A New Direction

Hey Everybody,

I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I have decided to take Flux Auto in a new direction for 2013. My hope is to go beyond consolidating automotive news to creating a community that will change tuning and engineering in a big way. The relaunch of the site will occupy most of my focus for now but I fully believe it will be worth it in the end. Thank you for coming to my blog thus far and stay tuned for some exciting changes.

-Will

One Car To Do It All – Petrolicious

Meet Black Beauty, Jack Olsen’s 1972 Porsche 911 RSR. I love Jack’s philosophy towards building things. He refused to believe that he had to make sacrifices on the street in order to go fast on track. To that end he built Black Beauty to be his one and only recreational car. He packs all of his aero parts, tools and safety gear into the 911 and then drives it to the track. Motivation is provided by a 1995 Porsche 911 engine that makes a little less than 300 horsepower. Jack says, “All of the genius of my particular car is in the suspension and I want to continue tweaking that suspension almost indefinitely. Horsepower is something that looks great in a magazine article, but suspension is what actually gets you around the track fast and this car does a fantastic job because of its suspension.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.


One Car to Do It All
from Petrolicious on Vimeo.

Perfecting the BMW R1200 GS

2013 marks the 30th anniversary of the BMW GS series of adventure bikes. BMW invented and continue to set the bar for this genre of motorcycle with their GS line. The do-it-all motorcycle has picked up in popularity in recent years partly due to the slow economy making people demand that their toys be more flexible on and off road which is what the GS is named after. The new 2013 model 2013-bmw-r1200gs-engine-cooling-system via WebBikeWorld.comincorporates water cooling for the first time. Air still cools the cylinders through fins, but water is responsible for the valve seats in the heads. The big 2-cylinder boxer engine also incorporates an innovative Dual Overhead Cam (DOHC) system that debuted in the current generation of the bike in 2010. The cams are turned perpendicular to the usual layout for intake and exhaust manifold clearance. Each cam drives one intake and exhaust valve. Slightly conical cam lobes allows the straight cam to drive valves that sit at V-angle from each other. BMW released this video showing how the passions of the engineers and designers shaped the new 2013 R1200 GS.


Source: BMW Motorrad on YouTube

Hot Rod Trucks

This is a video from the ScottieDTV YouTube channel. Scottie is a North Carolina based hot rod spotter that goes to shows and shops to film cars that he finds interesting. This particular show had a trio of interesting hot rod trucks.

 

Scottie actually updated his channel today with a video of a hot rodded 1953 Ford Wrecker:


Source: ScottieDTV on YouTube via Rod Authority

2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

Here’s another video of the C7 Corvette that debuted last week at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show. You guys seemed to have some mixed opinions on the styling when I posted a picture of the C6 next to the C7 on our Facebook page. Some people liked it while others thought it didn’t look like a Corvette and then we even got accusations of GM stealing styling cues from other manufacturers like Lamborghini. The interviews in this video talk about the decision to push the design to the extreme in order to make it a futuristic interpretation of the classic Stingray theme. It would also be fair to say that the interior is just as revolutionary with design, materials and high tech gauges and driver interface systems. The more I find out about the C7, the more impressed I am with GM’s push to raise their standards on keeping the Corvette a world class performance car.


Source: Motor Trend on YouTube