Performance News - 6 June 2000

S2000 Hardtop

Honda Australia has released a new super light accessory hardtop, weighing just 20 kg, for its popular S2000 roadster. The hardtop is made from light-weight alloy and can be manually fitted to the S2000 via four locking points or striker latches located at the front and side. It features a rear window with demister and full interior trim with alloy moulding to match the S2000's sporty cockpit. The hardtop also has a soft roof lining for head protection. The hardtop is available at all Honda dealerships with a recommended retail price of $6562.

Caricatured Ford Drivers

Ford Racing drivers will become larger than life at Canberra thanks to artist John Stoneham. Race goers and motor racing fans can see the life-size driver's cartoons at the Ford Marquee in the support paddock during the GMC 400.Team fans can photograph themselves next to their favourite driver and there will be a huge mural on display where fans can place their face in through a face-space and be a part of a cartoon scene of the Ford Tickford Racing Team.

The 12 cartoon computer-enhanced colour enlargements were drawn by the well-known motorsport cartoonist, "Stonie", and the cartoonist picked on their best and worst features.

"I haven't had any rude phone calls from the drivers yet!" John Stoneham said. "I have been drawing blokes like John Bowe, Glenn Seton and Neil Crompton for many years. They all have a good sense of fun."

Citroën Goes Direct Injection Petrol

French car maker, Citroën, has revealed that the next generation Citroën Xantia and Xsara will be powered by an all-new direct injection petrol engine that will cut fuel consumption by 19 per cent compared to its existing 2.0 litre engine. Designed and developed in just 121 weeks, the new HPi engine is the first direct injection petrol engine from a European car maker and it will be manufactured at the rate of 200 units a day.

With a capacity of 2.0 litres, the HPi engine develops a power output of 103 kW. Its specific advantages are:

• Fuel consumption is 19 per cent lower than the previous Citroën 2.0 litre engine. On the urban test cycle, the improvement is even more marked with a 21 per cent drop in fuel consumption.

• Engine response is improved with a 9.6 per cent boost in torque to170 Nm at 2000 rpm.

• Environmental performance is enhanced with a drop in fuel consumption also producing a drop in the production of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. As well as meeting the Euro 3 clean air rules due for launch in 2001, the new HPi engine also meets the even tougher Euro 4 rules set for launch in 2005.

To achieve these targets, Citroën designed the HPi engine using the most advanced technology available today: lean burn stratified charge direct fuel injection. This involves spraying the fuel/air mixture as close as possible to the spark plug and then filling the rest of the combustion chamber with air. This requires a remarkably high level of precision in injecting the fuel to match engine speed and demands. The engine runs in this lean burn mode up to 3500 rpm, the speeds used in urban driving, and above this engine speed it switches to normal stoichiometric mode, for performance driving. The lean burn engine does, though leave considerably more oxygen in the exhaust gas and to stop excessive amounts of nitrogen oxides being produced, Citroën has developed a sequential NOx treatment system based on the storage release principle.

Citroën developed the high-pressure pump for the HPi engine through a joint venture with Siemans. The pump supplies injection pressure of between 30 and 100 Bar (435 - 1450 psi), compared to just 3.5 bar (~50 psi) in a normal petrol fuel injection pump. This high pressure combined with the stratified charge enables significantly less fuel to be used for combustion and so lead to fuel savings.

DaimlerChrysler Stationary Torture Track

In passenger car development at the DaimlerChrysler plant in Sindelfingen near Stuttgart, engineers are using a test rig to emulate within only a matter of days the trials and tribulations normally suffered by a car body over the course of an automotive lifetime. The new body testing unit, which has been in operation since August 1998, cost about 2.3 million US Dollars (about five million Deutschmarks).

The test rig is appropriately outfitted: the vibrational substructure alone, which is ten metres long, 5.60 metres wide and six and two metres high, weighs 240 tonnes. It is mounted on twelve air suspension elements adjusted by compressed air at a pressure of 10 Bar (1450 psi). When the engineers activate the torture track, the car body is seized by vibrations and convulsions as if the vehicle were being driven over a series of potholes at wildly excessive speed. Each individual wheel is pulled, seized and jolted by an intricate system of hydraulic cylinders with impulse rods, struts and clamps which mimic the maltreatment otherwise only suffered over an entire automotive lifetime.

The impulse rods are made from an aluminium-beryllium alloy, which is very light and rigid but nevertheless resistant to impact. The rods' high natural frequency of oscillation allows the emulation of vibrational loads of up to 50Hz. The vehicle is held in position during the simulation of drive and braking moments by so-called mass-centre fetters on both bumpers.

The engineers examine a total of five parameters on the wheel contact patches: wheel load, longitudinal and lateral forces and braking and drive moments. The vehicle is examined every three hours for signs of damage produced by the simulation program. By visual inspection, the engineers hunt for broken weld spots and bolts or ruptured rubber seals; they use endoscopes to search for possible damage to hollow components such as longitudinal or cross-members; and finally, even the finest of cracks in metal components are rendered visible when penetrated with fluorescent dye.

And then it is back to the test rig for the next three-hour session. The test runs and subsequent inspections are repeated until the vehicle has covered its prescribed program on the torture track. This amounts to seventy hours of pure test rig operation. When setting up, dismantling and inspection are taken into account, the overall time spent on the body test rig amounts to four weeks.

