Big Daddy Don Garlits

Donald Glenn "Don" Garlits (born January 14, 1932, Tampa, Florida) is considered the father of drag racing. He is known as "Big Daddy" to drag racing fans around the world. Always a pioneer in the field of drag-racing, he, with the help of T.C. Lemons, relating at least in part to the loss of a portion of his foot in a drag racing accident, perfected the rear-engine "top fuel dragster design". This design is notably safer as it puts most of the fuel processing and rotating or reciprocating parts of the dragster behind the driver. The driver is placed in "clear air" and in catastrophic vehicle or drivetrain failure, explosion or fire are almost always fully behind the driver, thus capable of activating a variety of safety equipment. Garlits was an early promoter of a full-body, fire-resistant suit - complete with socks and gloves, often branded as nomex.
Garlits was the first drag racer to officially surpass 170, 180, 200, 240, 250, 260, and 270 miles per hour in the quarter mile; and he was also the first to top 200 in the 1/8 mile. Note that all official NHRA records require a "back-up" (speed and elapsed time within 1% of the record) run to verify the newer, higher level of performance. He has been inducted in numerous halls of fame and has won numerous awards during his career.

The combustion engine!!!

Probably the most important invention of all time, minus the wheel. It is in pretty much any car you see on the road. There are different forms, sizes, and mechanics of them depending on the make. Now the first one was developed in 1608 and ran on gunpowder. Since then they have come along way. The engine works in cycles to turn the crankshaft which turns the transmission that makes your car go. Depending on the engine there are 1000 to 8000 explosions a minute as your engine runs. The cycles are intake, compression, combustion and exhaust. Your engine pulls a fuel/air mixture into the camber in the intake stroke. As its pulled in the valve at the top closes so the mixture can be compressed to about 150 psi. As the piston comes to the top the mixture is heated up and ignited by the spark plug to cause the combustion stroke. The piston is forced downward to turn the crankshaft in a revolution. As the pistons comes back upward the exhaust valve opens and releases the burnt up fuel out the back of your car. All of these things happening over and over again keeps your engine running at about 800 revolutions a minute at idle (the car sitting still). Of course this is only the gist of what is happening. In later blogs I will go into more detail about other parts like the fuel injection, camshafts and oil/cooling systems.

Then we have the very rare but very cool rotary engine which is used in come Mazda vehicles. This engine doesn't use pistons and connecting rods to transfer motion. Its uses a single or dual triangular shaped rotor. These engines aren't used very much because they wear out a lot faster (about 100,000 miles) compared to a piston engine. This engine doesn't have any valves it pulls fuel and air in at one side of the block and compresses and combusts on the other side. Then continues to spin until it spits the the exhaust out on the other side.

So, where did the come from?

Steam, yes steam powered the most early forms of 4 wheel transportation back in 1769. The very first self-propelled road vehicle was a military tractor invented by French engineer and mechanic, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot. The "car" went a whole of 2 miles and hour and had to stop every then minutes to build up steam.

Next came the electric car, or carriage. It was invented in 1832 by Robert Anderson of Scotland. These cars stayed around for awhile but faded out because the size and weight of the batteries were overtaken by the combustion engine. They were widely used in britain and held the land speed record in 1899 at 68 miles and hour. of course these cars were so widely popular because the were quiet and drove smooth, unlike the early fuel powered cars which were noisy, smelled like fuel and were not reliable.

Over time with the refinement of the combustion engine and the low cost of fuel the combustion engine took over. These engines are used in most cars made today, some in different forms. The first invention of this motor was back in 1688 and ran on gunpowder. over 200 years later was they first people to market, patient, and sell a motor to car manufactures, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz.

Hello, my name is Carmen. I am a very unexperienced blogger, first timer, go easy on me here. So i decided that i would pick a topic that i am very knowledgeable about, and that is Cars. Being an ASE certified techiniction i know my way in and out of them. How they used to me, how they are now, and where they are going in the future. I believe that Global warming is nonsense so many cars that are created today i am not a fan of, but ill get to that at a later day. Unlike most people who just jump in their car everyday to get back and forth from class and work and never think twice about it. I on the other hand take every drive as an experience. I love to drive, i like seeing a beauty in old cars (and maybe some new ones) and like to feel the power of the automobile. Driving is the best part of my day.

In later blogs i will explain the ups and downs of new cars and the future of them. Ill explain how our dealerships are taking control of the cars that we say we "own". How a GPS in are car can pin point exactly where we are and even shut off are car while driving down the road. They can even unlock the doors if we locked are keys in it. Ill be going threw the history of the automobile from the very beginning to Henry Ford and how he made cars available to most people. To the 60's with the great muscle cars and the gas crunch after.

My blog will be very interesting so i hope that somebody flows me and i hope i can teach someone something through this.