Обзоры лучших машин

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This year’s SAE World Congress was kicked off with a rousing speech by someone many of the engineers in the room may have wanted to throw vegetables at, California’s CO2-reducer-in-chief, Governator A. Schwarzenegger. By way of conciliation he conceded that perhaps Detroit hadn’t enjoyed as much regulatory support as it could have used in developing high-efficiency cars, and he concluded (about an hour late) with an offer to produce commercials for the Detroit Three’s green cars free of charge. Thanks, awfully. Once the hot air dissipated, we set out to uncover the hidden gems of future tech that always lie hidden amongst the booths of gaskets, seals, and hard-candy dishes.

Vengeance Power! SAE often serves as a launching pad for unconventional engines, most of which boast immense improvements in efficiency (what else would be the point?), and this rotary-vane design is no exception. Some of the basic advantages are shared with the Wankel rotary: intake and combustion happen in different places, reducing the chance of heat-related predetonation; there are fewer moving parts, because simple intake and exhaust porting means no valves are needed; and operation is inherently smooth, because no parts ever have to stop and reverse direction like pistons do. But the Vengeance design uses a round rotating element out of which eight vanes roll to follow the vaguely oval outer wall of the intake/compression/combustion/exhaust chamber.

The vanes are driven in and out of the spinning rotor by rollers tracing a path that just keeps their seals in contact with the chamber walls, which supposedly results in far less friction than in a piston engine of similar displacement. One of the big advantages claimed is the shape of the combustion chamber, which is designed to allow considerably more time for the exploding gasses to expand, extracting far more of the heat value from the fuel, all of which is expended on a vane that remains perpendicular to the output shaft to extract the work efficiently. How efficiently? Up to a claimed 53 percent when running on gasoline. Interchangeable combustion chamber bowls can quickly alter the compression ratio, allowing the engine to run on almost any combustible fuel, even syngas or hydrogen (which requires ceramic seals). Because the explosion has time to end before the exhaust port is exposed, far less noise and heat flows out the tailpipe.

Torque of the 640-cube eight-vane prototype is rated at 2500 pound-feet-plus over most of the low operating speed range of the engine, with power peaking at 551 hp at 1200 rpm. At a claimed weight of only 300 pounds it’s a dense power unit, and indeed the greatest interest to date has been for use as a pusher-prop airplane engine. It could also be an ideal tank engine, but the Windsor, Ontario-based Vengeance Power engineers say that with a 5:1 up-ratio, it could also drive a car through a conventional transmission burning whatever fuel was most advantageous. It’s a concept we’ll keep a keen eye on as development progresses.

The Monterey Car Weekend was founded around two primary events: the Rolex Historic Automobile Races held at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on the hallowed 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach Golf Course. With the 2008 event weekend having come to a close, we bring you a selection of some of our favorite automobiles from the three days of fun at the track and on the links. From vintage racecars to classic touring machines, there’s something for everyone. Enjoy.

1912 Franklin Torpedo Phaeton
The air-cooled Franklin was a natural for desert racing as it faced no boil-over problems in heavy use, and in 1912 Los Angeles Franklin dealer Ralph Hamlin entered a race-prepped Torpedo Phaeton along with 12 other cars in the Los Angeles to Phoenix race. The 5064cc straight-six engine made 50 hp at 2300 rpm and propelled Hamlin to victory in an elapsed time of 18 hours 10 minutes 22 seconds. That original car later burned, but this one was reconstructed to the exact same specs in San Diego in the 1960s, and has been vintage-raced extensively since.

1916 National
National built cars in Indianapolis from 1900 to 1924, starting out in the electric car business, but switching to gasoline power when Arthur Newby took over as president. Newby was among the four founders of the Indianapolis Speedway, where the firm won the 1912 race at an average speed of 78.72 mph with a 490-cubic-inch four-cylinder (that car still holds the record as having the largest engine to win Indy). This one is powered by a 303-cu-in six with an aluminum crankcase and bodywork, iron cylinders, and wooden wheels. Its restoration was completed in 1999 and it has seen a lot of vintage racing action in the years since.

1932 Studebaker Indy Car
This number 118 car was one of five the Studebaker factory fielded in the 1932 and 1933 Indy 500 races powered by 336-cu-in straight-8s from the President line of luxury sedans. The running gear was all from stock Studebaker vehicles while the body and frame were purpose built by Herming Rigling of Indianapolis. Producing 200 hp, they were able to reach 140+ mph in the day. After 450 miles of racing in 1932 this one was ranked 7th when it blew a tire, slipping to a 12th-place finish.

1957 Townsend Typhoon
This car is literally a high-school study-hall doodle come to life. Frank Townsend, a Tucson, AZ student sketched the design in pencil and with help from a few friends built a Masonite and plaster buck from which the body was laid up and fitted to an Olds-powered Plymouth chassis. The front looks like an oversized angry ‘56 Corvette (though he drew it in 1954), and the rear features Cunningham inspired fins with holes drilled to bleed out high-pressure air that builds up behind the tires. Townsend appears to have been quite the accidental aerodynamicist, as the current owner reports the body exhibits laminar flow, which undoubtedly helps explain a top-speed-trial ticket from 1957 showing the car achieved 153 mph. The current owner rescued the rusting hulk from a field and restored it with Townsend’s help starting in 1999)