lead lap and maintained our position of 4th overall when he came in for the driver change. Next up I had to take the driving honours and make sure that we remained in the hunt and not drop off a lap down. The other teams also chose to pit and change drivers.
The pressure was on me to made sure nothing goes wrong and not to wreck the kart. During my stint I was able to gain some advantage and passed 4 drivers (at this stage we unsure the positions of the other drivers) and made up ground and moved our team up to 2nd overall. Our 3rd driver once again continued the job and passed another 2 drivers (again not sure about the positions of other drivers) and moved us up to 1st.
Things started to get interesting as other teams started to have problems with their karts and were not pushing consistent lap times.On the second half of the race things got heated up as our team kept trading positions with 2 teams.
With the race coming to a close in 11 minutes we were 2nd overall but we had already done all our mandatory pit stops and the lead time still had to make their last pit stop. This gave us the advantage and our last drive was crucial to stay in the lead. The first team pitted and lost more than 30 seconds to us and were unable to make up ground.
On a day where we faced an uphill battle, our strategy and consistency prevailed and got us the trophy.
Sunday, 25 May 2014
Proton appointed their founding father as the Chairman and Advisor
After floundering for years building rubbish quality cars that no one wants to buy, Proton decided to try to stop the slide by appointing their founder Dr. Mahathir as their Chairman and Advisor. Many observers are scoffing at this because Dr.M does not take competition lightly and only knows who to create protection for any company he has interests in. All this came in the wake of Malaysia starting to liberalize the automotive industry after decades of protectionism of Proton. Proton has failed miserably to make itself a proper global car maker despite having massive head starts over car companies from China, Korea and India. Proton was cash rich in the 1990s and made the biggest mistake of buying loss making motorcycle company Augusta and sports car maker Lotus.
Numerous Proton parts suppliers and consultants revealed that the company is not only riddled with corruption at almost every level but also their engineering team is incompetent. Parts suppliers complained that the only way to secure a parts supply deal is to provide sufficient kick backs to authorizing personnel in the company at the expense of quality parts which was hardly surprising since Proton parts are notoriously poor quality. Consultants who visited their plant and engineering team also noticed the engineering team's lack of expertise and knowledge on car design and manufacturing.
One of the main examples was the in-house designed Proton Satria Neo. The engineering team forgot to incorporate the height of the seat rails as part of the measurement for head room inside the car cabin, upon receiving the seats from the seat factory, they only realized that the seat rail had to be added! hence... the seat position is much higher than it should be and this affected the head room of the cabin. Tall drivers would struggle to get in and sit comfortably.
Proton's own design engine the Campro which supposedly was designed to have the cam profiling function to help engine performance was a fuel guzzler and lacked torque and refinement. The engine was coarse and matched to a poorly chosen transmission which made the car sluggish and dull to drive.
After being forced to buy a badly made and badly designed car, how much longer does the Malaysian public have to put up with such poor quality cars from Proton. If the company is losing money hand over fist and is incapable of designing their own cars the least it should do is shut down or just focus on rebadging better designed cars from other car manufacturers.
Dr.M's argument is that if Proton closed down over 100,000 people will lose their jobs. The answer to that is a YES and a NO. Yes. a lot of people will lose their jobs, No, if the Government does not have to protect Proton and liberalizes the car industry and mandate that foreign car companies must have a local assembly operation in the country in order to sell cars (or enjoy lower taxes), it would see that most of the 100,000 people be employed again plus create greater business and employment opportunities from the supporting industry for the investments pumped in by the foreign car companies.
Dr.M's argument is lame to say the least but it is a plain attempt to save the company he started.
Malaysia's automotive industry just became bleaker!
Numerous Proton parts suppliers and consultants revealed that the company is not only riddled with corruption at almost every level but also their engineering team is incompetent. Parts suppliers complained that the only way to secure a parts supply deal is to provide sufficient kick backs to authorizing personnel in the company at the expense of quality parts which was hardly surprising since Proton parts are notoriously poor quality. Consultants who visited their plant and engineering team also noticed the engineering team's lack of expertise and knowledge on car design and manufacturing.
One of the main examples was the in-house designed Proton Satria Neo. The engineering team forgot to incorporate the height of the seat rails as part of the measurement for head room inside the car cabin, upon receiving the seats from the seat factory, they only realized that the seat rail had to be added! hence... the seat position is much higher than it should be and this affected the head room of the cabin. Tall drivers would struggle to get in and sit comfortably.
Proton's own design engine the Campro which supposedly was designed to have the cam profiling function to help engine performance was a fuel guzzler and lacked torque and refinement. The engine was coarse and matched to a poorly chosen transmission which made the car sluggish and dull to drive.
After being forced to buy a badly made and badly designed car, how much longer does the Malaysian public have to put up with such poor quality cars from Proton. If the company is losing money hand over fist and is incapable of designing their own cars the least it should do is shut down or just focus on rebadging better designed cars from other car manufacturers.
Dr.M's argument is that if Proton closed down over 100,000 people will lose their jobs. The answer to that is a YES and a NO. Yes. a lot of people will lose their jobs, No, if the Government does not have to protect Proton and liberalizes the car industry and mandate that foreign car companies must have a local assembly operation in the country in order to sell cars (or enjoy lower taxes), it would see that most of the 100,000 people be employed again plus create greater business and employment opportunities from the supporting industry for the investments pumped in by the foreign car companies.
Dr.M's argument is lame to say the least but it is a plain attempt to save the company he started.
Malaysia's automotive industry just became bleaker!
Wednesday, 7 May 2014
BMW i8 - signs of things to come
BMW recently introduced their i8 hybrid sports car. On paper it looks quite impressive considering that it has a 3 cylinder 1.5 litre turbo engine with an electric motor. The design is very clever in the way that it uses both the engine and motor for real performance that can humble traditional sports cars but yet return fantastic fuel economy. The car was designed with a single purpose of efficiency but not forgetting the fun factor. The electric motor offers serious grunt when the driver calls upon maximum performance.
The car does not look ugly like a typical boring Japanese hybrid. It turns the design concept upside down where the exterior and interior looks like the car is from 20 years in the future. The car on its own looks like something from Buck Rogers and instills some curiosity from onlookers and also the driver.
I believe that this car is quite a revolution in the hybrid world and is definitely going to change the way we look at hybrid engine and hybrid cars. It is not something to laugh but it definitely a great step forward for hybrid cars. BMW did think completely outside the box when designing and engineering the i8 and they did a fantastic job.
The car does not look ugly like a typical boring Japanese hybrid. It turns the design concept upside down where the exterior and interior looks like the car is from 20 years in the future. The car on its own looks like something from Buck Rogers and instills some curiosity from onlookers and also the driver.
I believe that this car is quite a revolution in the hybrid world and is definitely going to change the way we look at hybrid engine and hybrid cars. It is not something to laugh but it definitely a great step forward for hybrid cars. BMW did think completely outside the box when designing and engineering the i8 and they did a fantastic job.
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