Technology marches on....

[Alaskossie]

The latest issue of EVO magazine ha a item about the new Audi 4-litre twin-turbo V-8 (two turbos mounted in the V between the heads (!!), and with a feature that will deactivate half of the cylinders for economy, if not needed for cruising.

 

The item says, "To keep things sounding smooth, there are active engine mounts and 'Audi Noise Control': four microphones in the cabin scanning for unwanted V4-ish sounds, which are counteracted with 'inverse noise' played over the car's speakers."

 

Certainly of great interest to Seven owners who would like to avoid any hint of 4-cylinder engine sound.......

[Hank]

Certainly of great interest to Seven owners who would like to avoid any hint of 4-cylinder engine sound.......

 

I particularly like the sound of my Busa engine at 11,000 rpm THANK YOU VERY MUCH! :bigear:

[JohnCh]

Actually Lotus developed active noise control years ago, but the original concept was (no surprise) about saving weight since theoretically you could jettison the sound deadening material. I wonder if Audi, or their OEM supplier for the audio system, is licensing that technology or if it's their version of the concept?

 

-John

[Sean]

A friend of mine who lives in Japan bought a new car, and when you play a CD in the stereo system, it automatically records it to the internal hard drive. So once a CD has been played, the car stereo "remembers" it from that point on. I don't know the capacity of the hard drive, but judging by the capacity of typical personal media players today, I'm sure it is adequate.

[danilo]

Erm.. didn't the GM/Cadillac Northstar v8 feature that Variable cyl ignition trick. Years.. ago?

It could even run sans coolant as the ECU would keep rotating ignition to operational cyls to keep temps in check.

Go VW!

[Alaskossie]

Danilo,

 

You are correct, but GM/ Cadillac didn't provide an "8-cylinder soundtrack" for the economy mode -- that was back in the Dark Ages.

[jimrankin]

GM has the same "use as many as you need, 4-6 or 8 cylinders working" feature on several vehicals right now. It actually seems to work this time. Due to a lack of onboard computing power and external smog device "old technology" combustion chamber motors back in the 80's the original (way before Northstar) Caddy that featured the format wasn't very successful.

As clean burn diesel technology seems to be the "new" hope for combined power and good fuel economy we may be seeing the last big push for developing "gas" motors for mainstream cars from the big manufacturers. Can you picture a diesel Corvette in your future????

"Camshaft-less" electro-hydraulic valve movement gas motor technology seems to have fallen by the wayside but it looked to me like "the answer" to jumping from pushrods right past dual overhead cams to the ultimate in variable valve timing and lift. That would make Vtec look about as high tec as the "tone" knob on an old radio. LOL.

Can you picture a super low center of gravity inverted V, dry sump, short stroke, 12K+ RPM, camshaftless, no throttle plate Corvette in your future?????