1.
24 Hours of Le Mans
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The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the worlds oldest active sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since 1923 near the town of Le Mans, France. It is one of the most prestigious races in the world and is often called the Grand Prix of Endurance. The event represents one leg of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, other events being the Indianapolis 500, since 2012, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been a part of the FIA World Endurance Championship. In 2017, it will be the round of the season. The race has over the years inspired imitating races all over the globe, popularizing the 24-hour format at places like Daytona, Nürburgring, Spa-Francorchamps, and Bathurst. The American Le Mans Series and Europes Le Mans Series of multi-event sports car championships were spun off from 24 Hours of Le Mans regulations. At a time when Grand Prix motor racing was the dominant form of motorsport throughout Europe, Le Mans was designed to present a different test. Instead of focusing on the ability of a car company to build the fastest machines and this encouraged innovation in producing reliable and fuel-efficient vehicles, because endurance racing requires cars that last and spend as little time in the pits as possible. At the same time, the layout of the track necessitated cars with better aerodynamics, while this was shared with Grand Prix racing, few tracks in Europe had straights of a length comparable to the Mulsanne. Additionally, because the road is public and thus not as meticulously maintained as permanent racing circuits, racing puts more strain on the parts, increasing the importance of reliability. The oil crisis in the early 1970s led organizers to adopt a fuel economy formula known as Group C that limited the amount of each car was allowed. Although it was abandoned, fuel economy remains important as new fuel sources reduced time spent during pit stops. Such technological innovations have had an effect and can be incorporated into consumer cars. This has also led to faster and more exotic supercars as manufacturers seek to develop road cars in order to develop them into even faster GT cars. Additionally, in recent years hybrid systems have been championed in the LMP category as rules have changed to their benefit. The race is held in June, leading at times to very hot conditions for drivers, particularly in closed vehicles with poor ventilation, the race begins in mid-afternoon and finishes the following day at the same hour the race started the previous day. Over the 24 hours, modern competitors often cover distances well over 5,000 km, the record is 2010s 5,410 km, six times the length of the Indianapolis 500, or approximately 18 times longer than a Formula One Grand Prix. Drivers and racing teams strive for speed and avoiding damage, as well as managing the cars consumables, primarily fuel, tires
2.
Sports car racing
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Sports car racing is a form of circuit auto racing with sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built or related to road-going models, a type of hybrid between the purism of open-wheelers and the familiarity of touring car racing, this style is often associated with the annual Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race. First run in 1923, Le Mans is one of the oldest motor races still in existence, other classic but now defunct sports car races include the Italian classics, the Targa Florio and Mille Miglia, and the Mexican Carrera Panamericana. Most top class sports car races emphasize endurance, reliability, and strategy, longer races usually involve complex pit strategy and regular driver changes. These makers top road cars have often very similar both in engineering and styling to those raced. This close association with the nature of the cars serves as a useful distinction between sports car racing and touring cars. The 12 Hours of Sebring,24 Hours of Daytona, and 24 Hours of Le Mans were once considered the trifecta of sports car racing. In the 1920s, the used in endurance racing and Grand Prix were still basically identical, with fenders. Cars such as the Bugatti Type 35 were almost equally at home in Grands Prix and endurance events, but specialisation gradually started to differentiate the sports-racer from the Grand Prix car. As mainly Italian cars and races defined the genre, the category was called Gran Turismo, as long distances had to be travelled, reliability and some basic comfort were necessary in order to endure the task. After the Second World War, sports car racing emerged as a form of racing with its own classic races. Top Grand Prix drivers also competed regularly in sports car racing, from 1962 sports cars temporarily took a back seat to GT cars with the FIA replacing the World Championship for Sports Cars with the International Championship for GT Manufacturers. The US scene tended to feature small MG and Porsche cars in the smaller classes, the combination of mostly British chassis and American V8 engines gave rise to the popular and spectacular Can-Am series in the 1960s and 1970s. Clubmans provided much entertainment at club-racing level from the 1960s into the 1990s, after a relative period of decline in the 1980s a British GT Championship emerged in the mid-90s. Road races such as the Mille Miglia included everything from stock touring cars to World Championship contenders, the Mille Miglia was the largest sporting event in Italy until a fatal accident caused its demise in 1957. The Targa Florio, another road race, remained part of the world championship until the 1970s. Between the late 1960s and late 1970s, Matra and Renault made significant, the competition at Le Mans even made it to the movie screens, with Steve McQueens film Le Mans. This era was seen by many as the highpoint of sports car racing, with the technology, a peculiarly American form of sports car racing was the Can-Am series, in which virtually unlimited sports prototypes competed in relatively short races
3.
