Front Engine Vs Rear Engine.Which is Safe?

The Front Engine

The most traditional method of placing and engine is in the front region of the vehicle. It is highly preferred because of its easy placement and maintenance from the drivers point of view. On getting to the engineers point of view the challenge is different; By this arrangement there are a few pros and cons.

The main pros include easy cooling of engine by air, maximum air input for turbo charging, easy support of engine by chassis and easy linkage to gearbox. By the placement of chassis and suspension in the rear the balance of the vehicle could be maintained.

The only con considering this mode of placement of engine is the transmission. The power from the engine needs to be transmitted from the front part of the vehicle to the rear wheels, which leads to major transmission losses. The power from the engine is not fully transmitted to the rear wheels and hence the actual power of the vehicle is much lower than the power of the engine.

Front Engine Placemnt

The Rear Engine

This form of engine placement is much advanced and gives better results in consideration with power. In this mode the engine is placed at the rear end of the vehicle. The power from the engine can be coupled to the wheels with less power loss due to smaller transmission length. So the power output from this form of vehicle is higher that the previous.

The main pros includes more power output, less transmission loss, increased mileage and instant power transmission. These engines give a instant pickup and can reach higher revs easily. So a power hungry driver and a demanding road can make use of these vehicles.

The main cons include special mounting design for chassis, complicated engine cooling system, reduced stability and increased stress on chassis. These cons prove dangerous to the riders specially at the rear. Its more about safety than the efficiency that the people need.

Rear Engine Placemnt

Rear Engine Vs Front Engine

Considering safety the front engine vehicles are a lot safer than the later. Because of the inability of the rear engine to dissipate the heat produced from combustion the cabin temperature increases in most cases. In the most adverse conditions this leads to fire which will cause damage to the vehicle and people.

So most preferably a front engine vehicle must be chosen for safety preferences in my opinion. A better system to ventilate the engine would prove better safety.

Gracias Amigos'

The Boxer Engine

If you are reading this post you must probably be confused about the title. If you are aware of the vehicles and IC engines you are most probably familiar with two types of engines,In-line engine and V engine. Both of these engines are widely used in many vehicles all over the world.

The above picture shows the typical arrangement of cylinders in an inline engine. All the pistons are in a straight line and the crank shaft is supplied with torque once the engine starts working. Since all the pistons move in the vertical manner the vibration will be minimized, but the stability of the engine is very low since the center of gravity will be very much reduced by the smaller base area of the engine.

But this engine is broadly used because of the simplicity in construction and the less space occupation of the engine. In order to minimize the cost and maximize the space inside the bonnet the automobile manufacturers adopt these engines for their vehicles.

The above engine might be familiar to most of you since they are used in motor bikes and is in the naked manner. These are added with multiple cylinders and are used in four wheeler's. The major disadvantage of this engine is that the base area is very small and the center of mass is concentrated in between both the cylinders. This might not be a big deal during normal driving conditions, but during rain the road gets slippery due to reduction in the co-efficient of friction between tires and the tarmac. Now the rider needs to be more careful since the engine is already unstable and the sole control of the bike depends on riders stability.

All these problems could be averted by a simple modification in the engine. Instead of using vertical and v engines the engines could be modified to be horizontal. The cylinders could be made to move in a horizontal direction. Such an engine is called a horizontal engine or BOXER engine.

As you can see, the cylinders move horizontally inside the cylinder and will produce the same amount of torque like the above engines. As the motion of the pistons resemble the punching of fists by a boxer the engine gets such a name.

The base of the engine is wider and hence the center of gravity of the engine can be concentrated anywhere within the engine and thus increasing the stability if the vehicle. But the construction of such an engine is more tedious and time consuming.Also the engine occupies major area of the bonnet. So the major automobile manufacturers avoid these engines for their vehicles. Instead they bring in the Electronic Stability Program (ESP) for the vehicles in the name of safety and sophistication and ultimately increasing the cost of the vehicle.

