July 2006
Monthly Archive
Fri 7 Jul 2006
Posted by Mark Wan under
EditorialNo Comments
After commenting so long about cars, let’s change our attention to automotive journalists.
Some readers asked how I manage to write high quality reports and news articles. The answer is every bit predictable - 1) good observation to find out how this car differs from other cars; 2) improve my own technical knowledge; 3) work hard to gather information; 4) write and comment in my own style.
Point 4 is especially important. However, since a couple of years ago I found most car magazines have been losing their own styles. One of their bad common mistakes is using sound recorder during group tests. Car And Driver, Road & Track and Evo like this especially. Here is how they comment a car:
“Its handling is simply unflappable !” said John.
“Fool-proof, I’d say it’s the most secured performance car I have driven for years” Tim said. One of the testers even describe it as “totally trustable”.
Tim also likes its brakes, describing it “amazingly powerful and with superb pedal feel”. John, however, thought it needs more feel at the last 1/3 travel …
In the end, after reading the whole report I have no idea whether the braking feel is good or not. I also don’t understand what “unflappable”, “fool-proof” and “totally trustable” mean. Instead of using these subjective words, I would describe body roll, grip, understeer, steering response and steering weighting etc.
Really, I was disappointed with R&T’s comparison test for Infiniti Q45 and Lexus LS430 last year. After reading the whole report I still got no idea about the handling and ride of Q45. Normally I take notes when reading car magazines, but in that case I found nothing I could write.
Another common mistakes can be seen in Auto Express regularly. It usually says its news are exclusive or world’s first, but in fact many other media (including mine) have already reported.
Patriotism is another problem. When somebody rate a TVR higher than a Porsche or choose a Thunderbird as COTY, you know this is not the magazine you can trust. Even a magazine as highly regarded as Autocar can have such problems - sometimes it favours the soft ride of Jaguar XJR, sometimes it can forgive the harsh ride of MG TF and rate it as the class leader. So, as long as the cars are British, they are automatically added with 1 star.
There are many more problems but I’m afraid we will never have enough space to express. The last problem I am going to discuss here is about the technical knowledge of automotive journalists. This concern individuals rather than magazines. Yesterday I read someone called Ben Oliver writing about Seat Leon Cupra R in Autocar. He said the 210hp front-drive machine has no torque steer because of strong front tyre grip and sharp steering. I’m sorry with Mr. Oliver for his confusion between “torque steer” with “understeer”. As I know, strong front tyre grip can only increase the level of torque steer.
Automotive News’ Joe Kohn also made me laugh. He said Infiniti G35 achieves a good 52:48 front-to-rear balance by moving fuel tank from under the trunk to under rear seats. Doesn’t this make the car even more unbalanced ? This man seemed confuses “good balance” with “low polar moment of inertia” (maybe he doesn’t understand this term). As I can proof, Nissan’s press material really mentioned both things.
It is a pity that many people earn their living by being automotive journalists yet so many of them without getting sufficient knowledge to fulfil their jobs. Next time I won’t read Ben Oliver’s and Joe Kohn’s reports anymore. These guys talk about what they don’t understand.
Mark Wan
Note: The editorial is reproduced from the March 2002 Issue of AutoZine. All Rights Reserved.
Fri 7 Jul 2006
Posted by Mark Wan under
EditorialNo Comments
Today, we have 37 hot hatches listed in AutoZine’s rating page, more than any other time in history, even eclipsing the hot hatches era in the mid to late 80s. From Volkswagen Lupo GTI to BMW 325ti Compact, we can choose whatever kind of hot hatches we like. However, it is also amazing that nearly all of these so-called hot hatches are not real hot hatches. Some are over-weight, some are over-priced, some are inert to steer, and worst of all, most understeer.
Among them, only Peugeot 106 GTI and MG ZR160 still qualify to be hot hatches. It is not just coincident that both cars were born some years ago - the Peugeot is even close to 10 years old now. What does this mean ? it means car makers have adjusted their definition of hot hatches. Not to blame them, we can only rethink why the majority of car buyers demand safe-to-handle and ease-of-driving manner from what supposed to deliver ultimate fun. This is not a new issue, as many hard-core enthusiasts have already criticized.
