Flathead engine
A flathead engine, otherwise sidevalve engine, is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the engine block, instead of in the cylinder head, as in an overhead valve engine. Flatheads are an early design concept that has fallen into disuse, but they are experiencing a revival in low-revving aero-engines such as the D-Motor; the valve gear comprises a camshaft sited low in the cylinder block which operates the poppet valves via tappets and short pushrods. The flathead system obviates the need for further valvetrain components such as lengthy pushrods, rocker arms, overhead valves or overhead camshafts; the sidevalves are adjacent, sited on one side of the cylinder. In a T-head engine, the exhaust gases leave on the opposite side of the cylinder from the intake valve; the sidevalve engine's combustion chamber is not to the side, above the valves. The spark plug may be sited above the valves. "Pop-up" pistons are so called. The advantages of a sidevalve engine include: simplicity, low part count, low cost, low weight, responsive low-speed power, low mechanical engine noise, insensitivity to low-octane fuel.
The absence of a complicated valvetrain allows a compact engine, cheap to manufacture, since the cylinder head may be little more than a simple metal casting. These advantages explain why side valve engines were used for economy cars and agricultural engines for many years, while OHV designs came to be specified only for high-performance applications such as aircraft, luxury cars, sports cars, some motorcycles. At top dead centre, the piston gets close to the flat portion of the cylinder head above, the resultant squish turbulence produces excellent fuel/air mixing. A feature of the sidevalve design is that if a valve should seize in its guide and remain open, the piston would not be damaged, the engine would continue operating safely on its other cylinders; the main disadvantages of a sidevalve engine are poor gas flow, poor combustion chamber shape, low compression ratio, all of which result in a low-revving engine with low power output and low efficiency. Because sidevalve engines do not burn the fuel they suffer from high hydrocarbon emissions.
Sidevalve engines can only be used for engines operating on the Otto principle, the combustion chamber shape is unsuitable for Diesel engines. In a sidevalve engine and exhaust gases follow a circuitous route, with low volumetric efficiency, or "poor breathing", not least because the exhaust gases interfere with the incoming charge; because the exhaust follows a lengthy path to leave the engine, there is a tendency for the engine to overheat. Although a sidevalve engine can safely operate at high speed, its volumetric efficiency swiftly deteriorates, so that high power outputs are not feasible at speed. High volumetric efficiency was less important for early cars because their engines sustained extended high speeds, but designers seeking higher power outputs had to abandon the sidevalve. A compromise used by the Willys Jeep, Rover and Rolls-Royce in the 1950s was the "F-head", which has one sidevalve and one overhead valve per cylinder; the flathead's elongated combustion chamber is prone to preignition if compression ratio is increased, but improvements such as laser ignition or microwave enhanced ignition might help prevent knocking.
Turbulence grooves may increase swirl inside the combustion chamber, thus increasing torque at low rpm. Better mixing of the fuel/air charge helps to prevent knocking. An advance in flathead technology resulted from experimentation in the 1920s by Sir Harry Ricardo, who improved their efficiency after studying the gas-flow characteristics of sidevalve engines; the difficulty in designing a high-compression-ratio flathead means that most tend to be spark-ignition designs. The sidevalve arrangement was common in the United States and used for motor vehicle engines for engines with high specific power output. Sidevalve designs are still common for many small single-cylinder or twin-cylinder engines, such as lawnmowers, two-wheel tractors and other basic farm machinery. Multicylinder flathead engines were used for cars such as the Ford Model T, the Ford flathead V8 engine and the Ford Sidevalve engine. Cadillac produced V-16 flathead engines for their Series 90 luxury cars from 1938–1940. After WWII, flathead designs began to be superseded by ohv designs.
