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Contrast this excerpt from the infamous letter from Clyde Barrow to Henry Ford: http://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/barrow.asp "...For sustained speed and freedom from trouble the Ford has got every other car skinned, and even if my business hasen't[sic] been strickly[sic] legal it don't hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V8."
With this:
http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/police-blotter/troopers-ask-for-help-finding-xbox-game-thieves-20151125 "...The thieves were seen fleeing the store in a gray Toyota Prius."
Something just feels wrong when thieves use a Prius as their getaway car!
[What is the strangest getaway vehicle you have ever heard of? -Ed.]
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In Tulsa, Oklahoma, it is against the law to open a soda bottle without
the supervision of a licensed engineer.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday December 01 2015, @08:43AM
Nothing special about the V8, except the connection to criminals and a tomato-based vegetable drink. GM had V12's and Straight 8's early on. Mercedes used to run the 5 cylinder diesel. And of course there have been the "pancake" designs, whether VW's horizontially opposed 4-cylinder, or even the BMW motorcycle twin. Mentioning motorcycles, Harleys, Motoguzzis and even Hondas have run twin-V engines. So while we are talking Internal Combustion Engine Architecture, what are the advantages of a V, anyway. The Four-in-a-row seems to have taken over? But don't you be thinking about my Hot Rod Lincoln!
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday December 01 2015, @08:54AM
Size vs output, mainly.
Lower engine inside bonnet now means pedestrians get hurt less when you hit them (the first time)
https://www.carthrottle.com/post/engineering-explained-the-pros-and-cons-of-different-engine-types/ [carthrottle.com]
One of the most amazing engines ever was the Napier Deltic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Deltic [wikipedia.org]
Alas, wouldn't fit under the hood of any road cars.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @03:31AM
The only reason is to squeeze more cylinders in a compact space, otherwise they'd have radial engines like the old airplanes. There's also Ford V4 engines in British cars, they look exactly like a small block Ford V8 with the rear 4 cylinders cut off. Then there's Mazda rotory engines, discontinued because of apex seal problems.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 02 2015, @06:38PM
Yeah, I was thinking about the radial airplane piston engines. But with the V-12s and Straight8's, I oft would wonder if the larger number of smaller displacement cylinders produced more power more gently. If you have even seen an old "make and break" farm engine, the huge one cylinder type with a massive flywheel counter-weight, running at speed, you can see that vibration can be a major problem.
And the Mazda rotary! The Wankel engine? Seems that internal combustion is kind of like batteries, not much progress, and certain nothing revolutionary that caught on in a hundred years or so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @02:21PM
Look at the Honda motorcycles of the 70s.
Single, parallel twin, v twin, transverse v twin, straight 4, straight 6, boxer 4.
Later boxer 6, v 4. They raced a v5 in the 2000.
Lots of different V angles to trade space vs balance in motorcycles. There were square 4s, front to back 4s, straight triples, 4s & 3s on the side.
Someone did a home W. And v8s from autos.
Counter rotating crankshafts an even multiple crankshafts have been done.
Firing orders from screamer to big bang also have an affect.