Month: August 2013

I’m Invincible In my Car

How many times have you sat at a red light and imagined gunmen spilling out from the back of a van and spraying your car with high velocity rounds? I know, all too often, right?

Well I have a solution that’ll leave the gunmen scratching the top of their balaclavas and you with a smug grin on your face.

Picture the Royal family in their Rolls Royce, the President in a stretched Cadillac or the Pope in his silly white cubicle car and you’ll know what I’m on about – armoured cars.

So unless you are royalty, the leader of a country, a religious figurehead, or a gangster rapper, here’s what you would have to consider if you were to go about turning your car into a impenetrable fortress.

I’ll cover the important upgrades:

Tyres:

To escape gunmen in a car you’ll obviously need a tyre that will take a few rounds. The answer is pretty simple: Run Flat Tire Inserts. These assure continued operation of the car despite ballistic impacts and prevent a total tire blowout.

The system used by the U.S. government is comprised from lightweight, high strength polyester elastomers that make up the roller and a runner. The runner is securely attached to the wheel in the drop centre, and provides a track or channel in which the roller is allowed to move or “rotate” about the wheel at the same speed as the tyre, thus reducing friction and heat build up.

Windows:

Bulletproof lightweight glass-clad polycarbonate is used as multi-hit protection against those pesky bullets. The glass is seamed, edged and finished using a proprietary quality process that provides unprecedented UV and delamination resistance. All glass features excellent ballistic protection and superior optical quality with very minimal distortion.

Below you can see types of rounds and the velocities taken into consideration when building an armoured car.

Fuel Tank:

This is one component you wouldn’t want punctured. Although a stray bullet is unlikely to cause an explosion (I saw this proven on TV program), a fuel tank resembling a piece of Swiss cheese will leave you stranded. A bullet proof fuel tank features a flame retardant coating, self sealing polymeric foam, insulating foam, and a Kevlar or ballistic wrap.

Bomb Proof Floor:

You can’t be too careful; whilst you are throwing your car around like Ken Block, trying to avoid gunfire, you may have missed the grenades rolling under your car. A bomb proof floor is comprised of multiple layers of Kevlar fabric that’s stitched together rather than bonded under heat, enabling the Vehicle Fragmentation Blanket more flexibility with a blast impact.

Body Panels/Doors:

Depending on the level of protection – bullets or bombs – there are various materials that can be used for a car’s body and door panels.

As I’m avoiding bullets, a wise choice would be Kevlar armour panels. They are very durable, light and easy to install. Because they are so light as opposed to heavy bomb proof steel panels, you don’t have to go crazy upgrading your brakes and engine to cope with the added weight.

Flame Thrower:

This is a little extra, an after thought inspired by a movie. To distract any menacing gunmen, give them a few licks of fire to deal with.

How To Make A Granny Sleeper Missile

I’ve become a little obsessed with the sleeper car since watching Farm Truck from Street Outlaws out perform some pretty stiff competition.

This led me to thinking about what other cars would make unsuspecting sleeper cars. Nothing quite says ‘granny’ than the late 80s Nissan Bluebird. After a little research and luck (Nissan actually attached a turbo to this thing and called it the ZX Turbo), I discovered it would be quite easy to create a 0-60-mph in 6.5-secs granny missile.

That sounds rather optimistic, but considering the 1.8-L ZX Turbo possessed 140-bhp and the car itself weighed in at around 1200-KGs, what’s achievable with a little tweaking is pretty plausible. I tried comparing it with something a little younger and came across the Saxo VTS. I owned one of these fantastic pocket rockets, and it was quick. From its 1.6-L 120-bhp engine, it could hit 60-mph in a little over 7 seconds. It weighed in at just over a ton, but considering the Bluebird has the extra 20-bhp and a turbo, the 6.5 second figure could be achieved.

So basically, you want to take this:

Play around with this:

This is where a cold air intake comes in. Depending on budget, you could go further and fit a slightly bigger exhaust for better flow, but ensure it is well hidden so as to avoid being sprung as a sleeper.

You want to contain all the mods underneath, hidden and out of sight. The owner of this particular Bluebird installed a manual boost controller, and I’ve heard over 250-bhp can be hit, although for the size and weight, around 160-bhp is plenty to have fun with.

After all is done, remove all the ZX and Turbo badges or decals. Remove any sporty trim and try and replace with standard boring trim. You could even sell the alloys and fit standard wheels with dull trims.

Hopefully you’ll end up with something like this:

Probably one of the dullest looking cars on the road, but able to see off a modern hot hatch at the lights. Let the fun commence…

Lamborghini Finally Create A Countach Equal

We all know Lamborghini are the brand to beat when it comes to designing a car equivalent of Hannibal Lector, but since the mighty Countach in the late seventies, their cars – although still maniac serial killer machines – lost some of the Countach’s originality. Lamborghini set the bar so high, they shot themselves in the foot, as even they couldn’t create an equal with the Diablo. The world was shocked when the Countach hit the roads, but every car since has been expected to be a little crazy.

