Pegaso Z-102
The Pegaso Z-102 is a Spanish sports car produced by Pegaso in Spain in both coupé and cabriolet form from 1951 until 1958. The Z-102 was the fastest car in the world at the time of production, having reached a top speed of . Background Pegaso was an established company noted for its trucks and motor coaches, but also produced sports cars for seven years. Pegaso's chief technical manager was Wifredo Ricart who formerly worked as chief engineer for Alfa Romeo, and while there designed the Alfa Romeo Tipo 512. The Z-102 started life as a pair of prototypes in 1951 with coupe and drophead body styles. Both prototypes had steel bodies which were determined to be too heavy and Pegaso made the decision to switch to alloy bodies to reduce weight. However, the cars were still quite heavy and brutish to drive and racing success was virtually nonexistent. Because the cars were built on a cost-no-object basis the car soon proved too costly to warrant continued production and the Z-102 was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pegaso
Pegaso (, "Pegasus") was a Spanish manufacturer of trucks, buses, tractors, armored vehicles, and, for a while, to train apprentices, and have a good brand image, some sports cars. The parent company, Enasa, was created in 1946 and based in the old Hispano-Suiza factory, under the direction of the renowned automotive engineer Wifredo Ricart. In 1990, Iveco took over Enasa, and the Pegaso name became a secondary brand of Iveco. Enasa, a state-owned company, had its main business interest in the truck and bus market. Pegaso became one of the leading European industrial vehicle makers, with significant exports to both Europe and Latin America; the Benelux, Venezuela, and Cuba were its major foreign markets, and a substantial contract to supply tactical trucks to the Egyptian Army was signed in the late 1970s. The main Enasa factories were located in Barcelona, Madrid, and Valladolid. Between 1946 and 1990, Pegaso built more than 350,000 vehicles; the highest production in a sin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Coupé
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past participle of , "cut". Some coupé cars only have two seats, while some also feature rear seats. However, these rear seats are usually lower quality and much smaller than those in the front. Furthermore, "A fixed-top two-door sports car would be best and most appropriately be termed a 'sports coupe' or 'sports coupé'". __TOC__ Etymology and pronunciation () is based on the past participle of the French verb ("to cut") and thus indicates a car which has been "cut" or made shorter than standard. It was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. These or ("clipped carriages") were eventually clipping (phonetics), clipped to .. There are two common pronunciations in English: * () ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Watt's Linkage
A Watt's linkage is a type of mechanical linkage invented by James Watt in which the central moving point of the linkage is constrained to travel a nearly straight path. Watt's described the linkage in his patent specification of 1784 for the Watt steam engine. Today it is used in automobile suspensions, where it is key to a suspension's kinematics, i.e., its motion properties, constraining the vehicle axle's movement to nearly vertical travel while also limiting horizontal motion. Description Watt's linkage consists of three bars bolted together in a chain. The chain of bars consists of two end bars and a middle bar. The middle bar is bolted at each of its ends to one of the ends of each outer bar. The two outer bars are of equal length, and are longer than the middle bar. The three bars can pivot around the two bolts. The outer endpoints of the long bars are fixed in place relative to each other, but otherwise the three bars are free to pivot around the two joints where t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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De Dion Tube
De Dion rear axle A de Dion axle is a form of non-independent automobile suspension. It is a considerable improvement over the swing axle, Hotchkiss drive, or live axle. Because it plays no part in transmitting power to the drive wheels, it is sometimes called a "dead axle".Setright, p.515. A powered de Dion suspension uses universal joints on both ends of its driveshafts (at the wheel hubs and at the differential), and a solid tubular beam to hold the opposite wheels in parallel. Unlike an anti-roll bar, a de Dion tube is not directly connected to the chassis, and is not intended to flex. In suspension geometry it is a beam axle suspension. History The de Dion axle was named after Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, founder of French automobile manufacturer De Dion-Bouton. The axle, however, was invented around 1894 by co-founder Charles Trépardoux, Georges Bouton's brother-in-law, for use on the company's steam tricycles. G.N. Georgano, p. 27. Advantages and disadvantages ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lightening Holes
Lightening holes are holes in structural components of machines and buildings used by a variety of engineering disciplines to make structures lighter. The edges of the hole may be flanged to increase the rigidity and strength of the component. The holes can be circular, triangular, elliptical, or rectangular and should have rounded edges, but they should never have sharp corners, to avoid the risk of stress risers, and they must not be too close to the edge of a structural component. Usage Aviation Lightening holes are often used in the aviation industry. This allows an aircraft to be as lightweight as possible, retaining the durability and airworthiness of the aircraft structure. Maritime Lightening holes have also been used in marine engineering to increase seaworthiness of the vessel. Motorsports Lightening holes became a prominent feature of motor racing in the 1920s and 1930s. Chassis members, suspension components, engine housings and even connecting rods were dril ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Production Car Speed Record
