Looking for a good Automotive forum: Newb friendly.

[luciusad2004]

Hey guys, ive been doing some searching around and was thinking that maybe you guys could help me. It seams that a few of you guys on these boards are in to automobiles and i thought that you might be able to help point me to some good forums. I dont know anything about cars and i want to find a very newb freindly forum were i can hang out and hopefully at the end of the day learn something.

I guess the only preference i would have to say is that im not really in to american cars or "muscle" so i probably wouldn't fit in to well in that sort of environment.

Thanks for any help.

[Drew]

Any preference?

Most car forums tend to be specialised.. be it make, model, modified, muscle, drift, circuit or whatever.

[luciusad2004]

Hmmm, i guess i would say that i like tuners and drifting. Moddified sounds interesting to.

As far as brands id say im mostly in to Japanese stuf. Honda, Toyota, I own a Nissan so i guess that would be useful.

Idk, I dont really know much about this kinda stuff.

Thanks for the reply. : )

[GT40_GearHead]

rice... sniff sniff... ARRRGHHH !

JOKING man, after all I am a car guy, some people are starting to forget what that really mean, anyway....

i can't help with import forums, i'm more into v8 power be it US made or European, though I must admit sometimes i get wet over the Mazda rotary....anyWAY..... ;;)

here is what I can do:

-gt40s.com (http://www.gt40s.com/forum/)
(great forum, in the couple of moths i've been a member i have yet to see flame war or something)
(there are people here that build their own chassis and drive them to 300km/h so.... lot of knowledge there )
and
-corvetteforum.com (http://forums.corvetteforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19)
(be careful on the Corvette forum, those guys are just waiting for some fresh meat... goulp lol, you have been warned !)


you ain't gonna see much import talk there BUT you will learn A LOT about brake systems, suspension, fuel systems, drive train etc.

these guys, both GT40's and VetteForum do a lot of racing so they know their ****


have fun

[rendermandan]

did the fast and the furious bug get you?

[luciusad2004]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Ill check out both of those forums. Might not be my style but i'm sure i can learn something good there. Odd's our ill read for a while before i even sign up, then when i feel comfortable posting ill make up a new acount.

@rendermandan, I actually didnt care to much for the fast and the furious. I mean i can watch them, i like to look at some of the cars in it, but when they came out i wasn't all that in to cars. I haven't even seen the third one. All my friends seem to love it though. I just recently became interested in car's after finaly getting my licence. (had my learners permit for... 3 years i think lol. Passed the test first try though.)

Thanks for the comments : )

[Mitternacht]

http://www.sportscarforums.com/
They have a big ol' mixed bag of any classification of vehicles and racing types. I was on these boards, but I prefer Steel City Stangs because its centralized around Pittsburgh PA, and there's all kind of local car shows to meet members at.

[Spawn-Inc]

not to side track but i found this on the vette forums...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1758454

anyone here done that? i want a sound clip!!!!


also here is what me thinks your looking for http://www.nopiforums.com (http://www.nopiforums.com/index.php?act=idx) lots of tuners, rice, and drifting there. i'm not sure how good it is though, looks like lots of ads.

[Mitternacht]

not to side track but i found this on the vette forums...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1758454

anyone here done that? i want a sound clip!!!!


also here is what me thinks your looking for http://www.nopiforums.com (http://www.nopiforums.com/index.php?act=idx) lots of tuners, rice, and drifting there. i'm not sure how good it is though, looks like lots of ads.

p-BMmv7J-9k

[AJ@PR]

not to side track but i found this on the vette forums...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1758454

anyone here done that? i want a sound clip!!!!

I see what they're doing... but... I'm... perplexed.

Really perplexed.

I mean, why the hell are you putting two turbochargers at the very end of the exhaust system?
After feet and feet of travelling?
After the exhaust gases have lost a lot of their temperature?
After the exhaust gases have lost a lot of their pressure?

And what are you going to do with the boosted air?
Make plumbing to the front of the car???
How many bends?
How much back pressure?

This is, a really, WTF for me.

I'm going to read more to see if I'm able to pick-up something.

Can somebody please shed some light into this for me??? :? :think:

EDIT: Craftsmanship looks amazing though... still... :?

[Spawn-Inc]

i'm thinking that he's doing it for sound, not the boost. i'm not sure what kind of sound it will make but i'm very interested in finding out.

@Mitternacht, while that was a awesome clip the turbos on that were used. i want to hear turbos at the end like in the link.

i guess i'm going to have to watch that tread until he finishes and posts a sound/video clip.

EDIT: a quote from the site.
I totally admire the ballsiness of this project...If I could tune, I would do it in a heartbeat...This has the potential of being a 9 second street car? Who cares about lag of the turbos being way back there, the car is not going to hook anyway....I would love to see this car kick Rods ass in a drag race, now that would would be the schnizzle.

so i guess it is for actual use.

[Mitternacht]

Turbo systems mounted in the rear have more pros than expected cons.

-The turbos run 500*F cooler than under the hood, resulting in greater efficiency.
-The boost traveling up towards the front of the car through all of the charge piping cools the air up to 50%
-Only loses 1 lb of boost by the time the air gets to the throttle body
-1-day installation
-Turbo lag; What turbo lag?

[GT40_GearHead]

mitter is right that is exactly what the guys that made that setup said !


think about it the turbo charger will get much cooler exhaust and that is great for the bearings

there is a lot more space to work with

iff you think about it the pipe will be probably as or even more straight than an under the hood setup basically you have a bend at the output side of the turbo and another two where you punch it in the TB and because of the space you can make this bends nice and wide

as for lag, i don't know why but it does not seem to be a problem as in not worse than an under the hood mount

[AJ@PR]

w00t!!!