The results achieved in the simulation tests are directly incorporated into the further stages of development of DaimlerChrysler vehicles, ensuring quality, while saving on time and costs.

Broadmeadows History

More interesting historical snippets from Ford....

Ford Australia opened its Broadmeadows Assembly Plant in August 1959. In its first full year of operation it assembled 45,022 vehicles and was one of the world's most diverse assembly operations. Most assembly plants build several versions of one or perhaps two models. Broadmeadows Plant assembled 41 different models of vehicles including seven tractor models, six types of trucks and 18 passenger models ranging from the tiny Anglia to the huge American Fairlane Ranch Wagon. It took 16 years to produce one million vehicles, another 12 years to produce the second million and 12 more to produce the third million. In 1985 Broadmeadows Plant set a new Australian record for the number of vehicles produced in one year at one plant - 104,910. By the end of 1999 the plant had produced more than three million vehicles, more than 60% of all the vehicles built by Ford Australia in its 75-year history.

Young Drivers Survey

A survey of young drivers carried out by Safe Drive Australia and Proton Cars has revealed some worrying trends amongst young drivers despite the imposition of tougher licencing and speed restrictions on our roads. A survey of 200 drivers aged 17-19 revealed that many have travelled at greater than160 km/h and that up to 30 percent had travelled in excess of 200 km/h.

The sobering statistics were revealed as Proton Cars Australia launched the Safe Drive 2000 program in NSW after five years of successful operation in Queensland high schools.

The survey, carried out amongst school students participating in the Safe Drive 2000 program, also revealed an enormous degree of over-confidence among young drives as well as the poor behaviour of older drivers held up as role models by young drivers.

According to Safe Driver Training marketing and operations manager, Joel Nielson, it is extremely worrying to discover that many novice drivers report to have travelled at racing car like speeds.

"What is even more worrying is that parents, and fathers in particular have often been the party responsible for such reckless driving," said Mr Nielson. "The survey showed that 40 percent of the respondents reported their FATHER was the driver when travelling at these high speeds, 28 percent reported that a FRIEND was the driver," he said.

"More alarming was that 37 percent of the respondents reported their father as being the role model for driving while 17 percent reported that a racing driver is their role model for driving," he added. "The Safe Driver training survey also revealed that 20 percent of participants ranked themselves above average or higher in driving skills before attending the course. This serves to demonstrate the over confidence of novice drivers and the mistaken belief that basic car control skills equated to driving prowess. Safe driving is a more complex task than many learner drivers realise," he added.

Other statistics revealed in the Proton survey included-

• 41 percent of participants reported the highest speed they had travelled in a car as a passengerwas160 km/h or more.

• 30 percent of participants reported the highest speed they had travelled at in a car as a passenger was 180 km/h or more.

• 15 percent of participants reported the highest speed they had travelled in a car as a passenger was 200 km/h or more.

Quickies

• If you're in the market for automotive parts and accessories, whether it be brakes, books, manuals, exhausts or more, make sure you check out the new online automotive shop at AutoSpeed. Hundreds of products are already available with thousands more being added over the coming weeks at the AutoSpeed Shop.

• Victorian AutoSpeed readers have organised a day out at the Driver Education Centre in Shepparton, a large complex in Shepparton comprising a skidpan and small road circuit. Currently set for the 22nd of July (Saturday) the cost for the day (running times 8:30am-4pm) will be $50 and will be payable by either cheque and credit card. For full details go here: "DECA DAY and WINTION Optional"

• The Ford Falcon will remain the only car range completely designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia following the announcement of program approval for the next generation Falcon by Ford Australia. The next generation Falcon will continue to be manufactured and assembled in Ford's Geelong and Broadmeadows plants. The new car is due for introduction late in 2002

• Ford has released the AUII update of the highly successful Falcon ute.

• Following hot on the heels of the recent international release of BMW's new 3.0 litre M54 engine, BMW Australia has announced the arrival of the new in-line 6-cylinder power plant in the class-leading BMW 3 series range from September this year.

• The Ford Focus has added the title of "world's best seller" to its continually growing list of accolades. Throughout the first quarter of 2000, the Focus has totalled 228,360 units, outselling its nearest rival, the Volkswagen Golf, by nearly 24,000 units.

• A Subaru Forester has notched up 240,000km and still going strong. Appropriately, this Forester is driven by a forester - Scotsman Angus Duncan, whose car is two years old. Do you have a Forester with more kilometres? If so, email david.rowley@subaru.com.au

• Can you drive a car around the world in 80 days and use only 1,000 litres of fuel? That's the challenge Volkswagen's engineers have set for themselves as they left Germany on May 16 in a Volkswagen "3 litre" Lupo. The Lupo, the smallest car in Volkswagen European range, can travel 100 kilometres on less than 3 litres of diesel fuel. The Lupo is due to cross five continents in the 80 days, including Australia from Perth to Sydney. It will travel approximately 400 kilometres a day across Europe, South Africa, Asia, Australia, Amercia, North Africa and return to Central Europe. The Lupo is due to arrive in Perth on May 30, crossing the Nullarbor and arriving in Sydney on June 7.

• Proton's Persona XLi has been named as the most economical 1.6 litre car according to a survey published by leading motoring organization, the NRMA. The economical Persona recorded a fuel economy of 5.4 litres per 100 kilometres in highway driving conditions or better than 50 miles per gallon in imperial measures. City driving yielded economy of 7.4 litres per 100 kilometres.