http://vulturescc.com Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:38:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://vulturescc.com/car-clubs/ http://vulturescc.com/car-clubs/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:44:13 +0000 http://vulturescc.com/?p=7 A car club or automotive enthusiast community is a group of people who share a common interest in motor vehicles. Car clubs are typically organized by enthusiasts around type of vehicle (e.g. Corvette, Mustang), brand (e.g. Jeep), or similar interest (e.g. off-roading). Traditional car clubs were off-line organizations, but automotive on-line communities have flourished on the internet. Historically, car clubs refer to off-line entities, typically organized as non-profits and run by volunteers (who were most often elected). Some clubs were large enough to be run as a paid business with salaried employees; in the 1960s, some were sponsored by car dealers. Many car clubs charge membership fees in exchange for benefits, such as publications and events. The publications typically contain photographs, messages from other members, service and parts advice, items and vehicles wanted and/or for sale, and historical material of interest to the membership. Car clubs often host gatherings (called “meets”) which often also welcome interested non-members. Car clubs also may engage in other activities of various types, including races, cruising, shows, “mod” days when garage equipment and service tools are available for members to perform and assist each other with DIY work, or community service activities. Meets are basically a time for the club to hang out with one another and to talk about cars and do normal stuff, such as bowling, eating, movies, etc. Many (if not most) traditional car clubs have now added online presences, although most of the content typically resides in a walled garden for members only. Most clubs have an online presence mainly through their car forums relevant to their car of interest. Some clubs also have their own website. They usually use the forums or their site to organize their meets and gatherings. For instance, before a big event, they would organize to see how many people are going, where to meet up, and how to caravan to their destination. Many car club members consider what they do, more than just a hobby, it is a lifestyle that they live by. The internet accelerated the growth of participation as online communities attracted large numbers of members. The internet encouraged and fostered the development of many clubs centered around specific vehicles, including niche makes and models. Unlike traditional clubs, the content of most online communities are open to all for free. This has facilitated their growth, and made them a resource for potential owners or newbies. Larger online communities report registered members in the hundreds of thousands. Internet communities typically provide features such as forums, content databases (which include vehicle specifications, driving characteristics, repair information, and car tuning advice), Instant messaging services, photo-sharing, and commercial services (such as for sale by owner listings, part supplier directories, and referrals to mechanics and car dealers). Most automotive communities were founded by individual enthusiats/entrepreneurs. In 2006, Internet Brands began acquiring these types of websites and the company has become the largest operator of automotive communities in the world. As with traditional car clubs, some internet automotive communities sponsor or operate off-line meets. Many of the leading internet communities feature active directories of regional meets. In some countries, notably in Japan , some car clubs are run as a way of regulating street races and to race against people they know, therefore reducing the possibility of an accident; the best known being the Mid Night Club. Also clubs are used to enter team drifting contests. The AAA (pronounced “triple-A”), formally known as the American Automobile Association, is a 50 million member North American not-for-profit automobile lobby group, service organization, and seller of vehicle insurance. Its national headquarters are in Heathrow , Florida . AAA 50th Anniversary US stamp, issued in 1952, promotes the School Safety Patrol The American Automobile Association was founded on March 4, 1902 , in Chicago , Illinois as a response to a lack of roads and highways suitable for automobiles. The organization originally had 1000 charter members, generally auto enthusiasts. AAA’s membership base is and was formed from 9 local and regional motor clubs that combined to create a more powerful organization. The association expanded its services over the years. The first AAA road maps were published in 1905, and AAA began printing hotel guides in 1917. AAA began its School Safety Patrol Program in 1920, and many driver safety programs followed in the decades to come. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which conducts studies on motorist safety, was established as a separate entity in 1947. AAA was a sanctioning organization for auto racing in the United States until 1956. It sanctioned many races, including the Indianapolis 500. After the 1955 Le Mans disaster, AAA decided that auto racing distracted from its primary goals, and the United States Automobile Club was formed to take over the race sanctioning/officiating. A typical AAA Car Care Plus center Members belong to one of 69 individual clubs (such as AAA Northwest Ohio, AAA Mid-Atlantic, AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah, the Automobile Club of Southern California, AAA Oregon/Idaho, AAA Merrimack Valley or Auto Club South, for example), and the clubs in turn own AAA. The member clubs have arranged a reciprocal service system so that members of any participating club are able to receive member services from any other affiliate club. Member dues finance all club services as well as the operations of the national organization. From the standpoint of the consumer, AAA clubs primarily provide emergency road services to members. These services, which include everything from lockouts, winching, tire changes, automotive first aid, and towing, are handled by private local towing companies contracted by a state AAA club. Many AAA clubs have an automotive fleet division serving large metro areas, while private towing companies cover the surplus call volume by area. Recently, certain clubs have implemented an “on the go” diagnostic/installation automotive battery program, which offers members an additional service to an ever more demanding commute. This is part of AAA’s vision for the future of automotive services, termed “On the go”. Clubs also distribute road maps and travel publications (TourBooks), and rate restaurants and hotels according to a “diamond” scale (one to five). The best