Le Mans Prototype
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Le Mans Prototypes were created by the Automobile Club de lOuest. The technical requirements for an LMP include bodywork covering all mechanical elements of the car, while not as fast as open-wheel Formula One cars, LMPs are the fastest closed-wheel racing cars used in circuit racing. Le Mans Prototypes are considered a class above production-based grand tourer cars, modern LMP designs include hybrid cars that use electric motors to assist acceleration. Le Mans Prototypes have used various names depending on the series in which they compete, the FIAs equivalent cars were referred to as Sports Racers or Sports Racing Prototypes. The American IMSA GT Championship termed their cars World Sports Cars, since 2004, most series have switched to referring to these cars as Le Mans Prototypes. The American Le Mans Series, the successor to the IMSA GT Championship, an LMP is commonly referred to as a Le Mans car in the media. The first use of what would become Le Mans Prototypes was at the 199224 Hours of Le Mans. In an attempt to increase the number of entrants beyond the field of Group C competitors that the World Sportscar Championship had to offer, older Porsche 962s were allowed entry in Category 3. To further increase the size of the field, small open-cockpit race cars using production road car engines which were raced in national championships, were allowed in Category 4. Only three cars were entered, with all failing to run more than a few hours. With Group C being phased out, the ACO chose to allow production-based race cars to enter for the first time in many years, the cars continued to use the same formula as they had in 1992. Later, ACO announced their intentions to replace the Group C cars with Le Mans Prototypes in 1994. Both classes were required to have open cockpits and this formula continued up to 1996, with many manufacturers embracing the LMP and WSC classes, including Ferrari, Porsche, and Mazda. In 1997, the first European series based around Le Mans Prototypes was launched, to differ from IMSAS WSC class, the USRRC named their open-cockpit prototypes Can-Am in an attempt to resurrect the sportscar championship of the 1970s. However the USRRC collapsed before the end of 1999, with the series becoming the Rolex Sports Car Series who chose to use the FIAs SR1,1998 saw a great expansion for the ACOs LMP classes. Following the cancellation of the IMSA GT Championship at the end of 1998 and this series used the same class structure as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, meaning it was the first championship to use the LMP name. At the same time, the ACO greatly altered their LMP classes, the smaller LMP2 class were briefly eliminated, while a new class of closed-cockpit prototypes were allowed in, known as LMGTP. These cars were evolutions of production-based road cars that the ACO considered too advanced and too fast to fall under the GT class regulations, in 2000, changes were made to the LMP regulations, as the ACO once again split the open-cockpit LMP class
4.
Auto racing
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Auto racing is a sport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Almost as soon as automobiles had been invented, races of various sorts were organised, by the 1930s specialist racing cars had developed. There are now numerous different categories, each with different rules and it was won by the carriage of Isaac Watt Boulton. Internal combustion auto racing events began soon after the construction of the first successful gasoline-fueled automobiles, the first organized contest was on April 28,1887, by the chief editor of Paris publication Le Vélocipède, Monsieur Fossier. It ran 2 kilometres from Neuilly Bridge to the Bois de Boulogne, on July 22,1894, the Parisian magazine Le Petit Journal organized what is considered to be the worlds first motoring competition, from Paris to Rouen. One hundred and two competitors paid a 10-franc entrance fee, the first American automobile race is generally held to be the Thanksgiving Day Chicago Times-Herald race of November 28,1895. Press coverage of the event first aroused significant American interest in the automobile, brooklands, in Surrey, was the first purpose-built motor racing venue, opening in June 1907. It featured a 4.43 km concrete track with high-speed banked corners, One of the oldest existing purpose-built automobile racing circuits in the United States, still in use, is the 2. 5-mile -long Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. It is the largest capacity venue of any variety worldwide, with a top capacity of some 257. NASCAR was founded by Bill France, Sr. on February 21,1948, the first NASCAR Strictly Stock race ever was held on June 19,1949, at Daytona Beach, Florida. From 1962, sports cars temporarily took a seat to GT cars. From 1972 through 2003, NASCARs premier series was called the Winston Cup Series, the changes that resulted from RJRs involvement, as well as the reduction of the schedule from 48 to 31 races a year, established 1972 as the beginning of NASCARs modern era. The IMSA GT Series evolved into the American Le Mans Series, the European races eventually became the closely related Le Mans Series, both of which mix prototypes and GTs. The best-known variety of racing, Formula One, which hosts the famous Monaco Grand Prix. In single-seater, the wheels are not covered, and the cars often have aerofoil wings front, in Europe and Asia, open-wheeled racing is commonly referred to as Formula, with appropriate hierarchical suffixes. In North America, the Formula terminology is not followed, the sport is usually arranged to follow an international format, a regional format, and/or a domestic, or country-specific, format. In North America, the used in the National Championship have traditionally been similar though less sophisticated than F1 cars. The series most famous race is the Indianapolis 500, the other major international single-seater racing series is GP2
5.
