Fuel Saving Tips

To characterize the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren as a stunning piece of engineering would be a tremendous understatement. Developed jointly between the respective automotive powerhouses, the SLR Mclaren is a shining example of automotive design. It was manufactured, in part, in Portsmouth and Woking, England. Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes, also has a significant stake in the McLaren Group. Therefore, it seems it was only a matter of time before the two companies would join forces.

The SLR McLaren boasts the fastest automatic transmission of any sports car anywhere in the entire world to date. The initials SLR stand for “Sport, Leicht, Rennsport,” which translate from German as “sport, light, racing.” Over the course of seven years, Mercedes announced it would only build 3,500 models, translating roughly to 500 cars a year. At approximately $495,000 base price, it will be the rare millionaire that can afford one.

The Mercedes SLR McLaren enjoys carbon-ceramic brake pads, which are capable of providing superior stopping power. The company claims that these discs happen to be fade resistant to a temperature of 1,200 degrees Celsius. The front disc brakes are 370 mm in diameter and are internally vented. Eight piston calipers are used. In the rear, the discs are 360 mm in diameter and four piston calipers are used. When conditions on the roadways are wet, the calipers automatically skim the discs’ surfaces to keep them dry. There is an automatic air brake that ultimately improves braking performance. When this brake is engaged, the rear spoiler assumes a 65 degree elevation angle.

The supercharged, hand-built 5.4 liter V-8 engine boasts a compression ratio of 8.8:1. The engine bore is 97 millimeters while the stroke is 92 millimeters. The engine puts out a maximum power of 626 PS at 6,500 revolutions each minute. The engine of the SLR McLaren is front-mid mounted. McLaren thought that they would take the original concept of the car, which was designed by Mercedes, and modify it by moving the engine 1 meter behind the front bumper and approximately 50 centimeters behind the front axle.

A carbon fiber body has kept the SLR’s total weight remarkably low. Tests have shown that the SLR is able to achieve a 0-60 mph in a time that was really under the claimed 3.8 seconds, and the car reached a maximum velocity of 208 mph. Car and Driver actually achieved a 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds and a quarter-mile time was equal to 11.6 seconds at the velocity of 125 mph. It is hard to believe that in the category of luxury cars, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren sports car was able to reach such incredible speeds in such a short amount of time. Used cars for sale seldom include this exemplar of engineering and craftsmanship.

The allure of a Porsche, any Porsche, is hard to resist. But none are as hard to resist as the mighty Porsche 911. The distinctive design alone marks it as a truly unique vehicle. Since the first beauties rolled off the assembly line in 1963 it has enjoyed the wanton advances of countless sports car enthusiasts. From racers to celebrities to powerful corporate types, the 911 has always delivered on its promise to deliver stunning appeal and superior performance. Sounds like jive, to be sure, but sometimes to the truth is just that: jive.

The first series of 911s were air-cooled. Now, although I’m not a died-in-the-wool car aficionado, I have to admit anything labeled “air-cooled” sounds cool. It just means as the engine heats up on the highway, the only thing keeping it from overheating is the air that it breathes. Like the Hollies. This reduced the overall weight of the car and made for great pick-up-and-go. I realize there is no such category amongst those in the know, so how about we call it “responsiveness.”

As gas skyrocketed during the Carter administration, and the United States began to court the lowly 4-cylinder engine, Porsche introduced the 912. No one panic — you haven’t heard of it for a good reason. The 912 was nothing more than a 356, 4-cylinder engine packed into a distinctive 911 body. For all intent and purposes they could have just called it the 911 4-cylinder. Regardless, this kept Porsche competitive in the dog-eat-dog U.S. auto market.

Porsche stretched the overall length of the chassis in 1969 to improve high-speed traction and handling. To bolster torque and power, Porsche introduced the popular 911T engine. It was a 2.4-liter engine that gelled well with a stronger transmission, leading to the distinctive H pattern gearbox that put first gear in the upper left corner and third in the upper right. The gear shift would never be the same again.

