Power Stroke diesel
This brand new, monthly publication brings you original technical articles, news, product reviews, and more, all focused on the truck you drive every day. This diesel newsletter is focused on the Power Stroke diesel, and the Ford trucks that use them, although there are articles that include other diesels or that apply to any diesel.
Here are some of the articles lined up for future issues:
• Performance chip review, featuring several of the most popular brands tested under every condition imaginable, from everyday driving, towing, dyno runs, racing, and more!
• Turbocharger performance: what is “surge” and “stall,” how and when does it affect your turbo, and what can you do about it. This is not just a general description; we’ll look at engine airflow and the turbo compressor map to see exactly when and why surge occurs.
• Performance intake review: two popular intakes compared for quality, ease of installation and maintenance, value, and of course, performance.
• More turbo performance: how much boost can a stock turbo make, how does altitude really affect a turbo, and how to size an aftermarket or upgrade turbo to your engine’s airflow requirements. We’ll use flow equations and...
Toyota MR2 sports car
After a five-year hiatus, Toyota resurrected the MR2 sports car last year, which along with the new Celica were designed to spice up what had been, overall, a rather stodgy product line. This does provide real competition for what had been the only other affordable roadster on the market—the Mazda Miata—but as time behind the wheel of a 2001 model recently proved, the cars have essentially different characters.
What’s most apparent about the MR2 is that having only a 138-hp, 1.8-liter, DOHC four to provide the push is anything but a performance liability, particularly in a car weighing only 2,195 lbs. This best-in-class weight number translates into superb handling, whether one is squeaking the Yokohamas off the line, enjoying the right-NOW responsiveness of the electrically assisted hydraulic rack-and-pinion steering system, or displacing one’s eyeballs under braking.
The underpinnings responsible for the fun includes struts and discs all around, with an anti-lock brake system standard. The MR2 is unflappable in the twisties and has great traction, and you can hang the tail out, thanks to a front/rear weight distribution ratio of 44/56. The steering, while quick, is somewhat lacking in feedback. Yet compared to the Miata, the overall experience is...
The Focus FR200
LAS VEGAS—It features a modified 2.0-liter Zetec engine and delivers an astounding 304 horsepower. It is designed to be the ultimate combination of high horsepower and superior handling in a small, front-wheel-drive car. It is Ford Racing Technology’s Focus FR200, and Livonia, Mich.-based McLaren Engines played an integral role in making it go “zoom.”
Ford Racing Technology unveiled the turbocharged Focus FR200 project car today during Innovations Day at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show here.
The Focus FR200 is the second in a series of performance parts project vehicles created by Ford Racing Technology to develop and market new lines of aftermarket performance parts. It follows the high-performance Mustang FR500, which made its debut at the SEMA show two years ago. McLaren Engines—a business unit of McLaren Performance—also supported Ford in the development and prototyping of the FR500.
“We are excited to be involved with Ford Racing Technology on the Focus FR200, which is a phenomenal vehicle,” said Wiley R. McCoy, president and chief operating officer of McLaren Performance Technologies. “We appreciate Ford Racing’s confidence in McLaren and look forward to continuing and expanding our valued relationship with Ford on projects of this type and other...
Mercedes-Benz SL coupe/roadster
MONTVALE, NJ — A new-generation Mercedes-Benz SL coupe/roadster—the first in over 12 years
—will debut in Europe this fall and arrive in the U.S. next spring. Perhaps the best-known Mercedes model ever, the new SL convertible will mark the fifth generation of the highly successful series, which began in 1954 with the legendary “gullwing” 300SL.
The 2003 Mercedes-Benz SL is a technological tour de force, with ABC active suspension and ESP stability control featured along with the world’s first electronic brake system. The new SL also features new styling, capped by a retractable hardtop. The electronic brake system, which provides faster, more sure-footed brake response, works with a computer that tells four fast-acting valves exactly how hard to apply the brakes on each wheel. A backup hydraulic master cylinder comes into play only if there’s a serious problem or electrical failure.
With split-second accuracy, the system can change brake pressure on each wheel over uneven surfaces and can even increase brake pressure on just the outside wheels when braking in turns, taking advantage of the higher loading during cornering. Even ABS anti-lock and ESP stability control work more efficiently since they are more deeply integrated with...
Bentley Motors
The rich prewar racing heritage of Bentley was highlighted during the 2001 Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races August 17-19. Now in its 28th year, the Historics is considered North America’s premier vintage race, where more than 350 historic race cars annually assemble to challenge the famed corkscrew at Laguna Seca Raceway.
