18th Feb 2019 3 mins Reinventing The Wheel With the world population currently in excess of 7.5 Billion and still predicted to increase, there has never been so many cars on the road in all of human history. Coupled with the fact that these cars are ballooning in size; car parking space has become a precious commodity and a serious problem. Indeed for many a universal equivalent of Tesla's Smart Summon, which automatically finds a space for you, cannot come quock enough.
1st Feb 2019 3 mins What Are Holographic Head Up Displays? Of all the new technologies that emerge for use in automobiles, ones that improve safety usually find their way into widespread use. It’s also true that most new technologies begin life reserved for a select few high-end vehicles, before eventually disseminating their way down the automotive family tree and into the average hatchback or supermini. A piece of tech that attracted a lot of attention at the beginning of 2019 benefits from being both a safety improvement and quite a cool piece of kit – one that just about any car owner would like to have the option of using.
30th Jan 2019 3 mins What is A Camshaft and How Does it Work? Camshafts are another of the many critical components required to enable a combustion engine to work, but what exactly is a camshaft and why is its role so important?
28th Jan 2019 4 mins KIA's In Car System Monitors Your Mood It is a new year and the rise of the autonomous vehicle shows no signs of slowing down in 2019. Few however have posed the question of what lies beyond the self-driving car. That was until KIA unveiled their new READ technology earlier this month and proceeded to melt minds whilst simultaneously readjusting our perception of reality.
16th Jan 2019 3 mins Dashboard Technology Traditionally the dashboard in the standard road car has been made up of buttons, switches and dials; uniformly identifiable in all makes of cars and only slightly modified by manufacturers. This useful consistency is somewhat counterbalanced by most vehicles having subtly different layouts which tend to only become apparent at inopportune moments when driving an unfamiliar vehicle - such as when trying to locate the central locking button with all your passengers waiting impatiently in the cold. Aside from these inconveniences, and maybe not knowing what some of the warning lights on a dashboard mean, the system works – but technological advances have been at a minimum.
18th Dec 2018 5 mins What's A Dual Clutch Transmission and How Does It Work? Despite what is undoubtably very clever and complex engineering, the Double (or Dual) Clutch Transmission (DCT), has a mixed reputation with drivers and has not achieved the level of ubiquity many thought it would. Sitting in the middle ground between an automatic and a manual transmission, the simplest way of describing their operation, is that they’re an automatically operated manual transmission – achieved by using two clutches.
18th Dec 2018 3 mins The Future of Classic Cars In television and film there are rare occurrences of cars transcending their human character counterparts and becoming the defining image of said film or tv show. The 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 from Bullitt, the 1969 Dodge Charger from the Dukes of Hazards, Cameron’s Dads Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder from Ferris Buellers Day off and even the 1981 De Lorean DMC – 12 from Back to the Future. These cars have become iconic pop culture images and the appetite for classic cars is still strong, with over half a million classic or historic vehicles in the UK - in fact the UK government estimates the classic car industry to be worth of up to £5.5bn. However, is the classic car in danger of becoming extinct on our roads?
17th Dec 2018 4 mins Types of Brake Disc Of the many crucial systems present on a vehicle, the brakes are of particular importance as they afford the occupants the ability to stop once in motion. We’ve talked before about how other components of braking systems work, such as the callipers, as well as going into detail on the specific types of brake pads available. It’s now the turn of another of the key components, the brakes disc itself - or brake rotor as they’re also known.