Flatheads were no longer common in cars, but they continued in more rudimentary vehicles such as off-road military Jeeps. In US custom car and hot rod circles, restored examples of early Ford flathead V8s are still seen; the simplicity, lightness and reliability might seem ideal for an aero-engine, but because of their low efficiency, early flathead engines were deemed unsuitable. Two notable exceptions were the American Aeronca E-107 opposed twin aero engine of 1930 and the Continental A40 flat four of 1931, which became one of the most popular light aircraft engines of the 1930s. Two modern flatheads are the Belgian D-Motor flat-sixes; these are oversquare and compact aero
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, it was the longest and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is used as an example of how intensely the world's economy can decline; the Great Depression started in the United States after a major fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929, became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession; some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II; the Great Depression had devastating effects in countries both poor. Personal income, tax revenue and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%.
Unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities around the world were hit hard those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was halted in many countries. Farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few alternative sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Economic historians attribute the start of the Great Depression to the sudden devastating collapse of U. S. stock market prices on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. However, some dispute this conclusion and see the stock crash as a symptom, rather than a cause, of the Great Depression. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time. John D. Rockefeller said "These are days. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again." The stock market turned upward in early 1930. This was still 30% below the peak of September 1929.
Together and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the corresponding period of the previous year. On the other hand, many of whom had suffered severe losses in the stock market the previous year, cut back their expenditures by 10%. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S. By mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928. Prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930. A deflationary spiral started in 1931. Farmers faced a worse outlook. At its peak, the Great Depression saw nearly 10% of all Great Plains farms change hands despite federal assistance; the decline in the U. S. economy was the factor. Frantic attempts to shore up the economies of individual nations through protectionist policies, such as the 1930 U.
S. Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and retaliatory tariffs in other countries, exacerbated the collapse in global trade. By 1933, the economic decline had pushed world trade to one-third of its level just four years earlier. Change in economic indicators 1929–32 The two classical competing theories of the Great Depression are the Keynesian and the monetarist explanation. There are various heterodox theories that downplay or reject the explanations of the Keynesians and monetarists; the consensus among demand-driven theories is that a large-scale loss of confidence led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending. Once panic and deflation set in, many people believed they could avoid further losses by keeping clear of the markets. Holding money became profitable as prices dropped lower and a given amount of money bought more goods, exacerbating the drop in demand. Monetarists believe that the Great Depression started as an ordinary recession, but the shrinking of the money supply exacerbated the economic situation, causing a recession to descend into the Great Depression.
Economists and economic historians are evenly split as to whether the traditional monetary explanation that monetary forces were the primary cause of the Great Depression is right, or the traditional Keynesian explanation that a fall in autonomous spending investment, is the primary explanation for the onset of the Great Depression. Today the controversy is of lesser importance since there is mainstream support for the debt deflation theory and the expectations hypothesis that building on the monetary explanation of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz add non-monetary explanations. There is consensus that the Federal Reserve System should have cut short the process of monetary deflation and banking collapse. If they had done this, the economic downturn would have been much shorter. British economist John Maynard Keynes argued in The General Theory of Employment and Money that lower aggregate expenditures in the economy contributed to a massive decline in income and to employment, well below the average.
In such a situation, the economy reached equilibrium at low levels of economic activity and high unemployment. Keynes' basic idea was simple
Grille
A grille or grill is an opening of several slits side-by-side in a wall, metal sheet or another barrier to allow air or water enter and/or leave and prevent larger objects from going in or out. Register
Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. It was inspired by aerodynamic design. Streamline architecture emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design, it was used in railroad locomotives, toasters, buses and other devices to give the impression of sleekness and modernity. In France, it was called the Style Paquebot, or "Ocean liner style", was influenced by the design of the luxurious ocean liner SS Normandie, launched in 1932; as the Great Depression of the 1930s progressed, Americans saw a new aspect of Art Deco, i.e. streamlining, a concept first conceived by industrial designers who stripped Art Deco design of its ornament in favor of the aerodynamic pure-line concept of motion and speed developed from scientific thinking. The cylindrical forms and long horizontal windowing in architecture may have been influenced by constructivism, by the New Objectivity artists, a movement connected to the German Werkbund.
