Thursday, April 01, 2010

WAR ON V8s: 37.8 M.P.G. CAFE AVERAGE FOR CARS BY 2016.

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It's official -- The dreaded EPA/NHTSA "Clean Car" regulations are geared to punish automotive freedom-of-choice by cramming down a draconian 37.8 miles-per-gallon fuel economy average by 2016. This will likely relegate V8 power to only a handful of hyper-expensive exotics and artificially-limited production muscle cars in less than four years time.

Blue-collar gearheads can kiss their chance at reasonably-priced V8 muscle goodby. Thanks, Mr. Obama. And thanks to the liberal wing of the U.S. Supreme Court, who misread the Clean Air Act in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, bought into a compost heap of junk science, and made this greeniac power grab possible.

According to the Detroit News, the bloated 1,469-page "final regulation" from EPA and NHTSA will extract a massive $51.5 billion extra over five years from new car buyers (assuming the cost estimates are better than what the Feds guessed for programs like Medicaid and Medicare). The "Clean Cars" market-tampering regulations will punish consumers an average of around $1000 per car by 2016 (before financing charges).

Of course the problem with averages is that bringing high-performance models within the 37.8 m.p.g. average will cost much more than $1000 per car. Get ready for $40,000+ Mustang GTs (if they survive in any recognizable form at all)

A 100,000 car cumulative loophole exists for makes that sold fewer than 400,000 vehicles in the States during 2009. So while American cars are immasculated on the altar of fuel economy, German and Italian luxury brands will be able to avoid some of the pain (but take more profits from their high-performance customers as their competitors' prices are forced upward).

Even the E-85 loophole, which has been a boon for keeping V8s in production by diluting their impact on CAFE, will close in 2015 unless the OEMs can show the vehicles are really being operated on ethanol.

The big automakers, who are all poised to punish their most loyal customers with huge jumps in the prices of "limited edition" high-performancee vehicles, all praised this fiasco through paid super-lobbyist Dave McCurdy. McCurdy said:

"America needs a roadmap to reduced dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gases, and only the federal government can play this role . . . The national program announced today makes sense for consumers, for government policymakers and for automakers."


No, Dave. What America needs is FREE MARKETS, not thousands of pages of expensive, liberty-killing regulations.

Of course, the reason highly-paid appliance motorist shills like Democrat Dave McCurdy are so gleeful at the prospect of forcing Americans into expensive, less-safe economy cars is that the apparent alternative -- states following California's proposed greenhouse gas rules -- was even worse.

Of course the 2012-2016 "Clean Car" rules are just a start. Obama-appointed DOT Secretary Ray LaHood chirpped that "post 2016 work will begin as soon as the ink is dry."

Make no mistake, the radical greeniacs driving this bus will not be satisfied until muscle cars are banished, automotive liberty is stamped out, and everyone is stuffed into smelly public transit or tiny, sealed-for-your-protection, tamper-proof 50+ m.p.g. electric golf carts.

It's apt that the "Clean Car" regulations were announced on April Fools Day. Because only a fool would believe that this is the best course for automotive liberty.

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WAR ON V8s: V6 FOR THE “C8” CORVETTE?

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Autoweek is reporting a “senior GM insider” said the upcoming C7 Corvette “will be the last of the traditional, old-style Corvettes." According to the report, the C8, due in 2016, will feature a turbocharged V6 instead of a V8.

Of course the main driver of the move against V8 power is the EPA/NHTSA carbon regulations set to be announced April 1, 2010. The so-called “Clean Cars” rule “would apply to passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty passenger vehicles, covering model years 2012 through 2016. The new rules would require these vehicles to meet an estimated combined average emissions level of 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile." That dovetails with the 35.5 miles per gallon Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard for 2016.

Downsized engines are a primary means of meeting the carbon standards because they can be made more efficient in part-throttle driving.

While some Ford fans may hope that “Government Motors” fatally tampers with the Corvette franchise, loss of the antediluvian pushrod LS V8 in Corvette will give Ford product planners some cover to dump V8s as well. Already, Ford’s lazy sales job on the EcoBoost V6 puts Ford’s V8 tradition at risk. Instead of developing smaller high-tech V8s, Ford and the other Detroit carmakers appear to be taking the easy way out by merely trimming cylinders to cut displacement. A right-sized V8 with a full array of efficiency technologies can meet the unreasonable and unfounded demands for fewer “greenhouse gas” emissions while preserving the traditional essence of full-throttled V8 motoring.

Although Corvette labored its first couple of sales seasons with the “Blue Flame Six” in the 1950s, a Corvette simply isn’t a Corvette without eight cylinders. No "buzzin' half dozen" will do.

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Friday, March 26, 2010

WAR ON V8s: WILL THE TAURUS-BASED POLICE INTERCEPTOR "COLLAPSE" FORD'S COP CAR HEGEMONY?

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Truth with Speedzzter isn't the only voice expressing skepticism that the announced V8-less Taurus/Police Interceptor will crater Ford Motor Company's domination of the police car market. John Rosevear at "The Motley Fool" investment website argues in a post entitled "Ford's Looming Market Share Collapse":

GM and Chrysler, like Smith & Wesson (Nasdaq: SWHC), L-1 Identity Solutions (NYSE: ID), TASER International (Nasdaq: TASR), and other companies that sell to the police market, know that many police departments want the tried-and-true. Both are sticking with the traditional formula -- while Chrysler's revised Dodge Charger, due later this year, is expected to address officer complaints about the relatively small trunk and limited visibility in the current model, it will still be a large rear-wheel-drive sedan with (lots of) V8 power available.

Likewise the new fleet-only Chevrolet Caprice, which will be built on an extended version of the same rear-wheel-drive platform that underpins the Camaro. GM has said that the Caprice will be available with a high-horsepower V8 and cop-friendly features like special seats and an oversized trunk.


