History of Lotus (1950s)

Colin Chapman (1928 - 1981), started his business as a racing car tuner. When he was still studying engineering in university, he bought an old Austin 7 and tuned it to race. Perhaps he was a man born to win, his first attempt rewarded by winning a few small races. In 1951, while he had graduated, his third car, Mk 3, stormed the 750cc formula class. Unlike other cars in this class, it used spaceframe tubes in construction so that rigidity and lightness out-performed others. Many other teams queued to buy this car and the Lotus Engineering Company was established in 1952. Since then Chapman began his full time automotive engineering career.
Obviously, Chapman is a pure racing car engineer heart and bone. To fund his ambitious racing project, he started building road cars. In 1957, the Mk 6 race car was transformed to the first-ever Lotus road car - Mk 7. The car is renowned for lightness and good handling. It is still building by Caterham today under license. At the same year he unveiled the Elite which employed a revolutionary composite monocoque body.

History of Maserati

On December 14, 1914 a new company was born in Bologna, Societเ Anonima Officine Alfieri Maserati. The Maserati brothers: Carlo (1881), Bindo (1883), Alfieri (1887), Mario (1890), Ettore (1894) and Ernesto (1898) with exception of Mario, who turned his creative vocation towards painting, they all became involved in engineering. Alfieri decided to start a company and rented a garage on the Via de Pepoli in Bologna. Not long after that, his brothers Ettore and Ernesto came working in the workshop.

In 1926 they developed and built their first car, a two-seater racecar. The engine was an 8 cylinder in line with a 1.5 litre supercharged displacement the engine developed a 120 bhp at 5300 rpm. Above the radiator a badge presented a trident that evoked bologna's famous statue of Neptune. This badge was designed by Mario. On its debut in the Targa Florio on April 25, 1926 it became first in its class.

In 1929 Baconin Borzacchini set a new 3.5 litre world speed record in a Maserati V4, a very extreme car with a V16 engine. This engine was actually two tipo 26 engines coupled together.

On march the 3rd 1932, Alfieri died on the age of 44 year. From that time Bindo got into business with his two brothers.

In 1933 Maserati was the first European manufactory to introduce hydraulic brakes on his race cars. That year Maserati achieved three grand prix victories, the grand prix of France, Belgium and Nice.

Maserati was taken over by the Orsi family in 1937. The brothers got a contract to work for another 10 years.

Wilbur Shaw won the Indianapolis 500 with a Maserati 8CTF in 1939. Maserati is the only Italian constructor to win this legendary race until today. By the end of the year Maserati moved to its present home on Viale Ciro Menotti in Modena.

For the second time Wilbur Shaw won the Indianapolis 500 in 1940. During world war II Maserati produced batteries, sparkplugs and trucks.

The first sports car was launched during the Geneva motor show in march 1947. It was the A6 which was designed by Pininfarina.

1957 Maserati wins the world tittle with the 250F and Juan Manual Fangio behind the steering wheel. At the end of the race season Maserati officially retires from racing. From that moment on they were concentrating on road cars. The 3500 GT was the first mass-produced gran tourismo. Carrozzeria Touring from Milan was responsible for the bodywork.

In 1959 they build a car for the Shah of Persia, that was the 5000 GT Touring version. This car was followed by several other models, as the Sebring ( 63-72 ), Quatroporte and Mistral ( 63-70 ), the Mexico ( 66-72 ), Ghibli ( 66-70 ) and the Indy ( 69-76 ).

The Orsi family sold Maserati to Citro๋n in 1968. They were primarily interested in acquiring its engine know how For their SM coup้. In this period the Bora ( 71-79 ), Merak ( 72-83 ) and the Quatroporte II were born. There were only five Quatroportes II build.

The Bertone styled Khamsin saw the light in 1973. This was a very sharply cut, streamlined coup้. Sales were going bad by the oil crisis.

Citro๋n pulled out on 23rd of May 1975, and Alejandro De Tomaso and GEPI came on 8th of August to rescue.

In the spring of '76 Maserati already had a "new" coup้, derived from the De Tomaso Longschamps. At the Turin motor show the Quatroporte III was presented.

From 1981 until 1993 they produced several Biturbo models, 6 and 8 cylinder, coupes, spyders and saloons. On the 19th of May 1993 Fiat auto purchased the complete share package. In July 1998 Ferrari acquires the control of Maserati, and the management closed the factory to modernize the production.

