Thursday, February 11, 2010
Citroen 2010 C5
Dubbed the 3.0 V6 HDi 240 FAP to reflect its European horsepower rating, the 2993cc engine delivers 18 per cent more power (177kW at 3800rpm) and about 12 per cent more torque (450Nm from 1600 to 3600rpm).
Bigger is better: The Citroen C5 will get a bigger, 3.0-litre diesel next year in Australia, with more power and improved fuel economy.
This translates into a 0-100km/h sprint-time of 7.9 seconds in the C5 (formerly 9.6s) and 8.5 seconds in the C6 (previously rated at 8.9 seconds).
Left: Citroen C6.
Nevertheless, there are significant gains in fuel consumption, with the 7.4 litres per 100km average representing a cut of 1.0L/100km and 1.5L/100km in the C5 and C6 respectively, while the 195 grams per kilometre of carbon dioxide emissions is 12 to 15 per cent better than before.
Spurring on the changes are a 272cc capacity increase, third-generation direct common-rail injection system using injection pressures of up to 2000 bars, compared with 1650, revised combustion chambers, twin variable displacement turbochargers, a revamped exhaust gas recirculation set-up that improves the thermal capability of the fuel/water exchange by 40 per cent, and an energy recovery system during deceleration and braking via a special new alternator.
Labels: citroen
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
New BMW X5 revealed 2010 review
Labels: BMW
Audi A8 Saloon reviews
Ride could still be a little smoother
Driving
Performance
Ride and Handling
Refinement
Labels: Audi
Honda Accord Crosstour 2010
A streamlined tailgate and sleek lines tell you that this is a whole new kind of Accord
Big Where It Counts
Born from the Accord, the Accord Crosstour is wider, longer and taller. From big 18-inch alloy wheels (EX-L) to the bold front grille, it makes a statement.
Specs
The heart of Honda’s Accord lineup is its strong selling four cylinder models. Yet the Crosstour is available only with V6 power. Why? The Crosstour is positioned at the very top of the Accord food chain—plus we’d guess the wagon’s extra 300 pounds over a comparable Accord Sedan require more gusto to move than the four can provide. So under the hood is a 271 hp 3.5-liter V6 with 254 lb-ft of torque paired solely to a five-speed automatic with a new rev-matching downshift feature. The V6 has Honda’s Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) system, like the 2009 Honda Pilot so it can choose to run the engine on 3, 4 or 6-cylinder operation to optimize fuel usage.
Not surprisingly, the Honda Accord Crosstour is based on, wait for it, the Honda Accord’s chassis. The wheelbase is within a tenth of an inch of the sedan, but the Crosstour is 2.5-inches longer. The modifications to the Accord platform are minimal, with unique springs and dampers and a constant ratio hydraulic steering rack replacing the variable unit. The Crosstour also has a more powerful brake system with two-piston calipers upfront and larger rear discs.
Front wheel drive comes standard, but Honda does offer the wintertime security of all-wheel drive. Speaking of rough road capability, all Crosstours offer 6 inches of ground clearance, which doesn’t sound particularly impressive right? Here’s why: The measurement is taken at the aerodynamic fins (Honda calls “strakes”) just ahead of the front wheels. Take the tape underneath the car to the differentials, and the measurement is a more dirt road friendly 8.1 inches—just like the Toyota Venza.
Inside, the Crosstour has the same basic interior as the Accord—which is no bad thing. The top-range, EX-L Navi ($34,770 in front-drive trim and $36,220 with all-wheel drive) models we drove came with 18-inch wheels and felt upscale with a broad plank of wood across the dash and comfy and supportive heated leather seats. The rear seats fold flat for maximum cargo hauling. With those seats up, you can fit 25.7 cu-ft. of stuff behind them. Fold the seats down; via the handy levers in the cargo area, and you can pile 51.3 cu-ft of gear into the Crosstour. The Toyota Venza can swallow 34.4 cu-ft with the seats up and 70.1 with them folded down. And the Venza comes with reclining rear seat—a feature Honda lacks. The Honda’s cargo area has a few smart touches, including a washable pullout box beneath the floor. The Toyota has far less usable under floor storage because the spare tire and jack take up a portion of that area. Honda hides its spare underneath the chassis.
