Driving Force The Past, Present and Future Development of the Car Engine
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From wick carburetors to common-rail diesel injection, from atmospheric valves to variable valve timing, the clearly written text explores each decade of development, describing the significant milestones and illustrating them with examples of appropriate ground-breaking classic engines. This book will appeal to car owners and enthusiasts keen to learn more about how and why engines have evolved into todays highly sophisticated units.
This Book Includes:
• Comprehensive, illustrated descriptions of engines in laypersons terms
• History of the first pioneering single-cylinder car engines, developed from gas-powered stationary engines
• Development of multi-cylinder engines and carburetors
• How advances in fuels, materials and lubricants, and the advent of mass-production techniques, influenced engine design
• Why differing engine layouts have evolved with different goals in mind
• The influence on road-car engines of technology developed in motorsport
• Commonly used acronyms explained
• The effect of modern emissions regulations on engine design
• The workings of petrol and diesel engines explained, and details of alternative power plants such as electric power, hybrid engines and fuel cell technology
Customer Review: Automotive history
The history of cars is mostly the history of engines, at least to those in the know. This entertaining chronology of non-racing engine development, organized by era, country (often European) and company, discusses hundreds of engines--most of which are long forgotten, so some skimming is allowed--in terms of bore and stroke, valve and camshaft placement, etc., in a very easy to read style. There are also tales of good engineering which did not prevail, due to, for example, British tax laws based on piston area instead of displacement, or the Twenties' inexplicable clamoring for straight eights over the superior vee configuration. A lot of history is passed along. Cadillac always built V8s, Buick always OHVs. Hemispherical combustion chambers go back to the Thirties. Most of the engines I was curious about were included: VW Beetle and Golf, Citroen DS 21, 12-valve Accord. It ends by discussing the trends towards multivalve engines and variable valve timing, and is overall a very skillfully written reference book.