At the salon de L'automobile in Paris they introduced the very successful 3200 GT, the first car produced under the Ferrari management.

By the end of 2000 the factory introduced the Officine Alfieri Maserati program, to individualize your 3200 GT and ItalDesign presented a new prototype, the Buran.There are no plans to produce this car.

Tip & Warning of How to Fix Cars Air Condition

Tips
1. If you suspect bad wiring, most compressors have a wire leading to the electric clutch. Find the connector in the middle of that wire, and unplug it. Take a length of wire and run it from the compressor's wire to the plus (+) side of your battery. If you hear a loud CLACK, the electric clutch is fine and you should check the car's wiring and fuses. If you get nothing, the electric clutch is bad and the compressor will have to be replaced. Ideally, if you can do this test while the car is running, you can see if the hub spins. Take care to keep fingers and loose clothes away from moving pulleys and belts. That would rule out a clutch that actuates properly but then slips so badly it won't generate pressure.

2. If your system is empty and you're refilling it, and have access to a small vacuum pump (like what they'd use in a lab or shop), it's best to suck all the air out of the system before filling it. Air contains moisture, and moisture is bad in AC systems because it corrodes things.

3. Your system will have a light oil in it. If you vent off any refrigerant, be prepared to wipe some oil off things nearby.

4. Another possible replacement refrigerant is HC12a which is used quite a bit more in Europe. It performs better than R-134a or R12. It is more flammable. HC12a is more eco friendly than R12 or R134a. Venting HC12a is not believed to cause environmental damage. Must be ordered on the internet as local shops do not seem to stock it. The issue is that shops will not work on a car that has other regrigerants in it. Special equipment is needed for each type of refrigerant's recovery. Standard R12 or R134a is a safer choice.

Warnings
1. Be extremely cautious about converting your old R-12 system to R-134a. The R-134a conversion kits sold at Auto Parts stores and even WalMart, are called "Black Death Kits" by some AC repairmen. Frequently, the new R-134a refrigerant will not circulate the R-12 oil and you will burn up your compressor. The R-12 mineral oil has chlorine contaminants that will destroy the R-134a PAG or POE special oil. The only way to reliably convert from R-12 to R-134a is to remove the compressor and flush out all the old oil with the new type of oil; then replace the old Receiver-Dryer or Accumulator with a new one; then flush out all the lines, the evaporator, and the condensor with special cleaner then vacuum to a steady vacuum; and finally charge with 70-80%, (by weight) of the original R-12 weight, with R-134a; and expect poorer cooling ability. It is much easier to keep the old R-12 system running with R-12 that is readily available via ebay.

2. Venting refrigerant -- even R-134a -- is illegal in the United States, so act accordingly.

3. NEVER connect refrigerant cans, oil or leak-detector cans to the "high pressure side" of the system. This is often marked with H or HIGH, or a red connector cap. Cans can explode, and that would hurt.

4. Stay away from major leaks of refrigerant. As it vents it will get cold enough to freeze your skin.

5. Look out for moving fan blades and fan belts!

6. HC12 is a hydrocarbon, usually some mix of butane or propane. It will explode with an ignition source. Light up a cigarette if you have an evaporator leak and your car becomes a bomb. Professionals don't use it because of this very reason.

How to Fix Cars Air Conditioning

Steps
1. Realize that auto AC is basically a refrigerator in a weird layout. It's designed to move heat from one place (the inside of your car) to some other place (the outdoors). While a complete discussion of every specific model and component is well outside the scope of this article, this should give you a start on figuring out what the problem might be and either fixing it yourself or talking intelligently to someone you can pay to fix it.

2. Become familiar with the five major components to auto air conditioning:

• the compressor, which compresses the refrigerant in the system (on modern cars, usually a substance called R-134a)
• the refrigerant, which carries the heat
• the condenser, which changes the phase of the refrigerant and expels heat removed from the car
• the expansion valve, which isn't really a valve at all but more like a nozzle and functions to similtaneously drop the pressure of the refrigerant liquid, meter its flow and atomize it
• the dryer/evaporator, which transfers heat to the refrigerant from the air blown across it, cooling your car

3.Understand the air conditioning process: The compressor puts the refrigerant under pressure and sends it to the condensing coils. In your car, these coils are generally in front of the radiator. Compressing a gas makes it quite hot. In the condenser, this added heat and the heat the refrigerant picked up in the evaporator is expelled to the air flowing across it from outside the car. When the refrigerant is cooled to its saturation temperature, it will change phase from a gas back into a liquid (this gives of a bundle of heat known as the "latent heat of vaporization"). The liquid then passes through the expansion valve to the evaporator, the coils inside of your car, where it loses pressure that was added to it in the compressor. This causes some of the liquid to change to a low-pressure gas as it cools the remaining liquid. This two-phase mixture enters the evaporator, and the liquid portion of the refrigerant absorbs the heat from the air across the coil and evaporates. Your car's blower circulates air across the cold evaporator and into the interior. The refrigerant goes back through the cycle again and again.

