OT: This Swift thing

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday 11 June 2014 22:11:53 Gregory Ewing did opine
And Gene did reply:
> Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> > Automotive cooling fluid in modern sealed radiators is typically a
> > mixture of 50% anti-freeze and 50% water.
> 
> Sometimes it's even more than 50%, at which point
> you really have an antifreeze-cooled engine. :-)

There have been cases where that 50% may have been exceeded actually 
driving on the streets.

At least 3 decades back, not too long before caddy came out with the 
northstar engine, which was rigged to get you home at a reasonable speed 
even if the radiator had been holed & the coolant lost.  They used a wee 
bit of the knowledge gained from keeping Smokey Yunick is experimenting 
cash.  He had an old VW Rabbit that was both a parts car, and the test 
bed. Two cylinder motor, I suspect built on a Harley 78cid crankcase, no 
radiator, no air cooling.  Ceramic cylinders and pistons, it ran at a 
quite high internal temperature because the cylinders were insulated from 
losing heat by fiberglass blankets.  It displaced 78 cid, made about 150 
HP, and got well over 120 mpg running around in Daytona Beach.  The one 
magazine article said it hadn't lost a stoplight grand prix ever but 
Smokey stopped that by making whoever was driving it, 100% responsible for 
any tickets it collected.

It would have been gawdawful expensive to put it into production since 
those 2 cylinders & pistons cost more than the complete V8 Northstar 
engine.

I thought it was one radically cool idea at the time.  And I am amazed 
that something like it has not invaded the automotive world what with all 
the emphasis on both high mileage & decent horsepower caused by the high 
petro prices.  Today I'd imagine a new cat converter might need to be 
built because at those temps and compression ratio's, I can see a hugely 
illegal amount of the various nitrogen oxides the EPA wouldn't tolerate. 

Cheers, Gene Heskett
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