Drew Dowdell
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Everything posted by Drew Dowdell
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Encore doing very well. Most dealerships around here can't keep them on the lot. CTS, Regal and Lacrosse in "switchover" mode. Traverse's handsome new face and Enclave doing very nicely with Acadia bringing up the rear of those triplets for growth, but Acadia still selling very very well. WOW! Look at IMPALA!
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eh... that might be a one off.
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The server is being migrated today, August 1, 2013. This is the move I spoke of a few weeks ago.
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I don't think it would fit as is... it is a fairly bulky system -
Sonic is doing well, no need to rush it.
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They can be. Most transverse fwd transmissions are quite compact.
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Habby Birthday bud!
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It still does not answer WHY the set up has bad balance. Is it harmonic (NVH) or stability or mechanical? In the Audi specifically, even though the engine is set up longitudinally, more than 90% of the drive-train weight is forward of the wheel center line. In the case of an Audi V8, that means there is more engine ahead of the front wheel center line than any transverse setup might have. (i.e. an A8L has more engine in front of the wheels than a DTS). The whole reason SMK beats on American FWD cars is because of the nose heavy balance characteristics (while he conveniently ignores Audi). For balance reasons, you want to push the weight as close to the center of the car as possible. In the case of the Toronado's setup, you can push the engine as far back as you want. It's a more compact setup than what Audi is doing.
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this is just from my current shopping... I notice a lot of Avalanches have leather seats with cracks in them... so I priced out the cost of OEM replacement leather.
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BMW News: BMW i3: The Ultimate Electric Machine?
Drew Dowdell replied to William Maley's topic in BMW
Yes. It's a city car with limited range. It is a well appointed city car, but a city car none-the-less. Would you pay $42k base for a well appointed Nissan Leaf with cloth seats? Adding a range extender and options will easily push the car close to the $50k range. Checking every box on the Chevy site for the Volt gets you Leather, nav, all the safety nannies and still only nets out to $39,950 after incentives and that gets you a car with no range anxiety, yet gasoline usage would likely be about the same if you're just the typical city driver being targeted by BMW here. *all prices listed pre-tax-credit -
BMW News: BMW i3: The Ultimate Electric Machine?
Drew Dowdell replied to William Maley's topic in BMW
too much money for too little car. I like the concept of EVs, but this should have been done in a 1-Series or 3-series. edit: though I do wonder if it will be compatible with the Tesla Supercharger network (if Tesla allows non-Tesla vehicles to charge there) -
For the price you paid, I'd even consider an entire upholstery swap out..... but this is coming from a guy who would swap out the leather seat covers on an avalanche because they have a few cracks.
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Another view. The front axle line is ahead of the rear two cylinders, so in a V4, the engine/transmission would be primarily to the aft of the front wheels. The caveat is there is no real limitation to how far ahead of the engine you could put the front wheels.... Not that you'd want to, but you could build a rear engine-front wheel drive set up this way.
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red rum
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Actually, no. The Longitudinal FWD transaxles have the differential and output shafts located just behind the torque converter near the bell housing. This is generally inline with the front wheel hubs. It means that generally, the entire entire and usually a part of the transmission (namely the torque converter or clutch assembly) overhangs the front wheel axis. Not always.
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Independent Observations - July Car Spotting
Drew Dowdell replied to Camino LS6's topic in The Lounge
A Range Rover with a Benz grille, hatch mounted spare tire, and every piece of tack on plasti-chrome body add-on sold in the J.C. Whitney clearance bin. -
Whoopsie... looks like Consumer Reports disagrees with you.
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The balance is bad in Audis, but in other setups, not so much. With a V4, in this setup, you could still have the engine mostly aft of the front wheels. In the intrepid, there doesn't seem to be any more footwell intrusion than any other FWD car.
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Because a 90 deg V4 is very short, but wide. When you place it in a transverse setup, it requires much more engine bay length than an inline engine or a 60 degree V6. More importantly though, in a transverse arrangement it has no advantages over an inline-4. But why restrict to transverse setup? Ooo. Good question! It could use the same transmission layout as my Toronado or the Dodge Intrepid has.
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But then why not just build all trucks like that?
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Forum Cleanup and consolidation
Drew Dowdell replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Site News and Feedback
"Fisker" moved to "Heritage Marques" -
Can you swap injectors? See if the sound moves or if it stays in the same spot.
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The advantage for GM building a VR4 would be that with its shorter length, it could fit in places where the 2.5 does not like in place of the 1.4 in the Sonic and Encore.
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By Drew Dowdell Managing Editor - CheersandGears.com July 26th, 2013 Mazda is bringing the first diesel to compete at Indy in over 60 years and the first ever to compete in the Brickyard 400 race established in 1994. The last time a diesel powered race car ran on the Indy speedway was when a Cummins Diesel Special ran in 1952. Mazda will be razing a Mazda6 Skyactiv-D Clean Diesel with an engine over 51% stock. The engine is a 2.2 liter, direct injected turbo-diesel producing 400 horsepower @ 5000 rpm and 445 lb-ft of torque at 3600rpm. Mazda is counting on the fuel efficiency of diesel technology to result in less need to pit and refuel the car. It appears to be working. In an impressive season start, Mazda is behind lead manufacture Porsche by 1 point after 4 wins in 7 out of 12 races. Update: The Mazda6 Diesel is the first diesel to win a race at the Indy Speedway on Saturday. Mazda's #70 car took the lead with 47 laps remaining and held that position till the checkered flag waved. Mazda now leads Porsche in the GX class. Source: Mazda Media -
By Drew Dowdell Managing Editor - CheersandGears.com July 26th, 2013 Mazda is bringing the first diesel to compete at Indy in over 60 years and the first ever to compete in the Brickyard 400 race established in 1994. The last time a diesel powered race car ran on the Indy speedway was when a Cummins Diesel Special ran in 1952. Mazda will be razing a Mazda6 Skyactiv-D Clean Diesel with an engine over 51% stock. The engine is a 2.2 liter, direct injected turbo-diesel producing 400 horsepower @ 5000 rpm and 445 lb-ft of torque at 3600rpm. Mazda is counting on the fuel efficiency of diesel technology to result in less need to pit and refuel the car. It appears to be working. In an impressive season start, Mazda is behind lead manufacture Porsche by 1 point after 4 wins in 7 out of 12 races. Update: The Mazda6 Diesel is the first diesel to win a race at the Indy Speedway on Saturday. Mazda's #70 car took the lead with 47 laps remaining and held that position till the checkered flag waved. Mazda now leads Porsche in the GX class. Source: Mazda Media View full article