What I really want to point out is another new trend further ruining hot hatches - Tall Body. Having read reports about Peugeot 307, you may notice that tall body did downgrade the handling of a good platform. The 307 is still capable to play lift-off oversteer just like any other good Peugeot, this proves that engineers did care about its handling. You should also notice that it shares the same suspension design as the 306, so why doesn’t it perform as well in the new car ? Damper technologies can only be improved. Stronger chassis can only improve handling. So what’s wrong with the Peugeot ?
The common trend of family hatch is to increase headroom while offering a higher seating position. This means taller roof and higher center of gravity. From 306 to 307, from old Fiesta to new Fiesta, center of gravity is lifted considerably. At the same time, suspension design remains the same front strut plus rear torsion-beam, which has virtually no space for improvement. To counter body roll, stiffening springs and dampers seemed the only solution, this result in poorer ride quality. This is the problem 307XSi facing exactly. It rides really hard.
If you have study our Technical School, you will see higher center of gravity leads to more weight transfer during cornering. This result in reduced grip and balance, and the suspension setting has nothing to do with it. Taking elk test into account, car makers must introduce more understeer into the suspension geometry to avoid roll-over when the car change direction suddenly. Peugeot product development chief Bruno de Guiber told Autocar recently that it is impossible to make a new hatch steer as keen as 205GTI because it would not pass elk test. Tall body design will just make this worse.
This seems very negative, because in the foreseeing future new hatches will be taller and taller. Following the retirement of 106GTI and MG ZR160, we can say good-bye to the real hot hatch era and say welcome to the pseudo hot hatch era. By then, we can only enjoy ultimate driving fun in roadsters.
Mark Wan
Note: The editorial is reproduced from the Feb 2002 Issue of AutoZine. All Rights Reserved.
Fri 7 Jul 2006
Posted by Mark Wan under
EditorialNo Comments
12 years ago, I read an article in Autocar regarding the revolution of diesel engines. It foresaw the increasing popularity of diesel and the fast improvement of performance, refinement and emission. Autocar picked the contemporary BMW 325td engine as an example - the turbocharged 6-cylinder displaced 2.5 litres and produced 115 horsepower, matching the output of a low-end 3-series petrol. Today, we might not understand why that was regarded as a revolution, because the progress of diesel technology during these 12 years was even bigger. Now we are starting to compare the output of diesel and petrol engines of the SAME displacement, not just in terms of the usually-acclaimed torque but also horsepower. Ford Focus TDCi needs just 1.8 litres and four cylinders to produce the same 115hp as the old 325td. BMW itself is even more impressive - the new 320d generates 150hp out of 2 litres, making it more efficient than its own Valvetronic-and-Bi-Vanos 2-litre petrol. Volkswagen’s pump injection even achieves 150hp from 1.9 litres, although it has drawback on turbo lag and noise.
Common-rail injection technology is leading us into the Diesel Era, an era in which most family cars, executive sedans, MPVs, on/offroaders are powered by diesel. Right now, one-third of new cars sold in Europe are already diesel cars. If the trend is to continue, if not accelerate, 10 to 20 years later petrol engines will be reserved for sports cars only. We might even see a M-badged BMW diesel, just like what AMG is doing in Stuttgart. Undoubtedly, the trend is going to be accelerated by the introduction of “second-generation” common-rail diesel, which has been serving the aforementioned Focus TDCi and 320d. By increasing injection pressure from 1350 to 1600 bar, the new system enables finer fuel spray hence more efficient combustion. It also applies “multi-jet” to cool cylinder head, hence avoiding knock and reducing noise. It seems that under the competition of second-generation common-rail VW’s pump injection technology will be eventually phased out. In fact, no one else goes the pump-injection route. If not Volkswagen group’s substantial buying power, I’m afraid Bosch will no longer produce pump injection system for it.
Admittedly, diesel engines will never match petrol for power efficiency, as measured by power-to-weight ratio. While a 150hp petrol 2-litre engine is normally aspirated, BMW 320d needs a variable geometry turbocharger, an intercooler and a sophisticated injection system. Therefore I said sports cars will still favor petrol engines for their weight and weight distribution advantage. Also because of their instantaneous response. However, the advantage is reducing quickly as common-rail diesel is gaining efficiency much faster than petrol. 12 years ago, a 2-litre 16V engine produced about 140hp, virtually unchanged until today (though gained a little bit more torque). During the same period, turbo diesel gained about 50% power. Now I am predicting within this decade we can see some good diesel engines breaking the 100hp/litre barrier. Can you believe ?
Mark Wan
Note: The editorial is preproduced from the January 2002 issue of AutoZine. All Rights Reserved.
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