Electronic engine management
The dreaded words for every car owner: your ECU's packed up.
The mysterious Electronic Control Unit is a car's brain, universally blamed for every splutter, malfunction or refusal to perform as promised. Short-circuits, software glitches, processing errors: all the terminology of the computer world, under a car's bonnet – and all its built-in obsolescence as well.
The creeping electronicalisation of cars arrived with fuel injection, made brief ill-advised forays into driver communication (early hypochondriac self-diagnostics systems) and is now at the stage where your car is far, far cleverer than you are – though to be fair, pioneer cars like the original BMW 6-Series did genuinely feel like a step into a new era.
Engine management can apply the minutest of adjustments to its combustion cycle, adapt its throttle response characteristics according to your driving style and juggle valves and camshafts in infinitely variable patterns, as well as reduce fuel consumption and emissions. And, despite the doom-merchants' best arguments, cars these days are far more reliable than they were in the days of carbs, points and manually-gapped spark plugs – as well as being much easier to tune and tweak, by means of power upgrade 'chip'.
The dreaded words for every car owner: your ECU's packed up.
The mysterious Electronic Control Unit is a car's brain, universally blamed for every splutter, malfunction or refusal to perform as promised. Short-circuits, software glitches, processing errors: all the terminology of the computer world, under a car's bonnet – and all its built-in obsolescence as well.
The creeping electronicalisation of cars arrived with fuel injection, made brief ill-advised forays into driver communication (early hypochondriac self-diagnostics systems) and is now at the stage where your car is far, far cleverer than you are – though to be fair, pioneer cars like the original BMW 6-Series did genuinely feel like a step into a new era.
Engine management can apply the minutest of adjustments to its combustion cycle, adapt its throttle response characteristics according to your driving style and juggle valves and camshafts in infinitely variable patterns, as well as reduce fuel consumption and emissions. And, despite the doom-merchants' best arguments, cars these days are far more reliable than they were in the days of carbs, points and manually-gapped spark plugs – as well as being much easier to tune and tweak, by means of power upgrade 'chip'.
Fuel injection
Fuel injection - and direct injection of fuel into the cylinders - goes right back to the earliest days of the internal combustion engine, but Maybach's cheaper-to-make carburettor became the fuelling device of choice in petrol engines.
The first production fuel injection car - albeit a very exclusive one - was the Mercedes-Benz 300 SE gull-winged coupe of 1954, featuring a Bosch-developed mechanical system. Bosch produced the first electronically-regulated fuel injection, D-Jetronic, for the VW 411 in 1967 and refined it throughout the 70s and 80s. Sports saloons such as the BMW 2002Ti/Tii popularized the concept, but it took till the 80s for the desirable 'i' - as in GTi - badge to really gain currency in the mainstream.
Now the norm in all developed nations, fuel injection is more efficient than carburettor-fuelling, but its predominance has largely been down to its compatibility with catalytic converters and electronic engine control systems. So-called 'direct injection', where the fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber rather than the intake manifold or pre-chamber, is now featuring in petrol as well as diesel engines.
Fuel injection - and direct injection of fuel into the cylinders - goes right back to the earliest days of the internal combustion engine, but Maybach's cheaper-to-make carburettor became the fuelling device of choice in petrol engines.
The first production fuel injection car - albeit a very exclusive one - was the Mercedes-Benz 300 SE gull-winged coupe of 1954, featuring a Bosch-developed mechanical system. Bosch produced the first electronically-regulated fuel injection, D-Jetronic, for the VW 411 in 1967 and refined it throughout the 70s and 80s. Sports saloons such as the BMW 2002Ti/Tii popularized the concept, but it took till the 80s for the desirable 'i' - as in GTi - badge to really gain currency in the mainstream.
Now the norm in all developed nations, fuel injection is more efficient than carburettor-fuelling, but its predominance has largely been down to its compatibility with catalytic converters and electronic engine control systems. So-called 'direct injection', where the fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber rather than the intake manifold or pre-chamber, is now featuring in petrol as well as diesel engines.
Rev limiter
A device designed to automatically limit an engine's rpm (revolutions, or revs per minute) in order to protect it from damage. Not necessarily the same as the 'redline' (so named due to the colour of the section of the rev counter dial, indicating high rpm), which is the maximum rev limit.
It limits the spectacle in Formula One, but for everyone else, it helps prevent you blowing your engine up – which can only be a good thing.
A device designed to automatically limit an engine's rpm (revolutions, or revs per minute) in order to protect it from damage. Not necessarily the same as the 'redline' (so named due to the colour of the section of the rev counter dial, indicating high rpm), which is the maximum rev limit.
It limits the spectacle in Formula One, but for everyone else, it helps prevent you blowing your engine up – which can only be a good thing.
Supercharger
Thought to give a smoother power delivery than a turbocharger.
This mechanically driven turbine boosts engine power by forcing compressed air into the cylinders. US firm Chadwick built the first supercharged car (1907) and the technology became commonplace in motorsport in the 20s, thanks to development by Ferdinand Porsche, then technical director at Mercedes and the engineer behind racers such as the SSK.
These days – as used in the Mk1 Mini Cooper S or many Mercedes models, where it is known as a Kompressor, though with advances to reduce turbo lag – manufacturers are moving towards fitting cheaper turbos instead.
Thought to give a smoother power delivery than a turbocharger.
This mechanically driven turbine boosts engine power by forcing compressed air into the cylinders. US firm Chadwick built the first supercharged car (1907) and the technology became commonplace in motorsport in the 20s, thanks to development by Ferdinand Porsche, then technical director at Mercedes and the engineer behind racers such as the SSK.
These days – as used in the Mk1 Mini Cooper S or many Mercedes models, where it is known as a Kompressor, though with advances to reduce turbo lag – manufacturers are moving towards fitting cheaper turbos instead.
Turbocharger
Bolting on a turbo is a cheap and effective way of maximising the output of a relatively small engine. This forces compressed air into the engine with a turbine; like a supercharger but driven by exhaust gases rather than the crankshaft.
The delay common in early turbocharged cars between pressing the throttle hard and achieving acceleration is known as 'turbo lag'.
The first production car to use a turbocharger was the BMW 2002 Turbo (1973), although Chevrolet and Oldsmobile had played with the idea in the early 60s. It was the 1977 Saab 99 Turbo, however, which really took the concept to the masses.
Bolting on a turbo is a cheap and effective way of maximising the output of a relatively small engine. This forces compressed air into the engine with a turbine; like a supercharger but driven by exhaust gases rather than the crankshaft.
The delay common in early turbocharged cars between pressing the throttle hard and achieving acceleration is known as 'turbo lag'.
The first production car to use a turbocharger was the BMW 2002 Turbo (1973), although Chevrolet and Oldsmobile had played with the idea in the early 60s. It was the 1977 Saab 99 Turbo, however, which really took the concept to the masses.