Carbon fiber reinforced polymer
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Carbon fiber reinforced polymer, carbon fiber reinforced plastic or carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic, is an extremely strong and light fiber-reinforced plastic which contains carbon fibers. The spelling fibre is common in British Commonwealth countries, the binding polymer is often a thermoset resin such as epoxy, but other thermoset or thermoplastic polymers, such as polyester, vinyl ester or nylon, are sometimes used. The composite may contain other fibers, such as an aramid, aluminium, ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene or glass fibers, the properties of the final CFRP product can also be affected by the type of additives introduced to the binding matrix. The most frequent additive is silica, but other such as rubber. The material is referred to as graphite-reinforced polymer or graphite fiber-reinforced polymer. In product advertisements, it is referred to simply as graphite fiber for short. In this case the composite consists of two parts, a matrix and a reinforcement, in CFRP the reinforcement is carbon fiber, which provides the strength. The matrix is usually a resin, such as epoxy. Because CFRP consists of two elements, the material properties depend on these two elements. The reinforcement will give the CFRP its strength and rigidity, measured by stress, unlike isotropic materials like steel and aluminum, CFRP has directional strength properties. The properties of CFRP depend on the layouts of the carbon fiber, the following equation, E c = V m E m + V f E f is valid for composite materials with the fibers oriented in the direction of the applied load. Typical epoxy-based CFRPs exhibit virtually no plasticity, with less than 0. 5% strain to failure, although CFRPs with epoxy have high strength and elastic modulus, the brittle fracture mechanics present unique challenges to engineers in failure detection since failure occurs catastrophically. As such, recent efforts to toughen CFRPs include modifying the existing epoxy material, One such material with high promise is PEEK, which exhibits an order of magnitude greater toughness with similar elastic modulus and tensile strength. However, PEEK is much more difficult to process and more expensive, despite its high initial strength-to-weight ratio, a design limitation of CFRP is its lack of a definable fatigue endurance limit. This means, theoretically, that stress cycle failure cannot be ruled out, environmental effects such as temperature and humidity can have profound effects on the polymer-based composites, including most CFRPs. While the carbon fibers themselves are not affected by the moisture diffusing into the material, the carbon fibers can cause galvanic corrosion when CRP parts are attached to aluminum. The primary element of CFRP is a filament, this is produced from a precursor polymer such as polyacrylonitrile, rayon. Precursor compositions and mechanical processes used during spinning filament yarns may vary among manufacturers, after drawing or spinning, the polymer filament yarns are then heated to drive off non-carbon atoms, producing the final carbon fiber
6.
Monocoque
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Monocoque, also structural skin, is a structural system where loads are supported through an objects external skin, similar to an egg shell. The word monocoque is a French term for single shell or single hull, a true monocoque carries both tensile and compressive forces within the skin and can be recognised by the absence of a load carrying internal frame. By contrast, a semi-monocoque is a combining a tensile stressed skin. Other semi-monocoques not to be confused with true monocoques include vehicle unibodies, which tend to be composites, early aircraft were constructed using frames, typically of wood or steel tubing, which could then be covered with fabric such as irish linen or cotton. The skin added nothing to the strength of the airframe and was dead weight beyond providing a smooth sealed surface. This reduced drag so effectively it was able to win most of the races it was entered into, however, it was prone to damage from moisture and delamination. While all metal aircraft from the Junkers firm had appeared as early as 1915, the first metal monocoques were built by Claudius Dornier, while working for Zeppelin-Lindau. After failed attempts with several large flying boats in which a few components were monocoques, the aluminum alloy monocoque chassis was first used in the 1962 Lotus 25 Formula 1 race car. The term monocoque is frequently misused when referring to unibody cars, in motor racing, the safety of the driver depends on the car body which must meet stringent regulations and a few cars have been built with monocoque structures. Tanks