I am following your forum discussions with great interest as my next car will be the Solstice (provided production car reviews are favorable). While doing this, I have puzzled over a few mnemonics, I have figured some out, some are very obvious, but a few still escape me.
Would appreciate being educated by a member. Maybe this topic should be included under "General Discussion" or "Site News and ......".
Can't wait to see detailed photos of the production model that answer some of your basic questions.
AWD = all wheel drive
b&s = (?)
BTW = by the way (?)
cid = (?)
HID = high intensity headlights (?)
IMO = (?)
IMHO = (?)
N/A = naturally aspirated (?) Aspirated (?)
RWD = rear wheel drive
s/c = supercharged
Sd = speed (?)
Obviously the above is not a complete list. Want to add your favorite shortcuts? PLEASE do!
I added a few next to each (don't know them all)....
Quote:
Originally posted by hoffman I am following your forum discussions with great interest as my next car will be the Solstice (provided production car reviews are favorable). While doing this, I have puzzled over a few mnemonics, I have figured some out, some are very obvious, but a few still escape me.
Would appreciate being educated by a member. Maybe this topic should be included under "General Discussion" or "Site News and ......".
Can't wait to see detailed photos of the production model that answer some of your basic questions.
AWD = all wheel drive
b&s = (?)
BTW = by the way (?) Yes
cid = (?)
HID = high intensity headlights (?)
IMO = (?) In My Opinion
IMHO = (?) In My Humble Opinion
N/A = naturally aspirated (?) Aspirated (?) Not Applicable
RWD = rear wheel drive
s/c = supercharged
Sd = speed (?)
Obviously the above is not a complete list. Want to add your favorite shortcuts? PLEASE do!
__________________ 2006 VIN #30, first 1000 series, black exterior, sand/steel interior
Index of useful threads: General, Tech
cid = cubic inch displacement
HID = High Intensity Discharge
HUD = Heads Up Display
LSD = Limited Slip Differential
Dual zone CC = dual zone climate control
XM = depends on how it was used but I assume refers to XM-satellite radio?
AWD = All Wheel Drive
b&s = (?)
BYW = By The Way
(dual zone) CC = Climate Control
cid = Cubic Inch Displacement
HID = High Intensity Discharge (headlights)
HUD = Heads Up Display
IMO = In My Opinion
IMHO = In My Humble Opinion
LSD = Limited Slip Differential
N/A = Not Applicable or Naturally Aspirated
RWD = Rear Wheel Drive
S/C = Supercharged
Sd = (?)
XM = XM-satellite radio
Thanks to roadster and Darkhamr for their contributions. Anyone else?
KN e.g Kilo Newton Meters per Degree (chassis tortional stiffnes) maybe (see "handling").
A "Newton" is a measure of force approximately equal to 100 grams so a kilogram of force is equivalent to 10 Newtons or a KiloNewton (KN) is about 100 kilos.
A Newton-Meter is an expression of torque and a KiloNewton-Meter would be like a 224 pound mechanic standing on a 3.25 foot breaker bar.
Now if I have gotten that hopelessly fouled up (I think in foot-pounds) am certain it will be corrected.
Location: Wilds of Canada, or the Pac NW, or the Upper Penninsula of MI...
A newton is a measure of force, and 4.45 newtons is about a pound of force (or a quarter pound is about a newton).
A KN is a kilo-newton, or 1000 (greek: kilo) newtons, and is about 225 lbs.
A kN-m is exactly what you described: a torque (or a force acting upon a moment arm). You got the english approximation right.
A gram of mass "weighs" that gram multiplied by the gravity field it is in. In free-fall or orbit (for simplicity sake), a gram (about the mass of a paperclip) has no weight. At the surface of the earth, it is in a one "g" field, and "weighs" 9.806 Newtons.
A lot of people mess up grams, kilograms, newtons, kilo-newtons and pounds. Working with it day in and day out helps...
Very helpful. Couldn't find "OEM", which is used in a section title, assuming it means "Original Equipment Manufacturer". Check out "supecharger", always thought that that was pepper..........................
Location: Wilds of Canada, or the Pac NW, or the Upper Penninsula of MI...
Short-Long-Arm suspension. This type of suspension means the upper arm is shorter than the lower arm, and is considered the most optimum in terms of degrees-of-freedom vs. part complexity.
It is a class of suspensions that most people refer to as "double wishbone" suspensions, but this is not exactly true. Think of the analogy of squares and rectangles.
A square is a specific type of rectangle. A Double-Wishbone is a special type of SLA suspension where the ball-joint is roughly equally between the control arm bushings. Since they refer to this as an SLA, and looking at the chassis pictures of the solstice (http://www.gminsidenews.com/images/rev27.jpg), it looks like at least the lower control arms have the ball joint more in line with one of the bushings.
Of course that assume the student knows what an "arm" is. In the fifties, sixties, and seventies just about all American cars had front suspensions that conisted of a steering and brake knuckle with uper and lower control arms (if laid flat on the ground they approximated a captal "A" hence were known as A-arms), and a coil spring with a replacable shock absorber inside.
If the two arms were equal length, you would have a parallelogram and the wheel/tire assembly would go straight up and down relative to the body. This would be ideal if you always went in a straight line on a level surface.
However American cars with soft suspentions in particular tend to roll in a corner - the inside raises and the outside lowers due to the center of mass being above the roll center of the chassis (about a semester course just to get the basics down).
The result is that you do not want the tire to go straight up and down as the body rolls because that would result in a severe camber change and in the wrong direction relative to the road.
So you make the upper arm shorter than the lower arm which tilts the bottom of the wheel out as the suspension comes down and keeps the tire flat on the ground even though the body is on an angle (in a hard corner, the inside tire is just along for the ride so its camber does not matter).
Around 1980 (I think the first use was the Citation/Phoenix FWD small car replacements) GM began using something it had invented around 1950 and discarded, the McPherson strut suspension which effectively does away with the upper A-arm (cost savings) and makes the shock (strut) the upper suspension member.
For a *certain range of motion* a McPherson strut will act like a SLA (after that range things really go wonky, years ago when I worked at GM I designed a die casting ladle with a single piston that replaced the previous dual piston model by using that wonky motion) so for steet cars they are OK. The disadvantage is that the strut needs to be quite long to work properly & requires a mount considerably above the top of the tire, OK for a conventional car but if you want a really low profile there is a problem.
This is why the Fiero used a SLA in the front (from the T-1000) and the entire powertrain module including the steerable struts from the Phoenix in the back (this is why it is so easy to put almost any GM FWD engine in a Fiero).
So a SLA has a better geometry (characteristics of motion), is more adjustable than a strut, and fits entirely within the wheel/tire envelope but is more expensive to manufacture.
