     |
Car!! The Object Of Our Desire Custom Search Cars are one of the great mixed bags of our time. Automobiles and light trucks have increased 25 percent above the 1990 levels, according to a new report by Environmental Defense Agency. There were 590 million passenger vehicles worldwide (roughly one vehicle for every eleven people) as of 2002. An automobile (via French from Greek auto, self and Latin mobilis moving, a vehicle that moves itself rather than being moved by another vehicle or animal) or motor car (usually shortened to just auto) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. Although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769, this claim is disputed by some, who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran, while others claim Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, built the first steam powered vehicles around 1672. The first American vehicles with a gasoline internal combustion engine supposedly was designed in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent on an automobile in 1879. In Britain there had been several attempts to build steam vehicle with varying degrees of success with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860. Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran vehicles Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered vehicles in the country in 1894 followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895 but these were both one-offs. ProductionThe large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Ransom Olds at his Oldsmobile factory in 1902. This concept was then greatly expanded by Henry Ford, beginning in 1914. As a result, Ford's vehicle came off the line in fifteen minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, increasing production by seven to one (requiring 12.5 man-hours before, 1 hour 33 minutes after), while using less manpower. Ford's complex safety procedures-especially assigning each worker to a specific location instead of allowing them to roam about-dramatically reduced the rate of injury. The combination of high wages and high efficiency is called "Fordism," and was copied by most major industries.Since the 1920s, nearly all vehicles have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing plans have often heavily influenced automobile design. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of vehicle produced by one company, so buyers could "move up" as their fortunes improved. Morris set up its production line at Cowley in 1924, and soon outsold Ford, while beginning in 1923 to follow Ford's practice of vertical integration, buying Hotchkiss (engines), Wrigley (gearboxes), and Osberton (radiators), for instance, as well as competitors, such as Wolseley: in 1925, Morris had 41% of total British vehicles production. Citroen did the same in France, coming to vehicles in 1919; between them and the cheap vehicle in reply, Renault's 10CV and Peugeot's 5CV, they produced 550000 vehicles in 1925, and Mors, Hurtu, and others could not compete. Most British small-vehicles assemblers, from Autocrat to Meteorite to Seabrook, to name only three, had gone under. Germany's first mass-manufactured vehicles, the Opel 4PS Laubfrosch (Tree Frog), came off the line at Russelsheim in 1924, soon making Opel the top vehicles builder in Germany, with 37.5% of the market. Even so, only major makers could afford high costs, and even companies with decades of production, such as Apperson, Cole, Dorris, Haynes, or Premier, could not manage the high cost of production. Of some two hundred carmakers in existence in 1920, only 43 survived in 1930, and with the Great Depression, by 1940, only 17 of those were left. Diesel EnginesDiesel engined vehicle have long been popular in Europe with the first models being introduced in the 1930s by Mercedes Benz and Citroen. Many diesel powered vehicles can also run with little or no modifications on 100% biodiesel. Gasoline EnginesGasoline engines have the advantage over diesel in being lighter and able to work at higher rotational speeds and they are the usual choice for fitting in high performance sports vehicles. Continuous development of gasoline engines for over a hundred years has produced improvements in efficiency and reduced pollution. The carburetor was used on nearly all road vehicles engines until the 1980s but it was long realized better control of the fuel/air mixture could be achieved with fuel injection. Indirect fuel injection was first used in aircraft engines from 1909, in racing vehicles engines from the 1930s, and road vehicles from the late 1950s. Clean air legislation in many of the vehicles industries most important markets have made both catalysts and fuel injection virtually universal fittings. Most gasoline engine vehicles can also run on LPG with the addition of an LPG tank for fuel storage and carburetion modifications to add an LPG mixer. Brazil's ethanol program provides about 20% of the nations automotive fuel needs, including several million vehicles that operate on pure ethanol. The first electric vehicles were built around 1832 well before internal combustion powered vehicles appeared. Thereafter internal combustion powered vehicles had two critical advantages: 1) long range and 2) high specific energy (far lower weight of petrol fuel versus weight of batteries). Because they can deliver a high torque at low revolutions electric vehicles do not require such a complex drive train and transmission as internal combustion powered vehicles. Some post-2000 electric car designs such as the Venturi Fétish are able to accelerate from 0-60 mph (96 km/h) in 4. Steam power, usually using oil or gas heated boiler, was also in use until the 1930s but had the major disadvantage of being unable to power the car until boiler pressure was available. It has the advantage of being able to produce very low emissions as the combustion process can be carefully controlled. In spite of the power units being very compact, high fuel consumption, severe delay in throttle response, and lack of engine braking meant no vehicles reached production. Rotary Wankel engines were introduced into road vehicles by NSU with the Ro 80 and later were seen in the Citroën GS Birotor and several Mazda models. Structural changes such as side-impact protection bars in the doors and side panels of the car mitigate the effect of impacts to the side of the vehicle.Many vehicles now include radar or sonar detectors mounted to the rear of the car to warn the driver if he or she is about to reverse into an obstacle or a pedestrian. Some vehicle manufacturers are producing vehicles with devices that also measure the proximity to obstacles and other vehicles in front of the vehicles and are using these to apply the brakes when a collision is inevitable. This makes clear the often-ignored fact road design and traffic control also play a part in vehicles wrecks; unclear traffic signs, inadequate signal light placing, and poor planning (curved bridge approaches which become icy in winter, for example), also contribute. Similarly the costs to society of encompassing automobile use, which may include those of: maintaining roads, pollution, public health, health care, and of disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life, can be balanced against the value of the benefits to society that automobile use generates. In the United States the average passenger vehicles emits 11,450 lbs (5 tons) of carbon dioxide, along with smaller amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen. Residents of low-density, residential-only sprawling communities are also more likely to die in vehicles collisions, which kill 1. Fuel taxes may act as an incentive for the production of more efficient, hence less polluting, vehicles designs (e. High fuel taxes may provide a strong incentive for consumers to purchase lighter, smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, or to not drive. In the United States Congress, federally mandated fuel efficiency standards have been debated regularly, passenger vehicles standards have not risen above the 27.5 miles per gallon standard set in 1985. Automobile propulsion technology under development include gasoline/electric and plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, biofuels and various alternative fuels. New materials which may replace steel vehicles bodies include duraluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and carbon nanotubes. Future vehiclesFuture vehicles technologies include new energy sources and materials, which are being developed in order to make automobiles more sustainable, safer, more energy efficient, or less polluting. Hybrid vehicles that can be plugged into the electric grid will soon become standard in the automobile industry. This is confirmed by the current PHEV mass-production race, especially among Toyota, GM and Ford. Find more Auto Information here
|