and other armored vehicles such as the German Fuchs 2 and this reduces weight for a given amount of armor compared to vehicles to which armor has been attached to an underlying frame. A monocoque-framed motorcycle was developed by the Spanish motorcycle manufacturer, Ossa, Ossa won four Grand Prix races with the monocoque bike before their rider was killed during the 1970 Isle of Man TT, causing the Ossa factory to withdraw from Grand Prix competition. Notable designers such as Eric Offenstadt and Dan Hanebrink created unique monocoque designs in the early 1970s, the 1973 Isle of Man TT was won by Peter Williams on the monocoque-framed Norton John Player Special that he helped design. Honda also experimented with a monocoque Grand Prix racing motorcycle named the NR500 in 1979, in 1987 John Britten developed the Aero-D One, featuring a composite monocoque chassis that weighed only 12 kg. The first time an aluminium monocoque frame appeared on a production motorcycle was the 2000 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-12R. This was Kawasakis flagship production sportbike aimed at being the fastest production motorcycle, various rockets have used pressure-stabilized monocoque designs, such as Atlas and Falcon 1. Balloon tanks are not true monocoques but act in the way as inflatable shells. A balloon tank skin only handles tensile forces while compression is resisted by internal pressure in a way similar to semi-monocoques braced by a solid frame. This becomes obvious when internal pressure is lost and the structure collapses, the Handle is an electric guitar characterized by its hollow sectioned monocoque chassis, created by the award-winning designer Peter Solomon
7.
Internal combustion engine
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An internal combustion engine is a heat engine where the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases produced by combustion applies direct force to some component of the engine, the force is applied typically to pistons, turbine blades, rotor or a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into mechanical energy. The first commercially successful internal combustion engine was created by Étienne Lenoir around 1859, firearms are also a form of internal combustion engine. Working fluids can be air, hot water, pressurized water or even liquid sodium, ICEs are usually powered by energy-dense fuels such as gasoline or diesel, liquids derived from fossil fuels. While there are many applications, most ICEs are used in mobile applications and are the dominant power supply for vehicles such as cars, aircraft. Typically an ICE is fed with fossil fuels like natural gas or petroleum products such as gasoline, there is a growing usage of renewable fuels like biodiesel for compression ignition engines and bioethanol or methanol for spark ignition engines. Hydrogen is sometimes used, and can be made from fossil fuels or renewable energy. Various scientists and engineers contributed to the development of internal combustion engines, in 1791, John Barber developed a turbine. In 1794 Thomas Mead patented a gas engine, also in 1794 Robert Street patented an internal combustion engine, which was also the first to use liquid fuel, and built an engine around that time. In 1798, John Stevens built the first American internal combustion engine, in 1807, Swiss engineer François Isaac de Rivaz built an internal combustion engine ignited by electric spark. In 1823, Samuel Brown patented the first internal combustion engine to be applied industrially, in 1860, Belgian Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir produced a gas-fired internal combustion engine. In 1864, Nikolaus Otto patented the first atmospheric gas engine, in 1872, American George Brayton invented the first commercial liquid-fuelled internal combustion engine. In 1876, Nikolaus Otto, working with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, patented the compressed charge, in 1879, Karl Benz patented a reliable two-stroke gas engine. In 1892, Rudolf Diesel developed the first compressed charge, compression ignition engine, in 1926, Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket. In 1939, the Heinkel He 178 became the worlds first jet aircraft, at one time, the word engine meant any piece of machinery — a sense that persists in expressions such as siege engine. A motor is any machine that produces mechanical power, traditionally, electric motors are not referred to as Engines, however, combustion engines are often referred to as motors. In boating an internal combustion engine that is installed in the hull is referred to as an engine, reciprocating piston engines are by far the most common power source for land and water vehicles, including automobiles, motorcycles, ships and to a lesser extent, locomotives
8.
