Automatic Door Locks

We all have a car, or have at least been in a car, where when you hit a certain speed, generally 10-15 mph, the doors automatically lock. But why is that?

The claimed reason is "safety"citing that it's to prevent opening the doors while the car is in motion at higher speeds. But we all know that's bologna because we all have that friend who thinks it's funny to open the doors at 50 mph, and if you don't know which of your friends that is, then stop opening my car doors, you twat.

"Yeah, but what about child locks? That works!" To which I answer, yes, they do, they can also be turned off by opening the rear doors and flipping a little switch.... And to add to the woes they're the opposite of safe, in the event of a crash having the doors automatically locked was such a hastle for EMTs that the US had to instill a law saying that in the event of a crash the computers had to unlock all of the doors. SO WHY DO THEY EVEN EXIST?

You might be asking why I'm ranting (Hey, I'm not ranting) about the locking mechanisms on car doors. I'm not, I have a point and here it is:

It's for hobos. Or shady invididuals in general. Think about when you were a kid and automatic doors and electronic locks weren't a standard feature, driving through a "rough area" your parents would tell you to lock your door. You asked why, they said because they said so, and you did what you were told, only to put two and two together a few years later. Well these automatic doors take all of the hastle  and hasty, awkward reach-over-to-the-locks-so-no-hobo-sees-you-through-your-window locking motion away.

And so we pay $2000 for automatic doors, instead of giving the homeless guy selling newspapers one dollar.

Toyota Wins at Sao Paulo

Yesterday was a sad day indeed, Audi, still in first with 26 points though, lost their first race this season to the ever-getting-better-er Toyota Denso team.

The Prius managed a first place win at the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo with a nearly 10 second gap! At Le Mans the worried Audi before having two fatal crashes, at Silverstone they scared Audi with a short gappped win, and at Sao Paulo they beat Audi. There's ordinarily a learning curve to racing, but after a decade out of racing, the third race of their newly ordained career and Toyota has already found their niche.


Well done to the men from Japan, but we'll see what happens in Bahrain.

Audi in F1 (part 2)

F1 is a sport designed specifically by rich, posh gentlemen, for rich, posh gentlemen. It's a rich man's sport, designed to go faster and harder and push the limits of what we're capable of building under a certain set of rules.

Don't be lulled or fooled, this is not a sport that breeds a message "to the people". Quite the opposite. The two best things we've gotten out of F1 research is hybrid systems and variable timing. The hybrid system barely counts because while they used KERS to produce acceleration through the corners, we got an electric motor to keep the engine idling, not to mention it went in to production cars a decade after F1 adopted the practice. It is only now that we see electric motors being used in this way on production cars, and the ones I speak of, e-tron and 918 spyder, are far out of anyone's price range.

So what do I think of Audi stepping in to F1? Cultural suicide. This is a company bred in sport, literally pouring money in to destroyed cars and drivers simply to build a better car for the average customer, entering F1 is the opposite of this.

100 years for 100 miles of battery charge. Yay F1?

Quattro, FSI, TDI, manufacturing innovations, LED lighting, and now the e-tron and even the cameras that work as mirrors. All tech developed through Audi Sport that hit "shelves" within a couple of years of their testing on the track. Innovations that have broken records, taken trophies, and lasted decades in the form of "your families 20 year old sedan". All to be thrown away, cast in to the shadows, and for what? A running against Ferrari?

Please. Let Lamborghini take care of that, in the production race.

Audi's New Lineup

Recently there has been an exec change up within VWAG. Wolfgang Durheimer, an old executive at Porsche and current head of Bentley and Bugatti is making a leap of faith in to the R&D of Audi.

Now while no Lucious Fox, the man does have aspirations for his new found home-company:

          “Magazines are always comparing Volkswagen Group cars with each other, so why shouldn’t we compare our race cars within the same group? Competition is good for Volkswagen and it will not be a straightforward fight anyway, because there will be a technology battle going on too. Porsche will be racing using a petrol engine, Audi will be using diesel power.”

He's also hinted that he might be interested in pushing Audi towards F1 (my next post I'll talk about this further, my own opinion of course) and out of WEC. With Dr. Wolfgang Ulrich nearing retirement, Durheimer might just achieve this wanton path.

Dr. Ulrich has been very adamant and outspoken against Audi ever stepping foot in to F1 however Durheimer's argument is that Audi is a company built on dominating a sport and moving on, whether it be rally, touring, endurance, or even, yes, the dreaded Forumla 1.

Who needs SWAG when you have VWAG?

There's an up side though, Durheimer wants Audi to finish competing in WEC, and by finish, they mean break Porsche's record of 16 Le Mans titles; let's put it this way, Audi hold's 11 titles, and many, many more years of future endeavors.

Fourtitude article: 

http://fourtitude.com/news/motorsport_news_6/audis-future-at-le-mans-bright-according-to-vag-motorsport-boss-durheimer/