Although the first Bentleys rolled off the assembly line and onto Britain’s roadways in relative obscurity in 1921, it wasn’t long before racing fans worldwide began holding the marque in high regard as victories were plentiful in such prestigious races as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Bentley racked up a total of five checkered flags at Le Mans, including a dominating four-year winning streak from 1927 to 1930.
Adding to the company’s mystique was a glamorous team of drivers who became known as the “Bentley Boys.” These free-spirited drivers piloted a string of race cars, including such models as the 3-litre and the Speed Six, to one victory after another.
“The Bentley Boys represented an exciting and glamorous era of motor racing,” explained Steve Earle, organizer of the Monterey Historics. “The ’20s and ’30s were a time when race and road cars still resembled each other, and competition...
International sports car racing
It’s been an odd year in international sports car racing, because for the first time in many years, there is no corporate presence from Porsche. Some of its competition-oriented dealers, such as Brumos, have beefed up trackside support of privateer teams running 911s and 993s in the GT classes, but factory teams are missing from both the GT and prototype ranks, and the sport is poorer for it.
There is a reason, of course — the millions the company is spending for development of its first SUV, the Cayenne. As a small-volume manufacturer, an all-new model line leaves Porsche without the considerable number of discretionary Deutschmarks needed to go racing.
These developments leave most enthusiasts agog. Porsche gives up racing to build… a truck? Worse yet, a truck that is sharing a platform with parent company Volkswagen?
Pride seems to have gone out the window in favor of this notion that the Cayenne, when it goes on sale in 2002, will boost Porsche unit sales 50 percent. The good news is that current development costs for the Cayenne have not affected profits, partly due to its being a shared platform, and partly due to Porsche’s existing expertise in four-wheel-drive...
Race weekend
NASCAR: The Winston Cup community breathed a collective sigh of relief after getting through a race weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway with no driver injuries. Jeff Burton led all the way to take the Dura Lube 300, the first NASCAR driver to lead every lap of a race ever since Cale Yarborough did it at Nashville in 1978. Points leader Bobby Labonte was second, with Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace rounding out the top five.
Winston Cup director Mike Helton had announced the previous week that restrictor plates would be used at New Hampshire in an effort to keep car speeds down, and that an earlier secret test of foam padding on the walls, involving unmanned cars, had proved unsatisfactory. Teams worked 24-days all week testing setup combinations and gearing under the power limitation, and many drivers groused that the plates would make passing impossible.
But a second groove opened up during competition, and there were many hard-fought battles Sunday, which Burton drove away from, seemingly at will…. Silly season is fully underway: Kurt Busch replaces Chad Little in Jack Roush’s John Deere Ford, while Morgan-McClure and Bobby Hamilton agreed to part ways a...
Vintage car enthusiast
Any vintage car enthusiast with half a brain migrates to Lime Rock Park in Connecticut to spend Labor Day weekend, and with good reason. Its Annual Vintage Festival, in its 18th edition this year, has grown to the point where it is starting to rival Pebble Beach in prestige.
The quality and quantity of the turnout made this year’s festival simply the best yet, as both Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) and longtime participant Vintage Sports Car Club of America (VSCCA) paired up to provide a broad-ranging program of vintage racing.
Following practice heats on Friday and qualifying on Saturday, Monday’s race program saw nine race groups fighting for honors in 12 features, featuring machinery from the past eight decades. The weekend highlights had to go to the spirited duals between Brian Redman and Duncan Dayton, taking it to each other in HSR’s groups 6 and 8.Redman’s pesky green 1971 Chevron B-19 dogged Dayton throughout the Group 6 sprint, but the latter ultimately prevailed in his 1970 Lola T-70. Redman, the godfather of vintage racing, got his revenge in the Group 8 Historic Production and Sports Racers competition, his ’67 Lola T-70 nipping Dayton’s ’63...
The new Mini-Cooper
Everything that’s old is new again. Forty-one years after its auspicious debut, the Mini has finally been updated, and new parent company BMW has big plans for the racy little econobox.
When it goes on sale in the U.S. in March 2002 as the Mini-Cooper, BMW will have gone through an arduous internal audit that will determine which seventy or so of its dealers will get to sell the 25,000 units that will be imported here. The car will not be marketed under the BMW label, so the dealers will be creating separate showrooms for the little bomber. Given the parent company’s strength in large urban markets on both coasts, points in between may not see the Mini for awhile.
The update of the original, produced from 1959 through last August, clearly evokes memories of its predecessor, particularly in the view of its friendly front grille, the positioning of the wheels at the corners, and the overall body proportions. Given that, many feeling nostalgia for the old car will be placing orders, which is going to skew BMW’s demographic dreams for the new car. Still, money is money.Ideal customers “like standing out in...