General Motors
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With global headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, United States, GM manufactures cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2008,8.35 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under various brands, current auto brands are Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, and Wuling. Former GM automotive brands include McLaughlin, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall, the company was founded by William C. Durant on September 16,1908 as a holding company. The company was the largest automobile manufacturer from 1931 through 2007, in addition to brands selling assembled vehicles, GM also has had various automotive-component and non-automotive brands, many of which it divested in the 1980s through 2000s. General Motors produces vehicles in 37 countries under twelve brands, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Holden, HSV, Opel, Vauxhall, Wuling, Baojun, Jie Fang, and Ravon. The current company, General Motors Company LLC, was formed in 2009 following the bankruptcy of General Motors Corporation, the new company purchased the majority of the assets of the old GM, including the brand General Motors. In addition to its twelve brands, General Motors also holds a 20% stake in IMM, General Motors employs 212,000 people and does business in more than 140 countries. General Motors is divided into five segments, GM North America, Opel Group, GM International Operations, GM South America. General Motors led global vehicle sales for 77 consecutive years from 1931 through 2007, longer any other automaker. General Motors acts in most countries outside the U. S. via wholly owned subsidiaries, GMs OnStar subsidiary provides vehicle safety, security and information services. In 2009, General Motors shed several brands, closing Saturn, Pontiac, and Hummer, in 2010, the reorganized GM made an initial public offering that was one of the worlds top five largest IPOs to date, and returned to profitability later that year. General Motors Corporation was formed on September 16,1908, in Flint, Michigan, GMs co-founder was Charles Stewart Mott, whose carriage company was merged into Buick prior to GMs creation. Over the years, Mott became the largest single stockholder in GM, and spent his life with his Mott Foundation, GM acquired Oldsmobile later that year. In 1909, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland, also in 1909, GM acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant, along with R. S. McLaughlin, lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers trust, because of the amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions. The next year, Durant started the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in the U. S. and in Canada in 1915, Durant took back control of the company after one of the most dramatic proxy wars in American business history. Durant then reorganized General Motors Company into General Motors Corporation in 1916, merging Chevrolet with GM, shortly thereafter, he again lost control, this time for good, after the new vehicle market collapsed. These facilities were added to the factories that were exclusive to Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland
9.
LS based GM small-block engine
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Not to be confused with the Chevrolet small-block engine. The LS based GM small-block engine is the primary V-8 used in General Motors line of rear-wheel-drive cars, the LS basic layout owes a good deal to Ed Coles original small-block design of 1954-55, though it also uses cues from Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac V8s. The basic LS variations use cast iron blocks, while performance editions are all aluminum with cast iron cylinder liners, GM recycled the LT designation previously used on Chevrolet small-block V8-derived GM engines beginning with the LS Generation V LT1 in 2014. Several versions of the LS were used in the Chevrolet Corvette, beginning with the LS1 in 1997 through the LS9, variants of the LT version of the GM small-block have been used since. The GM Generation I and Generation II engine families both derived from the longstanding Chevrolet small block V8, the Generation III small-block V-8 was a clean sheet design, which replaced the Gen I and Gen II engine families in 2003 and 1996 respectively. Like the previous two generations, the Buick and Oldsmobile small blocks, the gen III/IV can be found in different brands. The engine blocks were cast in aluminium for car applications, the architecture of the LS series makes for an extremely strong engine block with the aluminium engines being nearly as strong as the iron generation I and II engines. The LS engine also used coil-near-plug style ignition to replace the distributor setup of all previous small-block based engines, the cylinder firing order was changed to 1-8-7-2-6-5-4-3, so that the LS series now corresponds to the firing pattern of other modern V8 engines. The first of the Generation IIIs, the LS1 was the progenitor of the new design that would transform the entire V8 line. The Generation III5.7 L shares little other than similar displacement, external dimensions and it is an all-aluminum 5,665 cc pushrod engine with a bore of 3.898 in and a stroke of 3.62 in. LS1 When introduced in the 1997 Corvette the LS1 was rated at 345 hp at 5,600 rpm and 350 lbf·ft at 4,400 rpm, after improvements to the intake and exhaust manifolds in 2001 the rating improved to 350 hp and 365 lbf·ft. The LS1 was used in the Corvette from 97-04 and it was also used in 98-02 GM F-Body cars with a rating of 305–325+ HP, which was rumored to be conservative. The extra horsepower was claimed to come from the intake ram-air effect available in the SS, the initial 2001 LS6 produced 385 bhp and 385 lbf·ft, but the engine was modified for 2002 through 2004 to produce 405 bhp and 400 lbf·ft of torque. The LS6 was originally used in the high-performance C5 Corvette Z06 model. The V-Series used the LS6 for two years before being replaced by the LS2 in 2006, for 2006, the Z06 replaced the LS6 with the new LS7.5,1, sodium filled valves, and a revised oiling system better suited to high lateral acceleration. LS6 intake manifolds were used on all 2001+ LS1/6 engines. The casting number, located on the top edge of the block, is 12561168. Both the 4.8 L and the 5.3 L share the same block, heads and as they share architecture
10.
