Tire Rack's Recommended Installers are your installation solution. You can drop-ship to their location, too!

Changes it the Automotive Industry

What a wonderful piece of technology cars of today are. Remember when cars were pretty much a mechanical and electrical objects. We were happy when the car started and we could dial in to our local AM station on the radio. Not much thought was ever put into gas mileage and gas only cost 30 cents a gallon.

Cars were worn out by 100,000 miles. Your car needed a tune-up at least every 10,000 miles. This meant new spark plugs, a set of ignition point, maybe a new set of spark plug wire and having the ignition timing check and readjusted. The carburetor would need to be adjusted and the engine idle speed reset. There were no safety features in the cars. No seat belts, no air bags, no antilock brakes.

Nearly every car and truck built in America was built with body-over-frame construction rear wheel drive, and symmetrical designs. Today, most cars don’t have a separate frame. Instead, the frame and body are built as a single unit, called a unibody. In 1977, when most cars were built on a frame, the average weight of a car was 4,500 pounds.

Today, because of unibody construction and changes in materials, the average weight is 3,000 pounds. Most trucks are still built on a frame. American manufacturers put four-cylinder and other small engines into their vehicle, instead of large eight-cylinder engines. Our cars are now front-wheel drive instead of rear-wheel drive. Making this switch accomplished many things. The biggest benefits of the front-wheel drive are increased exterior space, improved traction for the drive wheels, shorter hood line and a very compact driveline. Pickup truck, because of weight and load they are designed to move, remain rear-wheel drive.

Perhaps the thing that has brought about the greatest change in the automotive industry is the computer. Not only are engine support systems controlled by computers, nearly every other major system on a car has some sort of electronic control. Initially, electronic controls were added to help maintain low emissions levels from vehicles. As these controls became more advanced, they improved the performance of the engine. Electronic controls have done so much for engine efficiency that some of early emission control system have been eliminated.

The use of electronics has and will continue to change the automobile, as will advances made in other technologies. New composite materials are being used for engine parts. In the near future most of the engine may be made with materials such as ceramic or plastic. Steel body panels are being replaced with aluminum and plastic parts that are bonded to a frame with special adhesives. The remaining steel body parts are thin, high-strength steel. Steel, aluminum, and composites are being used to reduce vehicle weight. Reduced weight results in better performance and fuel economy, especially when the weight of moving engine parts is reduced, this reduces engine drag, which greatly increases the engines power output.

Vehicles powered by electric motors have also been introduced by the manufacturers. Some use a battery as the power source for the motor. Others use a small automotive type engine to charge a battery and to act a supplemental power source the electric motor.

How cars of today and tomorrow look and run is being shaped continually by new technology.

###

Automotive Combustion Chamber Automotive Fuel Injection