hotels and restaurants according to AAA’s criteria receive the Five Diamond Award. Many offices sell automobile liability insurance, provide travel agency, auto-registration and notary services. Maps, TourBooks, and travel agent services are generally free to members. AAA also offers member discounts at places like Payless ShoeSource and LensCrafters, and in some regions Burger King, Pizza Hut and Arby’s through its “Show Your Card & Save” program. The AAA has reciprocal arrangements with a range of international affiliates. In general, members of affiliates are offered the same benefits as members of the AAA while traveling in the United States , while AAA members are offered equivalent benefits while traveling in the territory of the affiliate. International affiliates include: ARC Europe, encompassing the leading European clubs, including the AA (UK), ANWB (Netherlands) , ADAC (Germany), ACI (Italy), TCS (Switzerland), TCB (Belgium), OAMTC (Austria) and RACE (Spain) below. The Automobile Association in the United Kingdom . The Royal Dutch Touring Club ANWB The Canadian Automobile Association in Canada (TourBooks and maps of Canadian places are published by AAA, and are distributed by AAA and CAA clubs using both AAA and CAA logos). The ADAC in Germany . The AAA has a mixed record with its support of motorist rights. The AAA is known for occasional high profile motorist advisories of unreasonable traffic enforcement, such as when it rented a billboard to warn motorists of the speed trap town of Lawtey , Fl. It also is a supporter of the Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act, first introduced in 2001 but which has not become law. However, the AAA supported Virginia ’s now-repealed traffic citation tax because of its revenue generation potential. AAA’s lobbying positions are perceived by some as hostile to mass transit and environmental interests. Daniel Becker, director of Sierra Club’s global warming and energy program, described AAA as “a lobbyist for more roads, more pollution, and more gas guzzling.” He observed that among other lobbying activities, AAA issued a press release critical of the Clean Air Act, stating that it would “threaten the personal mobility of millions of Americans and jeopardize needed funds for new highway construction and safety improvements.” “AAA spokespeople have criticized open-space measures and opposed U.S. EPA restrictions on smog, soot, and tailpipe emissions.” “The club spent years battling stricter vehicle-emissions standards in Maryland , whose air, because of emissions and pollution from states upwind, is among the nation’s worst.” In response to these concerns, several competing organizations have emerged, including Better World Club. These organizations generally provide similar roadside assistance, trip planning and other services, in an environmentally friendly manner. This includes discounts for fuel-efficient vehicles and donations to environmental organizations. Also as a response to the critics, the California State Automobile Association, a branch of AAA, set up a booth at the San Francisco International Auto Show to raise awareness regarding plug-in hybrid vehicles. Car tuning is both an industry and a hobby, in which an automobile, motor bike, scooter or moped is modified in order to improve its performance, handling and presentation and improve the owner’s driving style. As most vehicles leave the factory set up for average driver expectations and average conditions, tuning has become a way to personalize the characteristics of the vehicle to the owner’s preference. For example, they may be altered to provide better fuel economy, produce more power at high RPM or the ride comfort may be sacrificed to provide better handling. Car tuning is related to auto racing, although most performance cars never compete. Rather they are built for the pleasure of owning and driving such a vehicle. Another major facet of tuning includes performance modification to the car exterior. This includes changing the aerodynamic characteristics of the vehicle via side skirts, front and rear bumpers, adding spoilers, splitters, air vents and light weight wheels. Is a term used to describe the sound or video system fitted in the vehicle. A stock audio system refers to one that was specified by the manufacturer when the vehicle was built. A custom audio installation can involve anything from the upgrade of the radio to a full-blown customization based around the audio equipment. Events are held where entrants compete for the loudest, highest quality reception or most innovative sound systems. Interior tuning is a term used for modifying of the interior of a car. for example; removing the back seats to make room for a sound system, or taking out the front seats and replacing them with racing seats – commonly known as bucket seats. Another recent form of interior tuning is the replacement of the OEM Shift Knob with an aftermarket version such as a weighted shift knob for cosmetic and/or for performance purposes. Main article: Engine tuning Engine tuning as of lately has been marketed as the replacement of basic engine components with aftermarket versions that perform the same functions as those replaced while promising an increase in power output. Car tuners usually install new turbochargers, modify the car’s engine cooling unit, and replace the air filters; but they could also install a more powerful engine on the cars they modify. For example a tuner could modify the engine control unit to gain more power. Another example is the modification and/or replacement of the OEM manual transmission stick shift (also known as a gear stick) with an optimized aftermarket design known as a short shifter. For further “fine” tuning, the driver could fit a Weighted Gear Knob. Suspension tuning involves modifying the springs, shock absorbers, swaybars, and other related components of a vehicle. Shorter springs offer greater stiffness, a lower center of gravity, and a lowered look. Stiffer shock absorbers improve the dynamic weight shifting during cornering and normally have shorter internals to stop them from bottoming out when shorter springs are used. Stiffer sway bars reduce body roll during cornering, thus improving the grip that the inside tires have on the surface; this improves handling response. Other components that are sometimes added are strut bars, which improve the body stiffness and help better maintain the proper suspension geometry during cornering. On some cars certain braces, anti-roll bars, etc., can be retrofitted to lower-spec cars from sports models. For offroad vehicles, the emphasis is on lengthening the suspension travel and larger tires to increase ground clearance. Lowriders with hydraulic/pneumatic suspensions use another unique kind of suspension tuning in which the height of each individual wheel can be rapidly adjusted by