The Golf GT TSI looks relatively pedestrian, merely sporting different wheels and front bumper cover from the GTi Version. However, the motor that the TSI uses is anything from ordinary. While oem turbocharged motors are nothing new (neither are oem supercharged engines), the TSI is both supercharged and turbocharged! This setup is affectionatelly called twincharging and it not a new concept by a long shot - twincharging was used on the Lancia S4 back in the 1980’s.
Benefits of a twincharged setup seem obvious - midrange to top end power form a good sized turbocharger without the pesky lag that is usually associated with these size turbos. A supercharger (usually roots type) provides the boost from the low range which also helps spool up the turbo faster. After the turbocharger starts providing the boost, the supercharger unit is kept under control by a clutch pack on the pully (similar to AC compressors and some engine fans). Using this technology, Volkswagen manages to squeeze out 170 horsepower out of a 1.4 liter engine.
Twincharging has some obvious downfalls though - turbo setups are hard enough to work with sometimes, good luck working on a Mazda FD RX7’s or Nissan 300ZX twin turbo. Adding a supercharger to the equation will only compound difficulty when time comes to service the twincharged engine. However, the benefits seem to far outweigh the downfalls so we all hope to see twincharging being used in more performance oriented applications in the future!
Alright I am going to talk about something that has been bothering me for quite some time, Truck Nuts. Alright the first time I saw Truck Nuts I thought it was pretty funny but the more and more I see them the more and more I detest them. As someone with a truck I never seem to hear the end of the argument that a man needs to prove himself by the vehicle that he drives and a truck says nothing other than “I am manly so I have to drive a big truck”, which by the way I resent. Trucks are used to move and haul things, they are for use in practical applications and trust me I hate it when I see a large lifted truck that never has seen dirt or a heavily loaded bed. Read the rest of this entry »
Here at the WebRidesTV.com Blog, we are known for tackling the tough issues. Such hot issues include which muscle car rocks the most casbah for the current week, cars made of foam and who could forget the 10 Commandments of ricers? Well this week, I will be discussing the hot issue of cas prices, and more particularly, why they are so high. More importantly, will you have to trade in your Escalade for a Prius?
Believe it or not this cars body panels are almost entirely made of self expanding foam. Based off a Mercedes a group of guys in Lithuania covered the entire car in foam and then began to meticulously carve each piece. In addition to doing the outside they also rebuilt a bunch of interior pieces. Check out the Gallery to see the construction pictures.
Originally found englishrussia.com
Somewhere in Europe in a magical land filled with lederhosen and unicorns (belgium) a man was driving his Ariel Atom home after it had been worked on in a shop. Rumor* is that his accelerator stuck and causing him to lose traction and fly into the brick wall at a rate of speed high enough to completely smash the front. Rumor* is that the driver suffered 2 broken legs when the crush zones crumpled. From the looks of it the passenger wouldn’t have bode too well either. I am not surprised that it looks this bad, it is basically a supercar/gokart and they can only be so safe.
I say rumored because I have yet to find a story on this crash, just the pictures that I posted from sharpimages.be and a story from someone in the area.
As I posted a few weeks ago there is a new subaru/toyota RWD car rumored to be in the works and it seems as if Nissan could be entering that fight as well. This new car is debated to be the most recent incarnation of the S platform, being the S-16. The S platform is the same platform that brought us the 240sx and Silvia. The new car is said to sport a 2.0 liter NA engine or a 1.6 or 1.8 liter turbocharged engine bringing projected horsepower to around 220. If this car was to come out the 3 tiers of nissan performance coupes would all be available once again; the GTR taking the place of the skyline, the 350z taking the place of the 300zx and this new car taking the place of the 240sx. My only hope would be that if this does end up coming about that it will come to the US in the form of something people would want to actually buy, keeping it from being plagued by low sales. I personally own a 240sx S-14 and think it would be a great idea if something like this came out. It seems as if the auto industry is repeating the early to mid 90’s, at least for import manufacturers.
Check out the rest over at 7tune.com
Endless USA, the purveyor of fine, high-end braking and suspension systems, has announced the release of the new forged monoblock 6-piston caliper dubbed “The Mono-6.” According to their press release, the new caliper system is light weight (7.4 pounds) and high in rigidity. And that is precisely what a monoblock caliper design delivers. The additional benefit is in reducing unsprung weight at the corners, which will ALWAYS help vehicle performance, especially at the track.
Available in “Race Alumite” finish only, the Mono-6 comes with the option of titanium piston caps which further increase strength and durability while decreasing weight. The Mono-6 will be paired with 370mm rotors for most vehicles and 387mm rotors for the R35 GTR. Due to the R35 GTRs high performance, it will utilize the Mono-6 for both front and rear setups. Other applications include Mitsubishi Lancer EVO (CT9A, CZ4A), Subaru Impreza (GDB, GRB), Toyota Supra (JZA80), Infiniti G35, Nissan 350Z, Nissan Skyline (R33, R34) and Porsche 911.
I’m sorry to hear about these brake calipers come out NOW, as Project Evo is fitted with the 2-piece 6-piston Endless calipers. If I had known, I would have waited for these monoblock calipers instead. Thanks, Dom =(
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Endless USA
18421 Gothard Street, Unit 200
Huntington Beach, CA 92648-1236
(714) 847-0694
www.endlessusa.com
Our friends at Pioneer recently launched their new AVIC-F series of multi-functional navigation systems at their Road Show 2008 event in Southern California. Yours truly was one of the invitees to check out what may be the hottest mobile audio product of the year.
Ah joy, another Shoot Out under our belts and, yes, that’s a pun on our title fight theme, “Bout of the Middleweights.” We have and will always be huge Audi fans. A while back we took an RS4 out to a dry lake bed and had a BMW driver put it through its paces. The guy pushed the car so hard that he broke the clutch doing dust bunnies at close to 200 mph! I got to ride-along with him before the “malfunction” and nearly soiled my pants multiple times between overwhelming bouts of laughter and screaming. At the time, the RS4 was the true high-water mark for performance sedans. The new M3 sedan had not made it to our shores and the Lexus IS-F was still in-the-womb. A 4-door performance sedan from a luxury brand, whose commercials feature silver balls rolling around the perfect gaps of body panels, hard to imagine, right?
Well like most performance freaks, I was skeptical that Lexus had the huevos to build a performance sedan that would challenge my beloved RS4. So when the car arrived at WebRidesTV HQ, I was stoked to take it out for a quick spin and size it up. That was if I could get past the crowd that had gathered in the parking lot. All the guys were fighting over who got the honors of the first drive. I had to admit, the IS-F looked real good: nice aggressive stance and meaty low-profile rubber wrapped around sweet rims. Even the four fake exhaust pipes were forgivable. After a quick lap around the local office circuit, I thought, holy shit, those sly bastards had done it! The IS-F was a real contender and that exhaust note, at full throttle. It sounds like a panther climbed into the cockpit and ripped my ear off!
There was only one thing left to do… We had to pit the Lexus IS-F against the Audi RS4 in a no-holds-barred Shoot Out. Would the RS4 clean its clock or would the unproven IS-F give the Audi the shocker. Well my friends, it was a clear upset. Lexus does have the “silver balls” after all! We hope you enjoy the video and we want to share all the detailed stats from our data loggers because you car freaks love charts and graphs.
You might not think much of this video when you watch it until you hear the fact that no CGI was used. The images in this video are comprised entirely of real life footage. His the jump to read about how they did it!
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