Engineering | ||
EX | EX-L | |
Engine Type | V-6 | V-6 |
Engine Block/Cylinder Head | Aluminum-Alloy | Aluminum-Alloy |
Displacement (cc) | 3471 | 3471 |
Horsepower @ rpm (SAE net) | 271 @ 6200 | 271 @ 6200 |
Torque (lb-ft @ rpm) | 254 @ 5000 | 254 @ 5000 |
Bore and Stroke (mm) | 89 x 93 | 89 x 93 |
Compression Ratio | 10.5 : 1 | 10.5 : 1 |
Redline | 6800 | 6800 |
Valve Train | 24-Valve SOHC i-VTEC® | 24-Valve SOHC i-VTEC® |
Multi-Point Fuel Injection | Standard | Standard |
Drive-by-Wire™ Throttle System | Standard | Standard |
Real Time™ 4-Wheel Drive | Available | |
Variable Cylinder Management™ (VCM®) | Standard | Standard |
Active Sound Control | Standard | Standard |
CARB Emissions Rating | ULEV-2[1] | ULEV-2[1] |
Direct Ignition System with Immobilizer | Standard | Standard |
100K +/- Miles No Scheduled Tune-Ups[2] | Standard | Standard |
Transmission | ||
EX | EX-L | |
5-Speed Automatic Transmission | Standard | Standard |
Gear Ratios: 1st: 2.697, 2nd: 1.606, 3rd: 1.071, 4th: 0.766, 5th: 0.612, Reverse: 1.889 Final Drive Ratio: 4.533 |
Body/Suspension/Chassis | ||
EX | EX-L | |
Unit-Body Construction | Standard | Standard |
Double Wishbone Front Suspension | Standard | Standard |
Independent Multi-Link Rear Suspension | Standard | Standard |
Stabilizer Bar (mm, front/rear) 2WD (4WD) | 27.2 / 14.0 | 27.2 / 14.0 (27.2 / 15.0) |
Front Shock Tower Bar | Standard | Standard |
Power-Assisted Rack-and-Pinion Steering | Standard | Standard |
Steering Wheel Turns, Lock-to-Lock | 2.76 | 2.76 |
Steering Ratio | 15.2 | 15.2 |
Turning Diameter, Curb-to-Curb (ft) | 40.2 | 40.2 |
Power-Assisted Ventilated Front Disc/Solid Rear Disc Brakes (in) | 11.7 / 12.0 | 11.7 / 12.0 |
Wheels | 17" Alloy | 18" Alloy |
All-Season Tires | 225/65 R17 102T | 225/60 R18 100H |
The Drive
It’s hard not to compare the Accord Crosstour to the Toyota Venza—especially since Honda had a fleet of Venza’s for us to drive back to back. On the seaside roads of Rancho Palos Verdes near Honda’s Torrance headquarters, we took the Crosstour on driving loops high above the pacific. The Honda is most notable for the traits it lacks. There is not a trucky bone in this crossover’s body. On the sliding scale between car and crossover, the Crosstour is two or three notches closer to “car” than the Venza.
The Honda’s driving position is very similar to the Accord sedan and feels much lower than the more typical crossover seating position of the Venza. The Crosstour’s ride is smooth and firm, firmer than the last Accord sedan we remember driving, with crisp responses to the steering input. The Crosstour feels relatively light on its feet compared to the Venza, with more precise steering and a sportier overall demeanor. The Honda drives smaller than it actually is, which might make it a less intimidating choice for those that have to contend with tight urban streets.
Climb into the back seats, and it’s again the Honda that is more car-like. The seats and the view out the front are just like an Accord sedan. The Venza’s taller rear seats created more legroom, at least in our informal test. And we did appreciate the Venza’s reclining seat feature. There appears to be less headroom for rear seat passengers in the Accord Crosstour.
We did not have a chance to test fuel economy, but when you compare an automatic V6 front-drive Accord Crosstour to a similarly equipped Venza, the mileage differences are minimal. Venza returns 19-mpg city and 26-mpg highway, while the Crosstour delivers 18-mpg city and 27 mpg on the highway. It’s unlikely that these vehicles would be used for frequent towing chores, but it’s worth noting that the Crosstour can only handle 1500 pounds of trailer—a V6 Venza is rated for 3500 pounds.
Safety
The new Accord Crosstour features the same impressive level of safety technology found in every Accord.
Active Systems: Control
To help keep you on course and away from danger, Vehicle Stability Assist™ (VSA®) helps sense oversteer or understeer in an emergency situation, and then adjusts brake pressure at each wheel and/or reduces engine power to help restore driver control. Standard 4-wheel anti-lock disc brakes (ABS), with Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD), help you maintain control during hard braking. Properly inflated tires are crucial for safe operation, so the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)[2] alerts the driver when a tire's pressure reaches a significantly low level.
Passive Systems: Protection
The Crosstour has been engineered to help protect you and your passengers when a collision just cannot be avoided. The Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ (ACE™) body structure disperses frontal crash energy over a wide area, helping to keep it away from passengers.
Airbags and More
Standard front, front side and side curtain airbags with rollover sensor help reduce the likelihood of injuries in a collision. Driver’s and front passenger's active head restraints help reduce the likelihood of whiplash injuries in a sufficient rear impact.