Well now Lamborghini have designed a car worthy of Countach status in design concept, originality and flare. In fact, I’m not even sure it’s a car – front on it resembles something from Battle Star Galactica.

Meet the Egoista, it’s name translated as ‘selfish’. It’s monstrous, it’s ugly, it’s anti-social, it runs on the blood from stillborn kittens… it possesses all the facets of a true Lamborghini.

Hats off to you Lambo; you’ve created a monster.

But hang on… this is a concept, so I guess this doesn’t really count yet.

That’s fine, as Lamborghini have gone mental with the Aventador’s blue prints and designed the Veneno, an equally and disgustingly radical hypercar. It’s $4.6M and only three are being made, a 50th anniversary celebration of Lamborghini. Even if I won the lottery I wouldn’t be able to buy one as they are all taken.

Ah well, here she is:

Car Surfing Ride Of The Day

I’ve been at it again; whilst I should be writing interesting automotive articles, I’ve wasted a good two hours car surfing, going from Reliant Scimitars to retro Audis. What I spent the most time drooling over is this sexy, hot, perfect example of the legendary Quattro. Only 14K miles, and all in for £30K.

Check out her other steamy pictures on Piston Heads

Goldie or Gaudy?

Selecting a colour scheme for a vehicle can be difficult, even with colours that seemed made for each other, such as black and gold.

For someone such as Xzibit, a rapper who frequently “pimps peoples’ rides”, he managed to reduce his black Lamborghini Gallardo to a cheap marketing trinket that actual resembles a training shoe.

If you want to get it right, check out this fabulous Lotus F1 car circa 1986 below. This was Aryton Senna’s car, and here we see his nephew Bruno driving it.

Tip: Avoid making your car look like a training shoe.

How Will F1 Fare With New 1.6L Turbo Units?

2013 will say farewell to the 2.4L V8 engines, and although displacement is down to a tiny 1.6L, KERS will still be a main component in power supply in 2014. The FIA initially wanted the replacement engine to be a four-cylinder unit, but Ferrari complained about the terrible noise they made, and being close to Bernie Ecclestone (CEO of F1) **nudge, nudge, wink wink ** it was eventually agreed the V6 would be the choice.

Pictured above is the first image released by Mercedes-Benz for the engine they’ll be using in 2014. Like the aforementioned BMW M12/13 engines, this small displacement unit will be turbocharged. That being said, the hp figures will be half of the crazy eighties era at around 750-hp. It’s reported the engines will be high-pitched, and due to the turbo spooling at 125,000-rpm, it will be very loud. These engines also produce more torque, especially coming out of corners, so from a spectator view the sport should appear more exciting.

Throw in KERS with twice the previously regulated amount of power (80-hp for 6.7 secs upped to 161-hp for 33.3 secs) and you’ll be witnessing a true test and ability of modern science and technology.

The design and use of a completely different engine it a massive deal for an F1 team, from weight to placement, aerodynamics and a thousand other aspects. So it seems whoever is the most dominant in 2013, doesn’t necessarily guarantee success in 2014.

I’m looking forward to 2014 and can’t wait to hear the combined sound of all those turbo-powered beasts revving before the lights turn green.

Enzo Ferrari’s Modena Yellow

Being a huge Ferrari Scuderia fan, I must admit I did not know why Enzo Ferrari chose the colour yellow for the brand’s shield; but then I never questioned why the stallion made it on there either. I suppose the prancing stallion is to Ferrari what the playful puppy is to Andrex – you just don’t always question these things.

Well now I know the reasons why (the colour yellow and the stallion, not the puppy). Take a read of the excerpt below and let Enzo explain:

When in ’23 I won the first Circuito del Savio, raced in Ravenna, I met Earl Enrico Baracca, father of the hero; from that encounter another one, with the mother Countess Paolina, followed. She was the one who told me, one day: “Ferrari, put on your cars my son’s prancing horse, it will bring you good luck”. I still keep Baracca’s photography with his parents’ inscription, where they entrust me with the emblem. The Horse was black and it stayed so; I added the canary yellow background, that is Modena’s colour.

I love Ferrari that much more now.

Jamie McMurray’s Paint Scheme For Pure Michigan 400

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing has announced their partnership with the new fast-acting Advil and will display their new paint scheme at the Michigan International Speedway. Jamie McMurray and his No.1 Chevrolet will line up for the Pure Michigan 400 on Sunday, August 18. Advil, a brand millions have used for more than a quarter of a century, will be introducing their new film-coated and fast acting tablets, which will be available in stores beginning August 19.

Photo – Jayski.com

Gargling Gas

Because cars have feelings too…

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