4. Check to see if all the R-134a leaks out (meaning there's nothing in the loop to carry away heat). Leaks are easy to spot but not easy to fix without pulling things apart. Most auto-supply stores carry a fluorescent dye that can be added to the system to check for leaks, and it will have instructions for use on the can. If there's a bad enough leak, the system will have no pressure in it at all. Find one of the valve-stem-looking things and CAREFULLY (eye protection recommended) poke a pen in there to try to valve off pressure, and if there IS none, that's the problem.

5. Make sure the compressor is turning. Start the car, turn on the AC and look under the hood. The AC compressor is generally a pumplike thing off to one side with large rubber and steel hoses going to it. It will not have a filler cap on it, but will often have one or two things that look like the valve stems on a bike tire. The pulley on the front of the compressor exists as an outer pulley and an inner hub which turns when an electric clutch is engaged. If the AC is on and the blower is on, but the center of the pulley is not turning, then the compressor's clutch is not engaging. This could be a bad fuse, a wiring problem, a broken AC switch in your dash, or the system could be low on refrigerant (most systems have a low-pressure safety cutout that will disable the compressor if there isn't enough refrigerant in the system).

6. Look for other things that can go wrong: bad switches, bad fuses, broken wires, broken fan belt (preventing the pump from turning), or seal failure inside the compressor.

7. Feel for any cooling at all. If the system cools, but not much, it could just be low pressure, and you can top up the refrigerant. Most auto-supply stores will have a kit to refill a system, and it will come with instructions. Do not overfill!

New Automotive & Motorsports Directory

The webmaster at Syd's Eastside Auto Parts has been working pretty hard to establish a new automotive & motorsports related dedicated directory for the past few weeks. Its finally ready! The Automotive SEARCH Directory not only functions as a means of submitting your automotive and/or motorsports related websites, blogs and directories as a static directory listing advertising your business, but also functions as a means for the public to submit any auto/motorsport related URL as a resource candidate for the Automotive SEARCH Network volunteer editors to consider as an authorized link resource for our URL pool of automotive/motorsports from which our search engine draws its results.

Although the directory only represents a smaller part of the Automotive SEARCH Network, it is a significant one because it will allow any user to suggest an automotive or motorsport related web resource. Previously, the only way to submit such a web resource to use in the search results was to become an authorized editor for the Automotive SEARCH Network. Now, automotive enthusiasts and businesses from all over can submit their website and if accepted, can enjoy the targeted traffic that the Automotive SEARCH Network was designed to provide.

Although we are still accepting requests for becoming a volunteer editor, the Automotive SEARCH Network Directory allows us to expand our resource pool of automotive & motorsports URLs without requiring site owners and webmasters to take on any significant obligations as a volunteer editor.

In fact, the Automotive SEARCH Directory now provides a high profile directory platform from which to provide targeted advertising to the automotive industry, auto entusiasts, car clubs and motorsports professionals. Listings are very reasonably priced although a free reciprocal link exchange is also available.

However, the directory does allow visitors to submit listings into multiple categories, as long as the submitted resource is relevant to that category. The directory software and its administration also takes significant steps to avoid spam submissions.

We expect great things for and from the Automotive SEARCH Network in the future. Keep your eyes open on this domain by bookmarking the website once you get there! Be sure to submit your automotive/motorsport/motorcycle/truck web resource(s) while you are there, too.

The Automotive SEARCH Directory is brought to you as a joint sponsorship cooperative between Syd's Eastside Auto Parts and Diesel Rebuild Parts.com.

Video: Ouch

Horrific drag racing crash. Driver survived with broken bones.

Unusual Car Sighting: Figaro

Went to Costco to grab some stuff, came out and saw this car parked nearby. It is a Nissan Figaro, a very small retro convertible with an interesting retractable roof. There is a nice Wikipedia article on the Figaro here.