Labels: Honda
Tuning diesels for maximum power and torque
This endows the car with mid-range thump that wouldn't disgrace a Boxster or Audi TT with the silly engine option. NO stopwatch necessary, this is a genuinely rapid car now, it both feels quick and achieves the numbers to be quick.
All the anti-diesel folks will bang on about 0-60. Well, (TorqueCars member) HDIfun has never put a stopwatch on it in anger but says "you can do it in well under 8 seconds without going over 3500rpm! In gear acceleration is a bit of a giggle too - 50 to 70 in FOURTH in about 2.5 seconds!! 70 to 90 in fifth in under 6!!! Flat out, who cares, the factory spec is said to be good for 129mph."
Go figure for yourselves - and then reckon into the equation over 35mpg when driven in anger. A powerful turbo diesel is perfect for the half grown up driver, and, boy will you lurrve that sheer muscle. It the sensible and fun choice.
Everyone who has driven a current 330d or a 535d will likely agree that they are disgustingly rapid from the factory. These engines can still be made to deliver more torque, but you have to question if it's really necessary given the ease with which they both fling themselves foward in response to a gentle squeezing of the right toes
Some assert that manufacturers modestly undertune the current crop of performance diesels in order to create a place in the market for their petrol powered models. In the case of the Golf GT tdi I've still to meet anyone who doesn't exceed the standard manufacturers acceleration claims by a whole second. For some folks, only petrol will do.
Curiously, in my estimation these are of the older generation who will not even test drive a diesel car because 'they're slow and noisy, aren't they?'. Just look how many current model Micras are being driven around with Nissan's excellent but spineless small capacity 4 cylinder petrol units. Try the dCi 82, for example. It handles like a go-kart and accelerates absolutely beautifully. It would suit your dad perfectly.
Induction kits and exhaust should theoretically offer a slight increase in power as you still require an efficient delivery of lots of cold air and a way to expel them as efficiently as possible. The bore size of Diesel exhausts is typically much larger than a similar powered petrol car especially on Turbo Diesel models. Initially I would recommend just adding a good quality (washable) high flow panel air filter to the standard air box.
As for internal mods for sophisticated diesel engines, typically the rewards obey the law of diminishing returns. With forced induction there's only so far you can go with cam/valve lift and air (gas) flow. Especially with a diesel engine, given the limited rev range there's not that much reward from tuning a head in the traditional way. Diesel burns very slowly (hence the 4000rpm peak BHP most achieve, even if they will spin to over 5000rpm).
Getting the flame front inside the combustion chamber to accelerate faster than the piston crown is the only real option, and this is to some degree achieved by allow small amount of fuel to be injected during the expansion phase of the engine's cycle.Too much of this and you get smoke and soot, and burn a load of fuel. Increasing the BMEP (brake mean effective pressure) by means such as increased boost can assist. This, too, is a double edged sword as the biggest fraction of the atmosphere is nitrogen, which, although good for cooling, is still incombustible.
hat's where nitrous comes in, in the same way it does in a petrol powered vehicle. The gains achieved in this way can be absolutely silly, but given the cost and legal position with regard to road usage it's a bit of a white elephant.
Increasing the cetane rating of diesel fuel is quite effective in increasing the release of 'free' power. With a diesel engine, the key is getting the fuel to burn more rapidly, as opposed to a petrol engine where octane number is God. Higher octane petrol fuels burn more slowly and resist pre-ignition better than low octane fuels. Pre warming the fuel and direct injection into the combustion chamber all help to improve the speed and efficiency of combustion.
Good results can be obtained with cetane improvers. Sadly, these can prove expensive and should not be used in engines that are Euro Iv (2004) compliant. Strangely, the 2.2HDi 2001 model is 2004 compliant. The particle filter ( a whole subject in itself) can become blocked or excessively obstructed by use of such products.
Weight reduction is very very sensible. Not only does less weight mean better performance for free, it also puts less load on tyres, which allows braking and handling to be optimised. It also reduces the load on the environment as less fuel is required, thereby the release of exhaust gases is reduced.
Downsides of Diesels:
Engine mass/weight is a standard problem with diesel cars (especially FWD ones). That heavy engine can upset the handling balance of a car. Diesel units are heavy; they're dealing with big compression ratios and big torque figures. As such, the bearings are larger in diameter, the gearboxes belong in lorries and tractors even if the change quality is good.
Clutches are getting on for 12" diameter and require fluid operation and servo assistance to make the things pleasant to drive, often a standard clutch will suffer from slip when a remap yields a massive torque figure so you may need to uprate the clutch.