Examples of this style include the 1923 Mossehaus, the reconstruction of the corner of a Berlin office building in 1923 by Erich Mendelsohn and Richard Neutra. The Streamline Moderne was sometimes a reflection of austere economic times; the style was the first to incorporate electric light into architectural structure. In the first-class dining room of the SS Normandie, fitted out 1933–35, twelve tall pillars of Lalique glass, 38 columns lit from within illuminated the room; the Strand Palace Hotel foyer, preserved from demolition by the Victoria and Albert Museum during 1969, was one of the first uses of internally lit architectural glass, coincidentally was the first Moderne interior preserved in a museum. Streamline moderne appeared most in buildings related to transportation and movement, such as bus and train stations, airport terminals, roadside cafes, port buildings, it had characteristics common with modern architecture, including a horizontal orientation, rounded corners, the use of glass brick walls or porthole windows, flat roofs, chrome-plated hardware, horizontal grooves or lines in the walls.
They were white or in subdued pastel colors. An example of this style is the Aquatic Park Bathouse in the Aquatic Park Historic District, in San Francisco. Built beginning in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration, it features the distinctive horizontal lines, classic rounded corners railing and windows of the style, resembling the elements of ship; the interior preserves much of the original decoration and detail, including murals by artist and color theoretician Hilaire Hiler. The architects were William Mooser Jr. and William Mooser III. It is now the administrative center of Aquatic Park Historic District; the Normandie Hotel, which opened during 1942, is built in the stylized shape of the ocean liner SS Normandie, it includes the ship's original sign. The Sterling Streamliner Diners were diners designed like streamlined trains. Although Streamline Moderne houses are less common than streamline commercial buildings, residences do exist; the Lydecker House in Los Angeles, built by Howard Lydecker, is an example of Streamline Moderne design in residential architecture.
In tract development, elements of the style were sometimes used as a variation in postwar row housing in San Francisco's Sunset District. In France, the style was called ocean liner; the French version was inspired by the launch of the ocean liner Normandie in 1935, which featured an Art Deco dining room with columns of Lalique crystal. Buildings using variants of the style appeared in Belgium and in Paris, notably in a building at 3 boulevard Victor in the 15th arrondissement, by the architect Pierre Patout, he was one of the founders of the Art Deco style. He designed the entrance to the Pavilion of a Collector at the 1925 Exposition of Decorative Arts, the birthplace of the style, he was the designer of the interiors of three cruise ships, the Ile-de-France, the l'Atlantique, the Normandie. Patout's building on Avenue Victor lacked the curving lines of the American version of the style, but it had a narrow "bow" at one end, where the site was narrow, long balconies like the decks of a ship, a row of projections like smokestacks on the roof.
Another 1935 Paris apartment building at 1 Avenue Paul-Daumier in the 16 arrondissement had a series of terraces modeled after the decks of an ocean liner. The defining event for streamline moderne design in the United States was the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair, which introduced the style to the general public; the new automobiles adapted the smooth lines of ocean liners and airships, giving the impression of efficiency and speed. The grills and windshields tilted backwards, cars sat lower and wider, they featured smooth curves and horizontal speed lines. Examples include the 1934 Studebaker Land Cruiser; the cars featured new materials, including bakelite plastic, Vitrolight opaque glass, stainless steel, enamel, which gave the appearance of newness and sleekness. Other examples include the 1950 Nash Ambassador "Airflyte" sedan with its distinctive low fender lines, as well as Hudson's postwar cars, such as the Commodore, that "were distinctive streamliners—ponderous, massive automobiles with a style all their own".
Streamlining became a widespread design practice for aircraft, railroad locomotives, ships. Streamline style can be contrasted with functionalism, a leading design style in Europe at the same time. One reason for the simple designs in functionalism was to lower the production costs of the items, making them
Chrysler
Chrysler is one of the "Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The original Chrysler Corporation was founded in 1925 by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company. In 1998, it was acquired by Daimler-Benz, the holding company was renamed DaimlerChrysler. After Daimler divested Chrysler in 2007, the company existed as Chrysler LLC and Chrysler Group LLC before merging in 2014 with Fiat S.p. A. and becoming a subsidiary of its successor Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. In addition to the Chrysler brand, FCA sells vehicles worldwide under the Dodge and Ram nameplates. Furthermore, the subsidiary includes Mopar, its automotive parts and accessories division, SRT, its performance automobile division. After founding the company, Walter Chrysler used the General Motors brand diversification and hierarchy strategy that he had seen working for Buick, acquired Fargo Trucks and Dodge Brothers, created the Plymouth and DeSoto brands in 1928.
