Be Smart

Slama bowed out of my possession in the week just passed. As a result of our very un-reliable transportation system in this country I’ve had to hitch a ride with anyone heading my way. On one of such trips home I got into an argument with the occupant of the vehicle I was in. Namely Jigga and one Igbo Boy.
The loud mouthed Igbo Boy made a very offensive comment. He said if he were in a Discussion continues (Honda Accord 2005) and someone pulled up to him in a Skoda Octavia, He’d laugh real silly at the Octavia guy. Needless to say, I was angered by his comments as this is the Lame, un-informed and un-spirited loyalty that makes cars like Honda and Toyota’s so very expensive the world over.

Skoda superb

Toyota Camry
How did Honda and Toyota achieve their reputation for reliability? : By building cheap and dependable cars spanning over 60years. So what is so funny when an Auto Company with a humble background (19 years since Vw’s owned Skoda) that makes sensible cars so funny? I promised him that other than my love for German cars I’d prove him wrong with Statistics.
The Following day I got digging and got the following:

The figures speak for themselves, in a previous article the reason people are killing themselves for certain brands isn’t because they like them it’s because others are buying them. At 3million Naira the 1.6MPI Octavia is more than a worthy bargain. It’s as far as I’m concerned a better car than the Corolla (I didn’t even bother getting the cost of the corolla just to show you how confident I am)
Let’s also keep in clear perspective that Toyota isn’t as reliable as it used to be. According to caranddriver.com, Toyota lost the Accord/Camry battle with the launch of the last generation Accord. A record it held for the previous 5 generations. Then there’s the UIA, un-intended acceleration that a good portion of Toyota’s line suffered which led to a world-wide recall ( I don’t remember any Toyota’s being recalled in Nigeria).
On a final note, let’s not get carried away by the success of the day, else you risk loosing it to harder, more committed and ever dynamic competitors. The winner here by any milestone is clearly the Skoda, even demonstrated by its Superb name.

Want more power????

Man’s quest for power ultimately sent Him out of the Garden of Eden, when he sought knowledge what he actually sought was power. The race for power is ever evident in the auto industry as with most manufacturers that have products in same groups tend to out-do each other with almost every model they release. BMW’s M3 and Audi’s RS4 are typically good examples.
The power war between the car giants is worse than what ensued between OBJ and Atiku in the last dispensation. These brilliant car manufacturers have arrived at the pinnacle of this battle by various means; vehicular weight reduction, improved aero dynamics and advances in engine design with stuffs like direct injection. But one common denominator that is ever present in almost every car that chooses to go berserk on its power numbers is that the engine is always charged up.
If you remember clearly the very 1st memories you’d have of a sports car is the Toyota Supra. It was fast right? The Supra employed one of two available means of charging up an engine, it used the Turbocharger. The other alternative more commonly in use is the Supercharger. Both are basically the same thing just differentiated in the means of achieving their aim.
Basically both turbo and Superchargers are compressors that compress air that is fed to the engine. The advantage of compressing the air is that it lets the engine stuff more air into a cylinder. More air means that more fuel can be stuffed in, too, so you get more power from each explosion in each cylinder. A turbo/supercharged engine produces more power overall than the same engine without the charging.¬

Single scroll Turbocharger

Superchager
The key difference is that the Turbocharger uses waste exhaust gases to drive its turbine while the Supercharger uses a regular belt or chain and pulley system like your alternator or water pump. Turbochargers are actually cheaper to fix and for an engine not producing any boost power increases the efficiency of the engine by atomizing all of the fuel (ensuring no fuel leaves the system un-burnt). The downside is that the power band on the turbo chargers tends to be in the higher rev range of the engine. Meaning that if you need instant power from stand-still, you might not get it; a feeling often described as Turbo Lag. Superchargers have a more linear power curve but actually are more expensive and use up a considerable amount of the engines power. The Super charger on the McLaren Mercedes SLR actually uses up to 126Hp!!!! That’s more than a Corolla puts out.
Engine power is increased by either of these chargers. Sadly fuel consumption also increases, but this is more than a welcome sacrifice for the increased power?