One of the traditional users of boxer engines are the japanese car manufactures Subaru. They have perfected in the use of these engines for many years and have ensured proper development of the engine. A Subaru sedan with the basic specifications can be much safer than any other sedan with ESP and ABS. If you are going to buy a car be wise and choose a car with a boxer engine.


Gracias Amigos'

Engineering is All About MANIPULATION

If we recall the history all the multinational firms which have succeeded have been using a strategy to manipulate people to buy their product. One simple way to do that now is through advertising. Our mind tends to like things which we see or hear often from some sources like TV or Internet or any other mass media. The reason is simple, our mind is manipulated to use that specific product at least once and know how it does the job.Humans can be easily manipulated, and the companies know this and they manipulate our minds easily.

Consider yourself going to buy a new car in the showroom. You look at various models and select the car with best looks, interior design, Power, Fuel efficiency etc. The thing here is that our mind is manipulated by the highlighted specs and we ignore the cons since we have no source to know that at that moment. Also the companies know that the consumer will be having their eye mainly on exteriors and the mileage. So they conduct years of R&D and come up with cheaper materials which give a premium feel to the end user.

There is a different strategy when a company has produce excess amount of goods.Here the remedy for the company to avoid loss is to sell all the goods.Consider that good as a soap; a 100g soap might cost 30 and 200g might cost 60 during usual times. But during such situations the company tends give offers like reducing the market price of giving a combo offer for free.By that way a major loss can be averted.

Consider yourself standing at the counter of KFC looking at the menu.The menu with more items catches your eyes immediately and the people at the queue tend to get pushy which makes you to take a decision faster.By this way you select a random menu and taste it. That is the reason why there are many self service stalls which focus mainly on manipulating the minds faster and hence confusing the buyer to get something else instead of their preference.

Also humans tend to buy more stuffs at less cost. So many shopping malls conduct clearance sale very often and give away all the unsold products at less prices. The key thing to note here is that those products have been on the shelf for longer times which the users have refused to buy previously.By reducing the cost and giving a narrow range of products to choose from we choose the available products easily and hence the management enjoys the clearance profit.

These simple techniques have been driving the world for many years and will also do for many years to come.

Gracias Amigos'

A Catchup on the Previous Post

As I have said already, The Magneto Generator can Produce sustainable amount of power as soon as its operation is triggered by some means either manually or using a battery. Sounds simple right; but the construction of the generator is a complex and tedious process which needs manual work and lot of time.

When the torque reaches a certain RPM the armature starts producing DC voltage as it is placed inside a magnetic field. Also the torques remains constant as long as its stopped by an external force. This electricity can be coupled to an electric motor to run a vehicle or to a grid to use the electricity for commercial use or whatever is the need.

If you have seen the movie IRON MAN you have seen a self reacting atomic reactor which will keep on producing electricity as long as its stopped. Well this generator is the practical working example of such a sustainable energy source. It has been there for many years but not a lot of R&D has not been done in the aspect of improving this technology.

I hope that the future is dependent on such energy sources and taking necessary steps to improve the technology is important. Hoping a better tomorrow.


Gracias Amigos'

Lets give it a Kick Start

How many of you are aware of the magneto generator? Its a source of sustainable energy which is said to be under research for many years. The fact is that the research is over before many long years and the results are promising. The generator can be used to run a four seater passenger car at an average speed of 50 km/hr without spending any fuel or releasing CO2  into the atmosphere.

But you may think that I am bluffing. The actual bluff is from the automobile makers all over the world.The automobile industry makes billions of dollars every year which has been suppressing the development of such innovations for many years.

You may ask why? I shall tell you why. The reason is simple, IC engines are the heart of the vehicles which uses combustible fuels for operating. Changing this cycle may affect the Oil selling gulf countries and the American economy.Now such a technology may prove to be distinctly viable and wont give the prime countries the power to dominate the world.Now you may understand the reason why.

I am not blaming them but I am blaming the inability of the technology to overcome the struggle and reduce the burden over the people of the world.


Gracias Amigos'