V8 engine
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A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder V configuration engine with the cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two sets of four, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft. Most banks are set at an angle to each other, some at a narrower angle, with 45°, 60°. In its simplest form, the V8 is basically two parallel inline-four engines sharing a common crankshaft, since the 1920s, most V8s have used the somewhat more complex crossplane crankshaft with heavy counterweights to eliminate the vibrations. This results in an engine that is smoother than a V6, most racing V8s continue to use the single plane crankshaft because it allows faster acceleration and more efficient exhaust system designs. In 1902, Léon Levavasseur took out a patent on a light and he called it the Antoinette after the young daughter of his financial backer. From 1904 he installed this engine in a number of competition speedboats, the aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont saw one of these boats in Côte dAzur and decided to try it on his 14-bis aircraft. Its early 24 hp at 1400 rpm version with only 55 kg of weight was interesting, Santos-Dumont ordered a larger and more powerful version from Levavasseur. He changed its dimensions from the original 80 mm stroke and 80 mm bore to 105 mm stroke and 110 mm bore, obtaining 50 hp with 86 kg of weight and its power-to-weight ratio was not surpassed for 25 years. Levavasseur eventually produced its own line of V8 equipped aircraft, named Antoinette I to VIII, hubert Latham piloted the V8 powered Antoinette IV and Antoinette VII in July 1909 on two failed attempts to cross the English Channel. However, in 1910, Latham used the VII with the engine to become the first in the world to reach an altitude of 3600 feet. Voisin constructed pusher biplanes with Antoinette engines, also, notably the one first flown successfully by Henry Farman in 1908, the V8 engine configuration became popular in France from 1904 onward, and was used in a number of aircraft engines introduced by Renault, and Buchet among others. Some of these found their way into automobiles in small quantities. In 1905, Darracq built a car to beat the world speed record. They came up with two racing car built on a common crankcase and camshaft. The result was monstrous engine with a displacement of 1,551 cu in, victor Hemery fixed that record on 30 December 1905 with a speed of 109.65 mph. Rolls-Royce built a 3,535 cc V8 car from 1905 to 1906, in 1907 The Hewitt Motor Company built a large 5 passenger Touring Car. It was equipped with a hefty V8 engine that developed 50/60 horsepower and had a bore of 4 inches, the Hewitt was the first American Automobile to be equipped with a V8 engine. De Dion-Bouton introduced a 7,773 cc automobile V8 in 1910 and it was produced only in small quantities, but inspired a number of manufacturers to follow suit
11.
Tire
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A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped vehicle component that covers the wheels rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance. Most tires, such as those for automobiles and bicycles, provide traction between the vehicle and the road providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock. The materials of modern tires are synthetic rubber, natural rubber, fabric and wire, along with carbon black. They consist of a tread and a body, the tread provides traction while the body provides containment for a quantity of compressed air. Before rubber was developed, the first versions of tires were bands of metal fitted around wooden wheels to prevent wear and tear. Pneumatic tires are used on many types of vehicles, including cars, bicycles, motorcycles, buses, trucks, heavy equipment, and aircraft. Metal tires are used on locomotives and railcars, and solid rubber tires are still used in various non-automotive applications, such as some casters, carts, lawnmowers. The etymology of tire is that the word is a form of attire. The spelling tyre does not appear until the 1840s when the English began shrink fitting railway car wheels with malleable iron, nevertheless, traditional publishers continued using tire. The Times newspaper in Britain was still using tire as late as 1905, the spelling tyre began to be commonly used in the 19th century for pneumatic tires in the UK. However, over the course of the 20th century, tyre became established as the standard British spelling, the earliest tires were bands of leather, then iron, placed on wooden wheels, used on carts and wagons. The tire would be heated in a fire, placed over the wheel and quenched, causing the metal to contract. A skilled worker, known as a wheelwright, carried out this work, the outer ring served to tie the wheel segments together for use, providing also a wear-resistant surface to the perimeter of the wheel. The word tire thus emerged as a variant spelling to refer to the bands used to tie wheels. The first patent for what appears to be a standard pneumatic tire appeared in 1847 lodged by the Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson, however, this never went into production. The first practical pneumatic tire was made in 1888 on May Street, Belfast, by Scots-born John Boyd Dunlop and it was an effort to prevent the headaches of his 10-year-old son Johnnie, while riding his tricycle on rough pavements. His doctor, John, later Sir John Fagan, had prescribed cycling as an exercise for the boy, Fagan participated in designing the first pneumatic tires. In Dunlops tire patent specification dated 31 October 1888, his interest is only in its use in cycles, in September 1890, he was made aware of an earlier development but the company kept the information to itself