Labels: Tuning
Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang
Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang carries a supercharged 5.4-liter V8 that weighs less, more power, uses a unique spray-coating process that eliminates the need for cast-iron liners in the aluminum cylinder block. 550-hp Shelby GT500 also loses something from the previous model--it's gas-guzzler tax. The new Shelby GT500 will deliver 23 mpg on the highway and 15 mpg in the city. The engine is rated at 550 hp and 510 lb-ft of torque.
The new engine uses state-of-the-art Plasma Transferred Wire Arc (PTWA) liner coating, a process that applies a 150-micron composite coating that contains nanoparticles on the internal surfaces of engine cylinder bores, replacing cast-iron liners typically used in aluminum engine blocks. The Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation honored the inventors of the Ford-patented PTWA technology with the 2009 National Inventor of the Year Award.
Labels: Ford
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Java Script Index
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Values, variables, and literals
his chapter discusses values that JavaScript recognizes and describes the fundamental building blocks of JavaScript expressions: variables and literals.
Values
JavaScript recognizes the following types of values:
- Numbers, such as 42 or 3.14159
- Logical (Boolean) values, either true or false
- Strings, such as "Howdy!"
- null, a special keyword denoting a null value
Data type conversion
JavaScript is a loosely typed language. That means you do not have to specify the data type of a variable when you declare it, and data types are converted automatically as needed during script execution. So, for example, you could define a variable as follows:
var answer = 42
And later, you could assign the same variable a string value, for example,
answer = "Thanks for all the fish..."
Because JavaScript is loosely typed, this assignment does not cause an error message.
x = "The answer is " + 42
The first statement returns the string "The answer is 42." The second statement returns the string "42 is the answer."
y = 42 + " is the answer."
For more information on these functions, see Chapter 9, "Built-in objects and functions."JavaScript provides several special functions for manipulating string and numeric values:
- eval attempts to evaluate a string representing any JavaScript literals or variables, converting it to a number.
- parseInt converts a string to an integer of the specified radix (base), if possible.
- parseFloat converts a string to a floating-point number, if possible.
Variables
You use variables as symbolic names for values in your application. You give variables names by which you refer to them and which must conform to certain rules.Some examples of legal names are Number_hits, temp99, and _name.
Variable scope
You can declare a variable in two ways:
When you set a variable identifier by assignment outside of a function, it is called a global variable, because it is available everywhere in the current document. When you declare a variable within a function, it is called a local variable, because it is available only within the function. Using var is optional, but you need to use it if you want to declare a local variable inside a function that has already been declared as a global variable.
For information on using variables across frames and windows, see Chapter 3, "Using windows and frames."You can access global variables declared in one window or frame from another window or frame by specifying the window or frame name. For example, if a variable called phoneNumber is declared in a FRAMESET document, you can refer to this variable from a child frame as
parent.phoneNumber
.
Literals
You use literals to represent values in JavaScript. These are fixed values, not variables, that you literally provide in your script. Integers
Integers can be expressed in decimal (base 10), hexadecimal (base 16), and octal (base 8). A decimal integer literal consists of a sequence of digits without a leading 0 (zero). A leading 0 (zero) on an integer literal indicates it is in octal; a leading 0x (or 0X) indicates hexadecimal. Hexadecimal integers can include digits (0-9) and the letters a-f and A-F. Octal integers can include only the digits 0-7.
Some examples of integer literals are: 42 0xFFF, and -345.
Floating-point literals
A floating-point literal can have the following parts: a decimal integer, a decimal point ("."), a fraction (another decimal number), an exponent, and a type suffix. The exponent part is an "e" or "E" followed by an integer, which can be signed (preceded by "+" or "-"). A floating-point literal must have at least one digit, plus either a decimal point or "e" (or "E").
Some examples of floating-point literals are 3.1415, -3.1E12, .1e12, and 2E-12
Boolean literals
The Boolean type has two literal values: true and false.
String literals
A string literal is zero or more characters enclosed in double (") or single ('
) quotation marks. A string must be delimited by quotation marks of the same type; that is, either both single quotation marks or double quotation marks. The following are examples of string literals:
In addition to ordinary characters, you can also include special characters in strings, as shown in the last element in the preceding list. The following table lists the special characters that you can use in JavaScript strings.
Character | Meaning |
---|---|
\b | backspace |
\f | form feed |
\n | new line |
\r | carriage return |
\t | tab |
\\ | backslash character |
Escaping characters
For characters not listed in the preceding table, a preceding backslash is ignored, with the exception of a quotation mark and the backslash character itself.
var quote = "He read \"The Cremation of Sam McGee\" by R.W. Service."
The result of this would be
document.write(quote)
He read "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by R.W. Service.
:Labels: javascript reference