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Here is the second installment of pictures from my visit to the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy center near Dullus International Airport in Washington, DC. Unlike part 1, there will be no pictures of any kind of … Continue reading
Big news out of General Motors today with the announcement of the new LT1 V8 that will be replacing the venerable LSx family of engines in the next Corvette. The 6.2 liter V8 makes 450 horsepower and 450 ft-lbs of torque and is projected to get 26 mpg in the C7 thanks to cylinder deactivation and direct injection. Interestingly enough, GM was able to improve the gas mileage by increasing the displacement, not reducing it. The larger 6.2 liter engine means a 3.1 liter V4 when the engine is running in cylinder deactivation mode. The V4 makes enough power that it can be used more often in the engine’s duty cycle which reduced the overall consumption of the engine. V8 power only when you need it. Very clever. Head over to Motor Trend’s article to read up on all of the details with pictures and dyno videos of the new engine.
There’s big news coming out of the World Rally Championship here at the end of the 2012 season. Sebastien Loeb has won his 9th World Championship and Ford will be withdrawing as a title sponsor next year due to a slow European economy. Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport team will continue to campaign Ford Fiestas at the highest level with technical support from Ford. Jari-Matti Latvalla has announced that he will be leaving the Ford team next year to join Sebastien Ogier on the Volkswagen factory team that should be debuting their Polo WRC next year. Ogier has been helping develop the car this year and racing in a Skoda Fabia Super 2000 car.
Putting all of that aside for now, here’s what makes rally fun to watch. This is on-board footage of Jari-Matti Latvalla competing in the Lahti Historic Rally in a Ford Escort MK2. The car has a traditional H-pattern transmission and is rear wheel drive only. A flamboyant modern rally driver in a historic car makes for some excellent action. Sit back and enjoy:
The coverage of the National Hot Rod Diesel Association World Finals in Ennis, Texas continues with what looks to be some pro-class Dodge Rams. The fastest of these drag radial equipped trucks puts down a 9.116 quarter mile at 149 mph. That’s even faster than the awesome Triple Turbo Diesel Dragster put down at the same event. This YouTube user is promising more videos from this event this week including a compilation of torque induced parts grenading. I’ll post the good stuff as it becomes available.
Nissan gives us a glimpse of their production plant in Decherd, Tennessee that makes the electric motor that powers the Nissan Leaf. The motors are currently all made in Japan, but production will be starting up in Tennessee about 70 miles from where the LEAF is assembled. Interesting fact of the day: The Nissan LEAF’s motor has more than 1 mile of copper wire wound inside of it.