AutoSpeed.com Performance Car Magazine

Tech Basics: Crash, Boom, Bang

Fri May 9 00:00:00 2008

Every engine has them. Without them working perfectly the engine will be down on power. The factory picks 'em, but on a modified engine they might no longer be the right ones. What are we talking about - fuel injectors, pistons, or even bearings? Nope -...

A Heap of Parts for Nothing!

Thu May 8 00:00:00 2008

Cordless drills are now among the most frequently discarded of power hand tools. At the tip, at garage sales - even in kerbside rubbish pick-ups - there are always plenty of defective battery-powered electric drills. But why would you bother salvaging one of these? There are about five good reasons.

75 Years - The History of BMW, Part 2

Wed May 7 00:00:00 2008

The BMW cars of the last 40 years - including some that you wouldn't normally associate with the marque!

Supercharger Steal - Part One

Tue May 6 00:00:00 2008

Run out of bolt-on mods to throw at your car's atmo engine? Let's check out what you can pick up in the second-hand supercharger market...

AutoSpeed Water Injection System Part 1

Mon May 5 00:00:00 2008

Our water injection system atomises the water to a very fine spray. It can also be configured as a roughly proportional system, adding more water when loads are greater and less when loads are lower.

Cutting Metal

Sat May 3 00:00:00 2008

Whether you're making brackets to hold a piece of sound gear in place or forming a new panel, unless you've got a tame metal fabrication workshop around the corner, there's one aspect that will always confront you - cutting metal. So how easy is that, you're saying? Grab a hacksaw and whammo!, a few seconds later the metal's cut. But if you're someone who spends time actually doing this you'll realise that all isn't as easy as it seems. Like, how often has that hacksaw wandered off line and you've had to discard that piece of material? Or if you're heavily into electric jigsaws, how long did that metal-cutting blade actually last? Or, have you tried a nibbling tool - something that opens up completely new possibilities. Hmmm, maybe there is a bit more to this than first meets the eye!

Tech Breakthroughs

Fri May 2 00:00:00 2008

Technology youll see on lots of cars and trucks in the near future - from lane guidance systems to smart materials.

Head Start

Thu May 1 00:00:00 2008

Swapping Japanese engine heads can be an effective path to power. See if your engine is in our list of candidates - you might be interested to learn you have an another avenue to explore to get those difficult-to-reach horses!

75 Years - The History of BMW, Part 1

Wed Apr 30 00:00:00 2008

Those who were not invited read it in the papers: On the morning of 9 July 1929, BMW announced in full-page advertisements that it had started business as an automobile manufacturer. A small car with the type designation 3/15 PS was presented to the guests invited to the new BMW sales premises in Berlin's city centre. People quickly created a new name for this car: Dixi.

Analysing Road Car Drag

Tue Apr 29 00:00:00 2008

Taking a look at the factors most responsible for the aerodynamic drag of cars and seeing how it is technically possible to make major gains in slipperiness.

The 5 Cent Modification

Mon Apr 28 00:00:00 2008

Read the silly claims that people make on eBay for adding a simple resistor to your car's engine management system and could assume that as a modification technique, it sucks. But in fact the simple resistor can work very well - if you know what youre aiming for. Here's how.

Response

Sun Apr 27 00:00:00 2008

LPG Fuel Consumption In your recent article "LPG vapour injection' the engineer suggested that there would be up to a 20% INCREASE in feul use over petrol using LPG. However the article goes on to indicate that over a standard test procedure there was actually a...

All the Test Gear You Need...for under $100

Fri Apr 25 00:00:00 2008

For $100 you can equip yourself with a range of instruments that lets you see with at least as much accuracy as a typical chassis dyno whether you're going forwards or backwards in your modifications. They won't give you the dyno sheet to flash in front of your mates but they will show you how much improvement you're making to your car's performance. And you can keep on using these instruments forever - not just use them as a one-off...

Fan-Forcing Your Intercooler, Part 2

Thu Apr 24 00:00:00 2008

Last week in Part 1 we covered how to use a centrifugal blower (aka a high power cabin ventilation fan) to force air through an intercooler. This approach is especially good at low road speeds, when heat-soak otherwise occurs. With the intercooler fully or partly shrouded, it's possible to move a LOT of air through the 'cooler, keeping it much lower in temp than it would otherwise be. However, oftentimes the full power of the blower isn't needed - instead it'd be nice to have it vary in speed to suit the conditions. The easiest approach is to have two speeds - which is what we cover in detail here.

Using Multimeters, Part 3

Wed Apr 23 00:00:00 2008

Last week we covered making the normal measurements with a multimeter - volts, ohms, amps, duty cycle and frequency. This week - in the last of our three-part series - we take a look at some more automotive uses you can make of a multimeter.