Category Technical Talk

We have covered all detailed information about the upcoming 2016 Acura NSX a month ago in this article. Today we are going to show you a gallery containing 14 high resolution photos of this supercar.

From these photos we notice one interesting thing about this upcoming NSX: the rear drive shafts that propel the two rear wheels have unequal lengths. Although this will not caused issues such as the torque steering in front-wheel-drive cars, what caught our attention is the thing that causes the unequal length drive shaft in the NSX – an extra component attached to the transmission/rear differential (highlighted in red in the below image).

This is unusual in mid-engine spo...

All-wheel-drive system is a somewhat complicated topic. The main factor lies in: there are many types of differential, and also an AWD system always has 3 differentials (front/center/rear), hence there are many possible combinations of ways to implement an AWD system.

Since a typical consumer may not have enough knowledge to understand all technical details behind the AWD system, automobile manufacturers usually employ a single, unified generic term to name all of its AWD systems. Take Volkswagen as example: all of its AWD systems have only one name: “4Motion”, the same thing applies to Audi’s Quattro system.

The current way that car makers name their AWD products seems ...

For people who is not satisfy with the 560hp BMW M6 Gran Coupe, the easiest way to boost output is to “chip” the ECU, since it is using a turbocharged V8 engine. However I personally do not recommend you to do this (I will explain the reason later in this article). Today Alpina (a Bavarian automobile manufacturer good at building cars based on BMW models) provides you a much better and cleaner solution: the 2016 B6 xDrive Gran Coupe.

You will get multiple benefits and save tons of time and hassles by purchasing the B6 Gran Coupe, for example you get:

1. Upgraded engine (still the BMW N63 4.4L V8, but with enhancements in air intake, fuel system etc...

Compared to other major luxury brands in the US market (Mercedes/BMW/Audi/Lexus/Infiniti/Acura etc), Jaguar is somewhat “small”.

Below is 2014 sales figure for the above brands:

Jaguar: 15,773 units
Mercedes: 356,136 units
BMW: 339,738 units
Audi: 182,011 units
Lexus: 311,389 units
Infiniti: 117,330 units
Acura: 167,843 units

So you can see Jaguar’s sales is just a tiny portion of its competitors. However, this does not mean Jaguar cars are low quality, or technologically outdated. In fact it has two very prominent advantages in the automobile industry:

(Above: Jaguar XE’s aluminum body-in-white)

1. Aluminum car body structure across the full product line...

Two days ago, Ford announced the all-new 2016 Focus RS, which has more than 315hp from the 2.3L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, mated to an AWD system.

This effectively puts the Focus RS into the competition with other hot hatches in the market, such as the Subaru WRX STI and also the Volkswagen Golf R. The current 2015 WRX STI is in the sedan form, but we can safely bet the hatchback version is coming very soon, therefore we include it into our discussion here.

Generally speaking, Subaru WRX STI is the most hardcore vehicle for rally purpose, while it has lower refinement; the VW Golf R has the best refinement, but its AWD system is the weakest among the three candidate...