Facing postwar declines in market share and profitability, as GM and Ford were growing, Chrysler borrowed $250 million in 1954 from Prudential Insurance to pay for expansion and updated car designs. Chrysler expanded into Europe by taking control of French and Spanish auto companies in the 1960s; the company struggled to adapt to changing markets, increased U. S. import competition, safety and environmental regulation in the 1970s. It began an engineering partnership with Mitsubishi Motors, began selling Mitsubishi vehicles branded as Dodge and Plymouth in North America. On the verge of bankruptcy in the late 1970s, it was saved by $1.5 billion in loan guarantees from the U. S. government. New CEO Lee Iacocca was credited with returning the company to profitability in the 1980s. In 1985, Diamond-Star Motors was created. In 1987, Chrysler acquired American Motors Corporation, which brought the profitable Jeep brand under the Chrysler umbrella. In 1998, Chrysler merged with German automaker Daimler-Benz to form DaimlerChrysler AG.
As a result, Chrysler was sold to Cerberus Capital Management and renamed Chrysler LLC in 2007. Like the other Big Three automobile manufacturers, Chrysler was impacted by the automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010; the company remained in business through a combination of negotiations with creditors, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on April 30, 2009, participating in a bailout from the U. S. government through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. On June 10, 2009, Chrysler emerged from the bankruptcy proceedings with the United Auto Workers pension fund, Fiat S.p. A. and the U. S. and Canadian governments as principal owners. The bankruptcy resulted in Chrysler defaulting on over $4 billion in debts. By May 24, 2011, Chrysler finished repaying its obligations to the U. S. government five years early, although the cost to the American taxpayer was $1.3 billion. Over the next few years, Fiat acquired the other parties' shares while removing much of the weight of the loans in a short period.
On January 1, 2014, Fiat S.p. A announced a deal to purchase the rest of Chrysler from the United Auto Workers retiree health trust; the deal was completed on January 2014, making Chrysler Group a subsidiary of Fiat S.p.. A. In May 2014, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was established by merging Fiat S.p. A. into the company. This was completed in August 2014. Chrysler Group LLC remained a subsidiary until December 15, 2014, when it was renamed FCA US LLC, to reflect the Fiat-Chrysler merger; the Chrysler company was founded by Walter Chrysler on June 6, 1925, when the Maxwell Motor Company was re-organized into the Chrysler Corporation. Chrysler had arrived at the ailing Maxwell-Chalmers company in the early 1920s, hired to overhaul the company's troubled operations. In late 1923 production of the Chalmers automobile was ended. In January 1924, Walter Chrysler launched the well-received Chrysler automobile; the 6-cylinder Chrysler was designed to provide customers with an advanced, well-engineered car, was an automobile at an affordable price.
Elements of this car are traceable to a prototype, under development at Willys during Chrysler's tenure The original 1924 Chrysler included a carburetor air filter, high compression engine, full pressure lubrication, an oil filter, features absent from most autos at the time. Among the innovations in its early years were the first practical mass-produced four-wheel hydraulic brakes, a system nearly engineered by Chrysler with patents assigned to Lockheed, rubber engine mounts to reduce vibration. Chrysler developed a wheel with a ridged rim, designed to keep a deflated tire from flying off the wheel; this wheel was adopted by the auto industry worldwide. The Maxwell brand was dropped after the 1925 model year, with the new, lower-priced four-cylinder Chryslers introduced for the 1926 year being badge-engineered Maxwells; the advanced engineering and testing that went into Chrysler Corporation cars helped to push the company to the second-place position in U. S. sales by 1936, which it held until 1949.