Of course neither the unibody Charger or the Australian immigrant formerly known as Pontiac G8 have the rock-solid durability and cheap repair costs of the anvil-tough, body-on-frame Panther-based Crown Victoria/Police Interceptor. But both will be closer to "tried-and-true" than the Volvo-derived Taurus Police Interceptor. Thus, many expect the mostly unloved Taurus to lose much of the Panther's loyal following.

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WAR ON V8s: VOLVO TO KILL V8 OPTION?

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Jalopnik is reporting that soon to be ex-Ford Volvo is canning all sorts of appealing hardware, including the V8 option for the S80.

For the time being, the Volvo V8 will remain available in the XC90 because a turbo six is not available.

While this move may seem to some as merely consolidation, in the bigger picture, it's a harbinger of what's likely to be a recurring story during the model years leading up to the draconian 35.5 m.p.g. Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard in 2016.

As Truth With Speedzzter wrote on Bangshift.com regarding GM's development of an EcoBoost-fighting 3.0 twin-turbo V6:

But the overwhelming concern is probably future compliance with CAFE standards. These turbo V6s are clearly aimed at V8 territory. And some experts predict that even V6s aren't going to be very common by 2016. http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100322/OEM06/303229994/1186 & http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100322/OEM06/303229992/1186


To be sure, CAFE and the confluence of lazy marketing (the entire basis of the current EcoBoost "economy of a six with the power of a V8" campaign) and rabid beancounting is shaping up to be a "war on V8s." Just the "Cash For Clunkers" giveaway amounted to a war on vintage V8s (and a backdoor attack on hot rodding and other forms of grassroots motorsports), the current pressures against new V8s amounts to a "second front" in the Anti-V8 war.

As Truth With Speedzzter further explained at Bangshift:

If GM obtains about the same horsepower-per-liter as the EcoTec turbo/DI 2.0 (~130 hp/l), the GM 3.0 will produce around 390 h.p.

Of course Ford's initial EcoBoost engine is tuned more for quick response and a flat torque curve than maximum h.p. And reportedly FoMoCo is working on "Project Bobcat" (supplemental direct ethanol injection), which would easily crest 130 hp/l. Former FoMoCo exec Dr. Neil Ressler is involved in Ethanol Boosting Systems, L.L.C., the holder of key patents on the EBS process. http://www.ethanolboost.com/

[UPDATE: "Project Bobcat" has primarily been a government-grant subsidized research project aimed at light truck powerplants. Mike Harrison, FoMoCo's chief engineer on 5.0-liter and 6.2-liter "Boss" truck V8s, who told Autoblog Green "the 5.0-liter Bobcat was actually derived from the old 5.4-liter V8 currently used in the F150 and the Shelby GT500."

Autoblog Green further reported "For Bobcat use, the longer-stroke 5.4 was used in combination with a smaller bore giving thicker cylinder walls needed to withstand the high internal pressures of the boosted 750 pound-foot engine. According to Harrison, the Bobcat was part of a Department of Energy-funded research project and there are no current plans for a production engine based on the technology. Harrison tells us that the extra cost of the dual injection systems and more robust block and heads negates much of the savings from not needing a diesel after-treatment system."

It would appear that the Modular's FWD-oriented narrow bore centers may have scuttled another promising development. Moreover, Ford may have decided to focus more on turbo-diesels, which will not pay as many "trickle-down" dividends to hot rodders and grassroots motorsports enthusiasts as a "full-throttle" development of a "Bobcat" EBS system would]

It's unlikely that the current regime at Ford is going to get beat in a horsepower war. For example, a recent chassis dyno test of the Coyote-Powered 2011 Mustang GT yielded the following:


Quote:
"Inside Line's tester reliably belted out 395 horsepower at 6,600 RPM and 365 pound-feet of torque at 4,350 rpm. That's at the wheel, natch, and since IL estimates the 'Stang sees only an 11% to 13% driveline loss thanks to its stick axle, the car is likely making somewhere between 438 and 446 horsepower at the crank -- far more than the advertised 412.

This should come as no surprise to anyone, especially Inside Line. After all, last year they did the same thing with a 2010 GT500 only to learn that - surprise! - it was underrated. (Their tester put down 511 horsepower at the wheel. The guys figured the number at the crank to be around 570 horses, not the 540 advertised)."


IS THE COYOTE V8 THE LAST HURRAH FOR MASS-MARKET V8 POWER?

Regardless of how incredible the new DOHC Coyote V8 is (or could be in supercharged, EcoBoost or Twincharged form), the pressure of CAFE will force engine downsizing.

Uwe Grebe, General Motors executive director for global advanced engineering, told Automotive News that meeting CAFE will be costly because "everyone is done picking the low-hanging fruit." He suggests the improvements to conventional engines and drivelines will "include turbocharging, gasoline direct injection, variable valve timing, cylinder deactivation and dual-clutch transmissions. Grebe estimates that 15 to 20 percent more fuel economy can be squeezed out of conventional gasoline powertrains."

Cutting the number of cylinders will be a quick and lazy method to reduce cubic inches.

Certainly, smaller V8s that are scaled-down to equivalent cubic-inch displacement of current sixes and even fours could produce striking fuel economy along with the sounds, driving feel, and aesthetics of traditional V8. But the marketers are simply too lazy to make the sales case for up-to-date "right-sized" DOHC turbo V8s and the green-eye-shade gang is probably too cheap to fund them.

Sadly, V8s are increasingly likely to become an endangered species. They will be sacrificed for no legitimate reason on the altars of uninformed public opinion, cost cutting, and regulatory compliance.

Volvo's decision is just an early warning of this.

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