system of rams, even to the extent that it is possible to “bounce” the wheels completely clear of the ground. Body tuning involves adding or modifying spoilers and a body kit. Sometimes this is done to improve the aerodynamic performance of a vehicle, as in the case of some wings or bumper canards, or, to lighten the vehicle through replacing bodywork components such as hoods and rear view mirrors with components made from lighter composites such as CFRP. Cornering speeds and adhesion can be improved through the generation of downforce. More often however, these modifications are done mainly to improve a vehicle’s appearance, as in the case of non-functioning scoops, spoilers, wide arches or any aesthetic modification which offers no benefit to performance. Very rarely does an after market spoiler or body kit improve performance, the majority add weight and increase the drag coefficient of the vehicle and thus reduce its overall performance. Increasing the wheel track width through spacers and wide body kits enhance the cars cornering ability. Lowering the center of gravity is another aim of body tuning dealt with via suspension modifications. However, similar to the addition of non-functioning body kits and spoilers, oftentimes suspension tuners unfamiliar with spring dynamics will cut stock springs, producing a soft, bouncy ride. It is also common to lower the car too far, past the optimal center of gravity, purely for appearance. Detuning involves returning a modified car to its original factory status. It is akin to automotive restoration. The term detuning can also refer to the reduction or decrease of performance in a particular area of tuning. An example of this could be where the engine is “detuned” to allow increased traction on a day where the track grip is not sufficient to handle the increased power of the tuned engine. “Streeted” or “Tuner Cars” are Japanese vehicles, such as a Honda Integra DC5, Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline, Mazda RX-7, Subaru Impreza, and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution series. These cars are most commonly modified with the more expensive mods available. The most popular modifications include suspension upgrades, exhaust systems, and turbos. Many countries have tinnitus treatment legal requirements in regard to what car owners can and can’t do in relation to vehicle modifications. For example, all vehicles in Victoria, Australia, must conform to construction standards to ensure vehicles provide drivers and passengers with a maximum level of safety.There are also restrictions for P Plate drivers which can prevent young drivers from driving modified vehicles. In the United Kingdom and the cars forum Netherlands it is illegal for any car to have blue lights as they are used by the emergency vehicles. In Scotland and Denmark , it is illegal for any car to have neon underlights on a car as it distracts other drivers. In the Netherlands neon is allowed under the car but only when the car is on display, if the bedroom furniture car is on a public road the lights have to be switched off. Many police officers in the U.K are unsure on the exact legislation with regards to under body neons. Most say as long as the bulb is not visible itself then this is legal. Recently, Belgium issued a new law which describes that bodykit parts need to be approved for safety issues. Many organizations involved in competitive motorsports establish safety guidelines that far exceed legal requirements placed on civilian street legal vehicles. The NHRA, IHRA and SOLO programs all fat burning furnace review require that vehicles pass inspection to ensure that all regulations are being complied with. An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods. However, the term automobile is far from precise, because there are sell my car many types of vehicles that do similar tasks. There are approximately 600 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car per eleven people Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over 1 billion m³ (260 billion US gallons) of petrol/gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India . Look up automobile in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. The word automobile comes, via the French automobile, from the Ancient Greek word (autós, “self”) and the Latin mobilis (“movable”); meaning a vehicle that moves itself, rather than being pulled or pushed by a separate animal or another vehicle. The alternative name car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum (“wheeled vehicle”), or the Middle English word carre (“cart”) (from Old North French), or from the Gaulish word karros (a Gallic Chariot).History This section may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Please consider moving more of the content into sub-articles and using this article for a summary of the key points of the subject. (January 2010) History of the automobile Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China , designed a steam-powered vehicle around 1672. It was a 65 cm-long scale-model toy for the Chinese Emperor, that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger, but possibly was the first working steam-powered vehicle (‘auto-mobile’).It is not known if Verbiest’s model was ever built.Leonty Shamshurenkov, a Russian peasant, constructed a human-pedalled four-wheeled “auto-running” carriage in 1752, and subsequently proposed to equip it with odometer and to use the same principle for making a self-propelling sledge. Although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769, by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle, this claim is disputed by some[citation needed], who doubt Cugnot’s three-wheeler ever ran or was stable. What is not in doubt is that Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive in 1801, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle, although it was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and would have been of little practical use. In the 1780s, a Russian inventor of merchant origin, Ivan Kulibin, developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box, and bearings; however, it was not developed further. François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first internal combustion engine, in 1806, which was fueled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and used it to develop the world’s first vehicle, albeit rudimentary, to be powered by such an engine. The design was not very successful, as was the case with others, such as Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobile, who each produced vehicles (usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.In November 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile that was powered by electricity. This was at the International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris . Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz generally is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile. An automobile powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885, and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie., which was founded in 1883. It was an integral design, without the adaptation of other existing components, and included several new technological elements to create a new concept. This is what made it worthy of a patent. He began to sell his production vehicles in 1888. A photograph of the original Benz Patent Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept In 1879, Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle. His first Motorwagen was built in 1885, and he was awarded the patent for its invention as of his application on January 29, 1886 . Benz began promotion of the vehicle on July 3, 1886 , and about 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced along with a model intended for affordability. They also were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France , already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, initially more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany . In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called a boxermotor in German. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899 and, because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a joint-stock company. Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler Motor Company, DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890, and under the brand name, Daimler, sold their first automobile in 1892, which was a horse-drawn stagecoach built by another manufacturer, that they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after disputes with their backers. Benz and the Maybach and the Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each other’s early work. They never worked together because, by the time of the merger of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer part of DMG. Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes, that was placed in a specially ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek. This was a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his country. Two years later, in 1902, a new model DMG automobile was produced and the model was named Mercedes after the Maybach engine which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers. Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later when these conditions worsened and, in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, and sales and they advertised or marketed their automobile models jointly, although keeping their respective brands. On June 28, 1926 , Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz, as a brand honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35 hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929, and at times, his two sons participated in the management of the company as well. In 1890, Émile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the automobile industry in France . The first design for an American automobile with a gasoline internal combustion engine was drawn in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester , New York , who applied for a patent for an automobile in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built. After a delay of sixteen years and a series of attachments to his application, on November 5, 1895 , Selden was granted a United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160) for a two-stroke automobile engine, which hindered, more than encouraged, development of automobiles in the United States . His patent was challenged by Henry Ford and others, and overturned in 1911. In Britain , there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success, with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860. Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car in the country in 1894 followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895, but these were both one-offs. The first production vehicles in Great Britain came from the Daimler Motor Company, a company founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, after purchasing the right to use the name of the engines. Lawson’s company made its first automobiles in 1897, and they bore the name Daimler. In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a “New Rational Combustion Engine”. In 1897, he built the first Diesel Engine. Steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered vehicles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s. Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazda’s version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success. Production Ransom E. Olds. The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Ransom Olds at his Oldsmobile factory in 1902. This concept was greatly expanded by Henry Ford, beginning in 1914. As a result, Ford’s cars came off the line in fifteen minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, increasing productivity eightfold (requiring 12.5 man-hours before, 1 hour 33 minutes after), while using less manpower.It was so successful, paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan black would dry fast enough, forcing the company to drop the variety of colors available before 1914, until fast-drying Duco lacquer was developed in 1926. This is the source of Ford’s apocryphal remark, “any color as long as it’s black”. In 1914, an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four months’ pay. Portrait of Henry Ford (ca. 1919) Ford’s complex safety procedures—especially assigning each worker to a specific location instead of allowing them to roam about—dramatically reduced the rate of injury. The combination of high wages and high efficiency is called “Fordism,” and was copied by most major industries. The efficiency gains from the assembly line also coincided with the economic rise of the United States . The assembly line forced workers to work at a certain pace with very repetitive motions which led to more output per worker while other countries were using less productive methods. In the automotive industry, its success was dominating, and quickly spread worldwide seeing the founding of Ford France and Ford Britain in 1911, Ford Denmark 1923, Ford Germany 1925; in 1921, Citroen was the first native European manufacturer to adopt the production method. Soon, companies had to have assembly lines, or risk going broke; by 1930, 250 companies which did not, had disappeared in 1911, Ford Denmark 1923, Ford Germany 1925; in 1921, Citroen was the first native European manufacturer to adopt the production method. Soon, companies had to have assembly lines, or risk going broke; by 1930, 250 companies which did not, had disappeared. ]]> http://vulturescc.com/car-clubs/feed/ 0