In 1928, the Chrysler Corporation began dividing its vehicle offerings by price function. The Plymouth brand was introduced at the low-priced end of the market. At the same time, the DeSoto brand was introduced in the medium-price field. In 1928, Chrysler bought the Dodge Brothers automobile and
Car
A car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transportation. Most definitions of car say they run on roads, seat one to eight people, have four tires, transport people rather than goods. Cars came into global use during the 20th century, developed economies depend on them; the year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the modern car when German inventor Karl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Cars became available in the early 20th century. One of the first cars accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were adopted in the US, where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts, but took much longer to be accepted in Western Europe and other parts of the world. Cars have controls for driving, passenger comfort, safety, controlling a variety of lights. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, making them progressively more complex; these include rear reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, in-car entertainment.
Most cars in use in the 2010s are propelled by an internal combustion engine, fueled by the combustion of fossil fuels. Electric cars, which were invented early in the history of the car, began to become commercially available in 2008. There are benefits to car use; the costs include acquiring the vehicle, interest payments and maintenance, depreciation, driving time, parking fees and insurance. The costs to society include maintaining roads, land use, road congestion, air pollution, public health, health care, disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life. Road traffic accidents are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide; the benefits include on-demand transportation, mobility and convenience. The societal benefits include economic benefits, such as job and wealth creation from the automotive industry, transportation provision, societal well-being from leisure and travel opportunities, revenue generation from the taxes. People's ability to move flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies.
There are around 1 billion cars in use worldwide. The numbers are increasing especially in China and other newly industrialized countries; the word car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum, or the Middle English word carre. In turn, these originated from the Gaulish word karros, it referred to any wheeled horse-drawn vehicle, such as a cart, carriage, or wagon. "Motor car" is attested from 1895, is the usual formal name for cars in British English. "Autocar" is a variant, attested from 1895, but, now considered archaic. It means "self-propelled car"; the term "horseless carriage" was used by some to refer to the first cars at the time that they were being built, is attested from 1895. The word "automobile" is a classical compound derived from the Ancient Greek word autós, meaning "self", the Latin word mobilis, meaning "movable", it entered the English language from French, was first adopted by the Automobile Club of Great Britain in 1897. Over time, the word "automobile" fell out of favour in Britain, was replaced by "motor car".
"Automobile" remains chiefly North American as a formal or commercial term. An abbreviated form, "auto", was a common way to refer to cars in English, but is now considered old-fashioned; the word is still common as an adjective in American English in compound formations like "auto industry" and "auto mechanic". In Dutch and German, two languages related to English, the abbreviated form "auto" / "Auto", as well as the formal full version "automobiel" / "Automobil" are still used — in either the short form is the most regular word for "car"; the first working steam-powered vehicle was designed — and quite built — by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 65-cm-long scale-model toy for the Chinese Emperor, unable to carry a driver or a passenger, it is not known with certainty if Verbiest's model was built or run. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is credited with building the first full-scale, self-propelled mechanical vehicle or car in about 1769, he constructed two steam tractors for the French Army, one of, preserved in the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts.
His inventions were, handicapped by problems with water supply and maintaining steam pressure. In 1801, Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle, it was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods and was of little practical use. The development of external combustion engines is detailed as part of the history of the car but treated separately from the development of true cars. A variety of steam-powered road vehicles were used during the first part of the 19th century, including steam cars, steam buses and steam rollers. Sentiment against them led to the Locomotive Acts of 1865. In 1807, Nicéphore Niépce and his brother Claude created what was the world's first internal combustion engine, but they chose to install it in a boat on the river Saone in France. Coincidentally, in 1807 the Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz designed his own'de Rivaz internal combustion engine' and used it to develop the world's first vehicle to be powered by such an engine.