Car discussion with geek friends! :D

Ok, so here's my take on it... please comment and correct!

1st - You *want* HOT turbochargers. Hot as the surface of the sun!
Some more explanation: Obviously, the INTAKE part of the turbo, you'd want as cool as possible.
But the EXHAUST part, you want that as hot as possible h0m3z!
Gases at 1,200F have more energy than cooler gases, thus, they're better able to spool-up the turbos.
I can see the possibility that I'm looking at this wrong, but that's where I'm standing (open to change!).
I think that you want exhaust as hot as possible. (please comment :))

2nd - Mitt, although all that piping will definitely cool the air... I just wonder what's the downside in terms of performance. I mean, that's a lot of feet of piping... and various bends, even if done 'neatly'.
I just wonder.

3rd - The 1lb of lost boost, I'd reckon that's application specific. Depending on the car and such.
Intercoolers, for example, decrease the pressure... they cool the air, and we all know that cool air is more dense than hot air, thus, less pressure. That's just my take on it.

4th - One day installation: I don't know about you guys, but that's amongst the best things 'bout working on your car. You look at the clock, and suddenly, it's 1:24 in the morning... and it's time for the test drive. Yay! Empty roads!

5th - Turbo lag... I'm at lost here.
Mr. Mitt... do you think that having the turbos back there will reduce the turbo lag?
I'm just wondering... I really don't have it thoughtout... hmmmm...

@ Mr. GT:
The cooler exhaust for the turbo's bearings is really a big plus.
Although, if I was doing the project, I'd opt for Turbonetics units with ceramic bearings.
Over and out.

As to space, crap yeah! Can't ask for more space than what you have down there. :)

RE: Lag, ... again, I really don't have my mind set on this. I don't know if it'd be more lag or less. =\


As for the sound, I see two really cool things.
1- it's basically an open exhaust up until the end, where the turbo's housing will 'muffle' somewhat the roar
2- (and this is cool), the 'whine' from the spools has to travel but 4 inches before the rest of the planet can hear them dancing at 120,000rpm. THAT is cool.

Oh yeah, and if that wastegate opens, it's going to look really cool shooting flames right out the middle!


I look forward to your input guys!

[luciusad2004]

I think i need something more basic lol. I have no clue what you guys are talking about... Well i do, but i dont understand most of it. How do you guys go about learning the basic stuff?

Also, is there a reason you guys seem to prefer turbo over superchargers? I was readeing yesterday and i conclusion that superchargers seemed more practicle.

[Mitternacht]

I think i need something more basic lol. I have no clue what you guys are talking about... Well i do, but i dont understand most of it. How do you guys go about learning the basic stuff?

Also, is there a reason you guys seem to prefer turbo over superchargers? I was readeing yesterday and i conclusion that superchargers seemed more practicle.

For the street yes, but Turbos offer free power, since it doesn't hold the motor back like a supercharger would.

[AJ@PR]

For the street yes, but Turbos offer free power, since it doesn't hold the motor back like a supercharger would.

What Mr. Mitt said. :)


In addition, a properly designed, tested, and tuned turbo setup will outperform a supercharger almost all the time.

Interesting Random Fact:
Do you guys know around how much horsepower does it take to drive the roots-type blower in Funny Cars and Dragsters?
Any idea?

How about, the fact, that you need like 2,000 horsepower to drive the supercharger? Yup yup. :)

[Mitternacht]

What Mr. Mitt said. :)


In addition, a properly designed, tested, and tuned turbo setup will outperform a supercharger almost all the time.

Interesting Random Fact:
Do you guys know around how much horsepower does it take to drive the roots-type blower in Funny Cars and Dragsters?
Any idea?

How about, the fact, that you need like 2,000 horsepower to drive the supercharger? Yup yup. :)

Another interesting fact: The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 only needs 270 HP to hit 200 MPH, but needs another 730 horses to hit 250. That's why it utilizes 4 turbochargers, 16 cylinders and 10 radiators to cool it all.

[AJ@PR]

Another interesting fact: The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 only needs 270 HP to hit 200 MPH, but needs another 730 horses to hit 250. That's why it utilizes 4 turbochargers, 16 cylinders and 10 radiators to cool it all.

THAT's EXACTLY the kind of geek stuff I like to 'know'!!! :)

Another interesting fact, which I went like "THANK YOU!" when I finally read it.

Do you know the roots-type blowers?
To all those that aren't sure, centrifugal blowers are (loosely) a turbocharger cut in half... and moved by the engine's mechanical systems (pulleys).

The other types of superchargers are the 'positive displacemente' type of blowers. The 'Roots' type of blower.

Well, I always wondered why the heck where they named after wierd numbers.
Like, 2-71, 5-71, etc.

It turns out that the original design for such blowers was done by GM.
At the time, they where going to use those Roots superchargers for their diesel applications.
Each cylinder in their diesel engines was 71 cubic inches in capacity.
So, the blowers where named after how many of those cylinders could they "fill" with each revolution.

So a 6-71 blower, is able to fill six cylinders of 71 cubic inches each... same as displacing 426 cubic inches in each revolution. :eek: :eek:

[Spawn-Inc]

well if i ever with the lotto i'm going to get a stingray or grand national (both if i really win big) and put a small block twin turbo supercharged engine inside. i saw Boyd Coddington do it once to a vette on his show. there was another show i saw once with a hotrod and a 5-6ft tall engine. it was crazy, i really wish i knew what car it was.