Though 1974 enjoyed its share of failures, like Ten Cent Beer Night and Cleveland Municipal Stadium (nothing like baseball players fending off a riot with bats), it did see the first turbo-charged 911. The engine as bumped up to 3.0-liter and man alive, the rest was driving history. In fact, Automobile Magazine voted the Porsche 911 the second “Coolest Car” in history. Not a bad deal for a car that constitutes a used car. For sale or lease, a Porsche never disappoints. Until it ends up in the shop.

Before the Eagle had landed, the Soviets had threatened to dominate space. When the Soviet Space Program successfully sent Sputnik into orbit in 1957, the so-called free world was in a panic. Congress reacted with swiftness reserved for a national crisis. Indeed, for many Americans, the perceived superiority of the Soviet program was tantamount to a crisis. President Eisenhower moved quickly to establish both NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1958.

With its motto declaring “For the Benefit of All,” NASA moved quickly, launching the Explorer 1 satellite on January 31, 1958. Led by the former head of the German rocket program, Wernher von Braun, NASA immediately began to explore the possibility of sending human beings into space. Dubbed Project Mercury, this program involved seven original astronauts, of whom, Alan Shepard became the first American into space, while John Glenn would become the first American to orbit the earth.

With the Space Race essentially in hand, NASA began implementing a new tracking system, called the Global Positioning System (GPS). The system involved the use of satellites to track the position and location of both spacecraft and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Initially developed by the Navy, the first successful GPS tracking system was dubbed Transit, and used five satellites to triangulate positions around the globe.

For decades the GPS system was classified and reserved only for military and governmental use. Then, in 1983, a Soviet interceptor aircraft shot down the civilian Korean Air airliner KAL 007, killing all 269 people on board. The plane had strayed into Soviet airspace and although the Soviet had probable cause to destroy the perceived threat, it was determined had the airliner had accurate navigational systems, the tragedy could have been avoided. President Ronald Reagan subsequently announced that civilians and civilian agencies should have access to the GPS tracking systems.

Now, most people couldnt find their front door without a GPS system (usually in their cellphones). It has become an integral part of modern 21st Century culture. Not only has it become the preeminent navigational system for cars, but the scientific community has used it to track wild and domestic animals and migration patterns. Law enforcement uses GPS tracking to find stolen cars and keep tabs on criminals on bail or probation. Now, not only can someone find where they are on a city grid, but also he or she can find nearby businesses and restaurants. The uses, and the wonders, never end.

If asked about Arthur C. Clarke chances are the average person would shoot you a blank stare. If you then played the opening bars of Strausss Thus Spoke Zarathustra and mentioned Stanley Kubrick, you may actually get a flicker of recognition. If you spoke the famous line, Open the pod bay doors, HAL! you could well get a smile and a Right ” yeah!

Such is the relative obscurity most science fiction writers, even writers as esteemed as Clarke, toil under. Although venerated within select circles, authors like Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov, are seldom celebrated or recognized by the culture at large. Literary or even cultural obscurity is one thing, but to fail to recognize a scientific breakthrough is shameful.

The awareness of Clarke as a great writer is one thing, but his real, scientific contributions are another. Few people are aware of the fact he pioneered the concept upon which modern global satellite communication is based. Having served in the Royal Air Force from 1941 through 1946 as a radar instructor and technician, Clarke first proposed the idea of a satellite-based communications system in 1945. He proposed geostationary satellites could be used as telecommunication relays in a paper entitled Extra-Terrestrial Relays, which was published in Wireless World in 1945.

It is hard to fathom the profound affect his simple idea has had on our daily lives, especially with regards to GPS tracking systems. It is easy to take the technology that makes cellphones and instant driving directions possible for granted. By triangulating a receiver on a phone or GPS device, satellites can pinpoint our location and lead us, as it were, to the Promised Land. A bit much to ask of a cellphone? Perhaps.

It is a testament to his genius that he could envisioned the potential of the satellite well before the computer was little more than conjecture. He claimed the idea came from his experience with radar systems, wherein objects and their direction and trajectory can be accessed by the bounce effect of radar waves off metallic objects. GPS tracking systems and wireless telecommunications work on the same principle of deflected and directed waves, all triangulated by the sea of satellites orbiting the earth. A great debt is owed to this bold visionary.