Author Archives: Will@FluxAuto

86 Day 2012

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In Japan they like to celebrate days devoted to some of their favorite classic cars based on their chassis codes. August 6th (8/6) is AE86 day. The AE86 is a Japanese cult classic because it sticks to a simple formula of lightweight, rear wheel drive and a rev happy engine. It’s the spiritual successor of the Toyota GT-86 / Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ. The AE86 champions the saying “It’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow.” It’s a completely bare driving experience in that the car does exactly what the driver tells without any quirks. This has allowed allowed the AE86 to be adapted to several forms of racing including a freshmen racer’s cup, Group A, N2, rally and drifting. Here are some of my favorite videos of the AE86 in action.

This first video is from the Hot Version division of the Best Motoring company. It’s from a celebration thrown at the Tsukuba Circuit in honor of Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya’s retirement as a driver in the Japan Grand Touring Championship (JGTC). I like this video because it explains Tsuchiya’s racing history with the AE86 as well as the N2 racing series by Toyota Racing Development (TRD). N2 was the highest form of racing for the AE86. The car is still popular enough in Japan that TRD resurrected the N2 series and got Tsuchiya-san to drive the factory race car.

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How to Install a Vehicle Lift – Saturday Mechanic

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Every car guy goes through this process. You decide that you want to work on your own car. Super. Next you buy or borrow some tools and the parts you need. Then you have to get under the car which involves laying down and shimmying on your concrete/asphalt/gravel/dirt driveway or work area. This is then immediately followed by a question that pops into your head: “I wonder how hard it would be to install a lift here?” Well wonder no more. Popular Mechanic’s Saturday Mechanic, Ben Wojdyla, walks us through the process as they install a new lift in the Popular Mechanic Garage. The series is broken down into 3 parts.

Part 1: How to choose the right lift for your requirements and area constraints like height and floor strength.

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Rubber Band Physics – Heat Cycling Tires

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Lets say you wanted to teach kids about why heat cycling new tires is important. It’s up to you to impart important fundamental gear head knowledge to these blossoming young minds. So how do you do it? Maybe we should sit the kids down in the classroom and lecture them about the polymer chain structure in rubber that heats up when distorted. Chances are they’ll end up texting their friends about how much they hate you. You might even make Twitter for being the heinous old person who was forcibly torturing them with the atrocities of totally lame science stuff.

There’s a better way to learn about how rubber works with little risk of being labeled “cray cray”, at least not the bad kind. It involves shooting slingshots, preferably with a huge German dude that runs the world’s largest slingshot forum and builds crazy new slingshots every week for his YouTube channel. Destin of Smarter Everyday did a collaboration video with Jörg Sprave of the Slingshot Channel to explore how to get the most out of a rubber band.


Lets talk about the two questions at the end of the video. Continue reading →

How a Rotary Engine Works and the Mazda 787B at Le Mans

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I promise to make a post about the RX-8 I bought for the EV conversion soon. Until then the quick and dirty details are that I towed it home and it runs perfectly, so I’ve been driving it around and enjoying my first rotary powered car. It drives absolutely amazing which has piqued my interest in rotaries in general. This video has been the best explanation of how one works that I’ve found on YouTube:

 

When you’re talking rotaries, it doesn’t get much better than the Mazda 787B. It has a 4 rotor engine with variable length intakes mounted midship. The 787B was the first and still the only Japanese car to win the 24 hours of Le Mans. This video was taken  at last year’s 24 hours of Le Mans to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the victory. Mazda got one of the original drivers to take the 787B around a full lap of the Circuit de la Sarthe.


Source: YouTube users max27890 and rittboy8u