Automobile Engines 101

Ok guys (sorry girls). Today we'll delve deeper into the automobile topic. This time we'll go to the heart of the car itself - the engines.

I spend most of my time reading through wikipedia regarding car engine and have learn quite a bit. Well in today's topic we'll try to differentiate what's a V6, V10, V12 engine. After that we'll go in much deeper, to the pistons, cylinders of the engines.

I apologize to my lady audiences as this may be a bit boring to you.

Ok straight onwards. What's a V6? Why V6?

A V6 engine is an engine with 6 cylinders, in the shaped of a V. That simple!

Notice the 3 cylinders circled at the front side and another 3 at the back. Both sides have an inclination degree, which form the V shape, hence giving its name the V6 engine.

The same applies to V10, 12 and so on so forth.

Ok great! So smart assumption: the more number of cylinders, the much more power right? 

YES! Exactly. From a smart deduction, a higher number certainly means a higher horsepower and a more powerful engine! (But it is not always correct to make that assumption).

But if that's the case, has it got you wondering why cars aren't classified by the engines they have for power? Rather, they are classified under cc or L? 

"My Toyota Vios is a 1.5L car"

"My Toyota Camry is a 2.4L car"

Now remember your smart assumption from above? A high number of cylinders can only help make assumptions. Cause to look at the overall performance of an engine, we'll have to gauge the displacement of the engine.

An engine displacement defined by the volume swept by all the cylinders in a single movement from top dead center (TDC) to bottom dead center (BDC). Quite simply, it measures how much petrol your engine combusted in a SINGLE turn. 

One complete cycle of a four-cylinder, four-stroke engine. The volume displaced is marked in red.

So does it all makes sense now? If you engine consumes much more gas per turn, it generates more emission per turn. What influences the displacement is the cylinder diameter and the length (TDC-BDC), as different values will impact the volume of gas emission. This is also why regulation tax cars on their emission and not on the number of cylinders in an engine. 

So let's see how a single piston in a cylinder operate shall we?

 

Now all great cars have great engines. Let's take a brief glance on some of the super cars and their engines shall we?

Lamborghini Aventador - V12

 

Audi R8 - V8 or V10 depending on specs

Pagani Zonda - V12

 

Bugatti Veyron - W18

Wait... W18? Yes no typo... Here's how a W18 engine looks like...

Car Catergorization

Forgot if I have mentioned this before or not. I'm kinda into cars lately.

Sometimes it is good for a guy to be able to appreciate the beauty and the aesthetics of a car in the absence of a female (LOL!).

Depends on the level of appreciation and interests, cars can be studied to a very deep and technical extend.

Well today let's just make things easier. I'm also learning so hey I've decided to look up the different categories we can divide the cars into.

Usually we always categorize cars by their brands and manufacturers. Which is kinda kindergarten stuff since its almost the same as classifying humans against their race and skin color. So I've looked up on some basic classifications that could come in handy.

And dear how wrong I was when it comes to classifications! There are so many ways that you can group and classify them.

You have specs defined by vernacular and everyday term usage. You have groupings defined by the law and regulation. So yeah it depends. It's too complicated to summarize everything in this one humble post of mine.

But let's start with some basics I've learnt ok?

From top to bottom: Sedan, Station Wagon, Hatchback

1. Sedan - The most common cars we see are sedans. 3 well defined areas i.e: the front, body and back

Examples of cars available in Malaysia: Toyota Vios, Proton Saga, Volkswagen Polo Sedan, Honda City


2. Station Wagon - Something similar to the hatchback but a very long but not well defined end

Examples of cars available in Malaysia: I don't think we have a good example of this over here. Please be noted that SUVs and four wheel drives are omitted from this category.


2. Hatchback - Cars with a two box configuration (just green and red). Basically a car without a well defined boot space like the top picture.

Examples of cars available in Malaysia: MyVi, Ford Fiesta, Volkswagen Polo.

So yeah here is a starter for cars 101. I'm into a deeper study so yeah I'll just stop here. VROOM!



p.s. Ever wanted to know the name of the three wheel light blue car that always gets gotcha by Mr Bean? It's called the Reliant Regal.