Free-piston engine: GM ran one on whale oil in 1956, and Toyota wants it back
Free-piston engine: Pescara patented it, GM ran the 1956 XP-500 on it, even on whale oil, and Toyota built a 42% efficient one for EVs.
engine engineering
Adams-Farwell: the Iowa car whose entire engine spun around a crankshaft that never moved
Adams-Farwell: five cylinders spinning around a crankshaft that never moved. From an Iowa stove factory to a 1909 helicopter and WWI fighters.
HOT VAPOR ENGINE
Hot Vapor: The Engine a Mechanic With No Degree Built in 1984 Was the HCCI Mazda Spent 35 More Years Trying to Mass-Produce Daytona Beach, Florida. 1984. Behind the back door of the workshop Smokey Yunick called The Best Damn Garage in Town, a Pontiac Fiero sits up on jack stands. Under the engine cover … Read more
MASERATI NETTUNO
Maserati cooked its own engine, regulations took the heat out Some engines explain themselves. Others hit you. The Nettuno does the first better than almost anything else alive. The second — no. And that’s exactly what you need to know before someone sells it to you as the future of Maserati. Because the future is … Read more
DOWNSIZING
Downsizing: The Big Lie That Is Killing the Real Automobile When politics decides what engine you can have There was a time when engineers designed engines with performance, durability, and driving experience in mind. That time is dead. Brussels killed it. The obsession with figures on paper that don’t reflect reality killed it. Downsizing killed … Read more
5-CYLINDER
The 5-Cylinder Engine: The Configuration That Should Never Have Worked… But Sounds Like Glory Some engines are born from pure logic. Four cylinders: compact, cheap, gets the job done. Six cylinders: balanced, smooth, refined. Eight cylinders: because America needed something that made traffic lights tremble. And then there’s the five-cylinder. The engine that makes no … Read more