The Autopian is populated by a lot of engineers. David is one, as are so many of our readers and contributors. It’s rather lovely learning the finer details about how cars are made, especially when it comes to glorious engine configurations that aren’t so common anymore.
Contributor and reader Dave Larkman wrote about why the 2.0-liter straight-six is a thing of the past. In that story, he noted how 3.0-liter straight-sixes can share their architecture with 2.0-liter fours. StillNotATony:
Why settle for a 3.0l straight six when, in the same length, you could have a 6.0l V12?
Right?
Dave Larkman:
A V12 will be about half a bore longer than a straight six.
But twice as cool.
TheBadGiftOfTheDog:
Crash safety.
When you crash a car with an inline six you get impaled by a long spear of a block. When you crash car with a V6 you get squished by the cube of metal. Everyone knows being impaled is far worse than squished. As for an inline four, it harmlessly bounces off you because it’s small and cute.
SlowCarFast:
If mounted longitudinally, it’s a “straight four”. If mounted transversely, it’s an “in-line four”.
Problem solved.
If an in-line six is mounted transversely, it’s called a “wide-ass car!”.
Rad Barchetta:
If British Leyland could stuff a 2.0L straight six under the bonnet of a Spitfire (with a slight bonnet modification), there’s no excuse for anyone else not to.
Toecutter:
Damned straight.
Dave Larkman:
“ What the actual ef is a metric-inch? ”
Oh, since 1933 the US stopped using the old inch and replaced it with one defined as 25.4mm, using the metric mm as the base standard for the length of an inch.
Andrew wrote about the new G-Class Cabriolet. Phil had me laughing so hard with:
Because I want my $200,000 status symbol to remind everyone of a Geo Tracker.
There are less expensive ways of being laughed at.
Finally, Jason wrote about a silly Cars.com ad that depicts some poor lady spending $27,000 on a Fiat 500. Acd:
Did she notice her salesman high-fiving the other guys in the showroom as she drove off the lot?
Canopysaurus:
What a D-Badge.
Have a great day, everyone!
Just today, that other site has an article on transverse-mounted inline 6 engine arrangements. They are typically 2L and 2.5L, but they have been done it a few times. Go figure.
As for metric-inch.
The biggest thing for units isn’t the name, it’s the standardization. US units almost all trace back to SI units, like the metric-inch. As such, any standard unit can convert to any other if you know the factor to multiple or divide by. The complex part is knowing when to multiple and when to divide, not the math involved in using 12 instead of 10 or the like. As long as the units balance (e.g. both sides of the equation end up with the exact same units), the rest really doesn’t matter.
Or when two standards were active at the same time, depending on jurisdiction: https://xkcd.com/2888/
Meh, look up pipe and tube standards. Piping is the easiest, because it is standardized the world over. DN25 and 1NPS pipe (aka 25mm and 1″) are the exact same size.
The bad news is that that size has nothing to do with reality. 1NPS/DN25 pipe is 1.315/33.4mm outside diameter. The inside diameter depends on what “schedule” you buy. To stick with US units, the ID can be 1.185, 1.097, 1.049, 0.957, 0.815 or 0.599 inch ID. The only way to know is to measure it or look it up in a book. Why?
Pipe is so damn old (the Romans used pipe) that the dimensions likely date to when everyone had a different idea of what an inch was. That and back when piping was starting to become standardized in sizing, water wasn’t fit to drink so everyone drank booze.
Tubing seems easy. 25 mm tube is 25 mm OD. Now hold it next to 1″ tubing (25.4 mm) and tell me which is which. Put the wrong fitting on it and it won’t hold. And speaking of fittings, there are about 100 different standards. They will screw together and seem to hold, just before they don’t.
Structural steels is one of the things that really bother me. Oh you want it to be made of thicker steel so it’s stronger? Well, lets change the EXTERNAL DIMENSIONS SO IT DOESN’T FIT THE SAME SPACE ANYMORE.
A 200UB can be had in weights of 18-30kg/m and varies in height from 198-207mm. Three of the weights are 133-134mm wide but the fourth (and lightest) weight is 99mm across the flange.
This is why I am a mechanical, not civil engineer.
Mercedes, you’re sweet.
Honda made a transverse inline (straight?) six with the CBX.
It’s as silly as you’d expect. But it sounds nice.
Volvo and chebby did transverse I6’s as well IIRC. There are some from UK manufacturers as well but I cannot recall the names – Austin and Wolsley come to mind.
It sounds lovely, as does Kawasaki’s.