This is a list of the world's record-breaking top speeds achieved by street-legal production cars (as opposed to concept cars or modified cars). For the purposes of this list eligible cars are defined in the below list of rules. This list uses a different definition to the List of automotive superlatives. The variation is because the term production car is otherwise undefined. List rules Because of the inconsistencies with the various definitions of production cars, dubious claims by manufacturers and self-interest groups, and inconsistent or changing application of the definitions this list has a defined set of requirements. For further explanation of how these were arrived at see the talk pages of both this article and the above link. After the Koenigsegg Agera RS was found not eligible for this list since only 11 cars had engines rated higher than 865 kW, the former 25 car minimum was dropped and replaced with new rules based on suggestions by Koenigsegg PR manager Steve ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Engines
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power generation), heat energy (e.g. geothermal), chemical energy, electric potential and nuclear energy (from nuclear fission or nuclear fusion). Many of these processes generate heat as an intermediate energy form; thus heat engines have special importance. Some natural processes, such as atmospheric convection cells convert environmental heat into motion (e.g. in the form of rising air currents). Mechanical energy is of particular importance in transportation, but also plays a role in many industrial processes such as cutting, grinding, crushing, and mixing. Mechanical heat engines convert heat into work via various thermodynamic processes. The internal combustion engine is perhaps the most common example of a mechanical heat engine in which he ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Poppet Valve
A poppet valve (also sometimes called mushroom valve) is a valve typically used to control the timing and quantity of petrol (gas) or vapour flow into or out of an engine, but with many other applications. It consists of a hole or open-ended chamber, usually round or oval in cross-section, and a plug, usually a disk shape on the end of a shaft known as a valve stem. The working end of this plug, the valve face, is typically ground at a 45° bevel to seal against a corresponding valve seat ground into the rim of the chamber being sealed. The shaft travels through a valve guide to maintain its alignment. A pressure differential on either side of the valve can assist or impair its performance. In exhaust applications higher pressure against the valve helps to seal it, and in intake applications lower pressure helps open it. Etymology The word poppet shares etymology with "puppet": it is from the Middle English ''popet'' ("youth" or "doll"), from Middle French ''poupette'', whic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Desmodromic Valve
:''In general mechanical terms, the word ''desmodromic'' is used to refer to mechanisms that have different controls for their actuation in different directions.'' A desmodromic valve is a reciprocating engine poppet valve that is positively closed by a cam and leverage system, rather than by a more conventional spring. The valves in a typical four-stroke engine allow the air/fuel mixture into the cylinder (engine), cylinder at the beginning of the cycle and exhaust spent gases at the end of the cycle. In a conventional four-stroke engine, valves are opened by a cam and closed by return spring. A desmodromic valve has two cams and two actuators, for positive opening and closing without a return spring. Etymology The word comes from the Greek language, Greek words ''desmos'' (, translated as "bond" or "knot") and ''dromos'' (, "track" or "way"). This denotes the major characteristic of the valves being continuously "bound" to the camshaft. Idea The common valve spring system is s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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DOHC
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine in which the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion chamber in the engine block. ''Single overhead camshaft'' (SOHC) engines have one camshaft per bank of cylinders. ''Dual overhead camshaft'' (DOHC, also known as "twin-cam") engines have two camshafts per bank. The first production car to use a DOHC engine was built in 1910. Use of DOHC engines slowly increased from the 1940s, leading to many automobiles by the early 2000s using DOHC engines. Design In an OHC engine, the camshaft is located at the top of the engine, above the combustion chamber. This contrasts the earlier overhead valve engine (OHV) and flathead engine configurations, where the camshaft is located down in the engine block. The valves in both OHC and OHV engines are located above the combustion chamber; however ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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V8 Engine
A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, and built in 1904 by the French Antoinette company for use in speedboat racing, cars, and later, airplanes. Also in 1904, V8 engines began small-scale production by Renault and Buchet for use in race cars. Design V-angle Most engines use a V-angle (the angle between the two banks of cylinders) of 90 degrees. This angle results in good engine balance, which results in low vibrations. However, the downside is the greater width of the engine compared to those that use a smaller V-angle. V8 engines with a 60-degree V-angle were used in the 1996–1999 Ford Taurus SHO, the 2005–2011 Volvo XC90, and the 2006–2009 Volvo S80. The Ford engine used a 60-degree V-angle because it was based on a V6 engine with a 60-degree V-angle. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within city limits,Barcelona: Población por municipios y sexo – Instituto Nacional de Estadística. (National Statistics Institute) its urban area extends to numerous neighbouring municipalities within the province of Barcelona and is home to around 5.3 million people, making it the fifth most populous ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |