Concept Cars... What if they existed?

Some #ConceptCars that were not conceived... How did they ever manage to stop themselves from producing such beauties?

Fun Facts

Did you know? 

- In 1916, 55% of the cars in the world were Model T Fords; a record that hasn’t been broken since then.
- The very first vehicle to move under its own power was conceived in 1769. It weighed more than 3.6 tonnes and was used to haul cannons around town.
- Most cars can drive another 100 or so kilometres after they hit empty on the dial. This of course depends on the driving conditions pertaining at the time.
- Always use parking brakes, in other words the hand brakes, when leaving your car in the parking bay. They reduce on the transmission while parked and will add years of life to it.
- 42 seconds! That’s the world record for removing a car engine and replacing it back. It was set on 21st November 1985 on a Ford Escort.

Tips for Long Distance Drives

Long distance drive? Here are a few tips worth keeping in check.

Cruise it out
It is tempting to mash your right foot into the floor and swerve around the traffic throughout your journey whenever the mood takes you. But in reality, driving fast and rash takes a toll on your brain and eventually you will feel drained out a lot sooner than usual. Try and maintain a cruising speed throughout your journey. And no it doesn’t mean at 150 kmph; you have got to stay within the speed limits defined. This will not only help you keep your head just right but will also help you save a considerable amount of money and time, which you would have otherwise spent on refuelling the car and yourself.

Stick to your lane
Now, you might have noticed idiots driving in their cars on the highway, thinking of themselves as Schumacher siblings and trying to get out of a little patch of traffic they encounter by changing lanes without indicating and without lifting off their foot from the accelerator. This might seems exciting but in truth it is the worst thing you can do on a long drive on the highway. Sticking to one lane and not going to and fro is much less strenuous for the brain and hence you stay alert and fresh much longer. Best of all, cars travelling on the highway with you will eventually start predicting on how you will change the lane and what speeds you are sticking to. This in turn increases the safety aspect on the highway.

Anticipate the traffic movements
While it is good to relax on your long run, it is equally important to read the traffic movements ahead and behind you. While driving in a city like New Delhi, the car is never going above 20 kmph and even if you are behind an erratic driver, which you mostly are in Delhi, you can manoeuvre your car and stay safe. But the story is totally different on a highway, where average speeds that a car can easily achieve is about 60 kmph; trying to manoeuvre at those speeds is a lot tough. Once you are done reading the road ahead, it will be a lot easier for you to carve out a path which requires minimum braking and less of lane changing.
Stay safe!

Fun Facts

Did you know?

- The average car contains over 3,000 feet of electrical wires.
- Despite the harm some cars do to the environment, the automobile is actually the most recycled product in the world.
- Cell phone maker Motorola got its start producing record players for cars. The company's name comes from a combination of "motor" and "Victrola."
- Until 1973, whale oil was used in the transmissions of many cars.
- The longest traffic jam of all time occurred in 1980, between Paris and Lyon on the French Autoroute. The jam stretched an astounding 175 km.
- An airbag takes only 40 milliseconds to inflate and deploys at nearly 500 km an hour.
- Over the course of his/her lifetime, the average driver will swear roughly 32,000 times while driving.

A/C ON vs. Windows Down

AC on OR Windows down – What is more fuel efficient?

Although you don't bother asking/searching about this but you still wonder what would be the wiser choice to save a few bucks – windows down with the wind blowing your hair here and there and everywhere or windows up and use the air conditioning instead? Well, as you would expect, it isn't that easy to take a call. Let us look at each scenario separately and that, hopefully, will make things easier to understand.

As is the case in all theories, science has a crucial part to play in these two scenarios.

Aerodynamic Drag: Modern cars are designed to be as aerodynamic as possible, keeping the market it will cater to in check. Still they, and for that matter any object moving through air with a force, face a substantial natural force called aerodynamic drag. In simple English, it is what you feel when you put our hand out of the window while the vehicle is in motion – you get to feel the force of the air on your palm.

Air Compressor: The heart of the Air Conditioner is the air compressor. For your car to keep you in motion and work on the air compressor to keep you cool requires a considerable amount of more fuel.

When driving with the windows down, air passes into the car's cabin whereas it was formerly allowed to flow over the car, causing much more air resistance as compared to closed windows. The best example would be of a parachute. As soon as the skydiver opens the parachute, it cups the air and causes a massive amount of drag, resulting in a drastic reduction in speed with which the skydiver was falling towards the earth. Unlike the parachute however, you definitely don't want a lot of drag on your car because it makes your engine work harder to carry you along at the same speed.

When to use the A/C in a car?
Based on a study conducted by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), driving with the windows up and the A/C on is typically a more fuel-efficient way to go about. However, there are conditions attached to it.

SAE used two cars for this study. An SUV and a full-sized sedan. They were both driven at speeds of more than 88kmph. While the windows were rolled down, for the sedan, the efficiency was reduced by 20%, while for the SUV the efficiency reduced just 8%. This study concluded that the more aerodynamic the vehicle, the more drag open windows will create.

While driving at those speeds, with the windows rolled down, there is a decrease in efficiency by 20% or more. Although using the A/C reduces the efficiency as well by about 10%.
So when driving at speeds which are higher than the usual town speed, rolling up windows and turning on the A/C is a better bet.

When to roll down the windows?
The simple answer is that at town speeds, driving with the windows down is a better option simply because there is less aerodynamic drag at lower speeds. As the speed of your vehicle increases however, the aerodynamic drag increases exponentially. A simple comparison is that if you increase the car speed from say 40kmph to 80kmph, the aerodynamic drag increases nearly four times.

So, a rule that you should all follow to make your journey a lot more environmentally green and slightly easier on your pocket. Use the A/C with the windows up if you are traveling faster than 65kmph and roll those windows down when traveling at lesser speeds than that.