The N
Fender (vehicle)
Fender is the American English term for the part of an automobile, motorcycle or other vehicle body that frames a wheel well. Its primary purpose is to prevent sand, rocks and other road spray from being thrown into the air by the rotating tire. Fenders are rigid and can be damaged by contact with the road surface. Instead, flexible mud flaps are used close to the ground. Sticky materials, such as mud, may adhere to the smooth outer tire surface, while smooth loose objects, such as stones, can become temporarily embedded in the tread grooves as the tire rolls over the ground; these materials can be ejected from the surface of the tire at high velocity as the tire imparts kinetic energy to the attached objects. For a vehicle moving forward, the top of the tire is rotating upward and forward, can throw objects into the air at other vehicles or pedestrians in front of the vehicle. In British English, the fender is called the wing The equivalent component of a bicycle or motorcycle, or the "cycle wing" style of wing fitted to vintage cars, or over tires on lorries, not integral with the bodywork, is called a mudguard in Britain, as it guards other road users – and in the case of a bicycle or motorcycle, the rider as well – from mud, spray, thrown up by the wheels.
In modern Indian and Sri Lankan English usage, the wing is called a mudguard. However, the term mudguard appears to have been in use in the U. S. at one point. The American author E. B. White, in an October 1940 Harper's essay "Motor Cars", refers to "...mudguards, or'fenders' as the younger generation calls them."In German, it is known as a Kotflügel. In Hungarian, it is known as a sárhányó. In the United States, a minor car accident is called a "fender bender". Early automobile fenders set over the wheels to prevent mud and dust being thrown on to the body and the occupants. Fenders became a more integral part of overall auto bodies by the mid-1930s. In contrast to the slab-sided cars, the Volkswagen Beetle had real bolt-on fenders over both its front and rear wheels. In current US auto industry nomenclature only the panels over the front wheels are called fenders; the auto industry changed from rear fenders bolted onto a quarter panel to an enlarged welded-on quarter panel that fulfilled both functions.
This resulted in one piece where there had been two, name of the larger welded piece, the quarter panel, survived the consolidation. Quarter panels are at the rear, with an exception made for dual rear wheel trucks, where the panel at the rear is called a fender. For vehicles with a narrow car body that exposes the tire, the fender is an exposed curve over the top of the tire. For wide body vehicles that cover the tire, the fender forms the wheel well surrounding the tire, is not directly visible from above the car body; the fender's openings for the wheel wells tend to be much larger than the diameter of the tire, because they do not move with the tire suspension and must be large enough to allow the full range of tire motion on the suspension without touching the interior of the wheel well. The streamlined 1949 Nash 600 and Ambassador design was first to feature fenders that enclosed the front wheels. More elaborate designs include fender skirts for enclosing the outside edge of the wheel well, stylized pontoon fenders for exposed fenders.
The bolted panel which covers the wheel on dual rear wheel pickup trucks is called a fender. A pickup truck with a separate bed but without bolt-on fenders has a bedside, which performs the function of a fender; when the side of the bed is welded to the cab, as with the Cadillac Escalade and Chevrolet Avalanche, it is called a quarter panel. While the standard of bolted versus welded applies, there are some exceptions. Although attached by welding, the panels over the front wheels on cars such as the early'60s Lincoln Continental, the Corvair, the early-1960s Chrysler Imperial are called fenders. Though bolted on, the panels covering the rear wheels on the Saturn S series are called quarter panels. An aftermarket accessory on pickup trucks are fender flares, which block mud and stones and/or cover rust, they are sometimes used by manufacturers on models. Using this method, the manufacturer can provide the needed tire coverage without producing a different fender, bed side, or quarter panel for what may be a low-production model.
Fender flares are used on SUVs, pickup trucks, off-road vehicles, sport cars. They either come with a vehicle as a standard equipment or are added afterwards as an aftermarket accessory. Fender flares are made of fiberglass or ABS plastic to ensure flexibility and light weight. There are three common styles of fender flares: bolt-on and Cut-Out; the most important characteristic of a fender flare is the width. Common fender flares are 1"–8" wide. Certain types of cars with narrow bodies, such as the Lotus and Caterham Seven or the Allard J2, use what are called cycle fenders in the US or cycle wings in Britain, for their resemblance to those used on bicycles, they are attached to the wheel suspension and remain at a fixed distance from the tire regardless of wheel motion, can therefore be much closer to the tire than fixed wheel wells. This was popular on early Classic Trials cars because the fenders
