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Just wanted to say whats up. My names Eric Im 22 and live about 45 minutes outside of Columbus in Chillicothe, I own a silverstone 2001 Turbo'd S2k and a honda accord DD. I frequent Slowmotionmotorsports in westerville alot they do most of my work.

I am finished up packing and officially about to take off to load the bus up that starts my journey to my 6 month deployment. It is def a little nerve racking but it is nice to have a lot of friends and family that support you. Its been really hard leaving everyone and saying goodbye but I guess thats part of the game. Any tips from the past time Veterans on getting through all this feel free to send them my way. We are staying in Norfolk tonight and heading out to Germany on the 20th. Who knows from there on. Anything particular to make sure I eat while in Germany? I will have limited internet access while I am gone so I will hope to be somewhat present here, but who knows for sure. Hope everyone has a safe winter and happy holidays. P.S. Thanks again to Shanton for coming out Friday. It was a good night. I owe you for the drinks, oh and for the strippers(not only for myself, but my girlfriend too), oh and dont forget the Stake and Shake. Not to mention anything I cant remember.

These large engines are designed to power the worlds super oil tankers and large container ships. They are built to the ship owners preferences. They usually request an engine construction of a single unit and single propeller design for ease of maintenance, and not surprisingly any later troubleshooting. A single unit and single screw design has also proved over time to have a longer life span than double or even quad screws. http://titanserver.servepics.com/Titan%20Server/Pictures/Worlds%20largest%20Engine/001.jpg These engines are built in 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 cylinder configurations. All the engines are straight or 'inline'. The diameter of each cylinder is 3 foot 2 inches with a stroke of 8 foot 2 inches. The 12 cylinder version weighs in at 2000 metric tons and delivers 90,000 Horse Power at 100 Revs per minute, with best fuel economy at 53,244 HP at 90 Rpm. When I mention economy, the 14 cylinder engine for example with a displacement of 25,480 Litres ( 1.56 million cubic inches ) burns up 1,660 gallons of crude ("bunker") oil every hour. ------------------------- The Mathematical calculation : 1,660 gallons/per hour = 39.5 barrels of crude oil/used per hour = $2,844. These figures are worked out from the basis of crude oil @ $72 a barrel*. $2,844 every hour the engine runs or 27.6 Gallons which is $46.00 every minute or 76 cents a second ! That is of course if the ships buy oil at trade price...if not then these figures are the absolute minimum. ( * at time of publishing ) ------------------------- In the image below a worker at the plant is finalising work on the cylinder block. This image shows the piston sleeves. The worker could quite easily have a nap inside one of the bores and no one would notice ! http://titanserver.servepics.com/Titan%20Server/Pictures/Worlds%20largest%20Engine/002.jpg Below are the pistons that will soon be fitted into the engine. Unlike normal car sized pistons these 3 foot diameter pistons incorporate lots of holes and it is through these holes that oil is injected through valves to keep all the working parts at a maximum low wear tolerance. Despite the colossal amounts of power output produced by these engines, surprisingly low wear rates have actually been recorded. Cylinder liner wear for example is only about 0.03 mm down for every 1000 hours of engine use. It must be remembered here that these engines work at about 20 times slower than a normal 2.0 Litre car engine and this is a major contributor to the life of the engine. http://titanserver.servepics.com/Titan%20Server/Pictures/Worlds%20largest%20Engine/003.jpg The image below depicts the 300 ton crankshaft of the 10 cylinder engine. You may notice here that there are steps on the wall of the casing to climb down into the engines sump ! http://titanserver.servepics.com/Titan%20Server/Pictures/Worlds%20largest%20Engine/004.jpg In the image below the pistons shell bearings are being fitted into the engine block. They are lowered into place by a crane and guided in by two workers and a supervisor.. They keep all surfaces of the engine clean at this stage as any grit or dirt could later add wear to the engine or worse destroy it, so the workers are wearing special cloth overshoes so as not to leave any abrasions on the fine working surfaces. Also you may notice that sheeting is covering the rest of the engines crankcase bearing housing to keep the dust off. These engines cost many millions upon millions of dollars; in fact, more than the ship itself that they are installed into. http://titanserver.servepics.com/Titan%20Server/Pictures/Worlds%20largest%20Engine/005.jpg 100,000 HP was actually achieved on a test bed in the workshop with the 14 cylinder model, running the engine flat out at just under 102 RPM. 102 Rpm may sound slow compared to a normal sized car engine that operates at about 2-4000 rpm, but when an engine is as big as this then fast engine revolutions are made obsolete by the sheer power output.

And how is Toyota focused? if you look carefully now they already have 11 models and are venturing into the truck arena... true diversification is good but not without focus and the effects of this do not rear their ugly head until the economy is as sour as it is... I would not be surprised if the big three were not around anymore, when the economy recovers if toyota doesnt cut back on quality to increase profit margins more and more until they found themselves in the same place the big three is... it is a cycle- people are people and people run businesses. What toyota knows how to do well is build affordable (not really anymore but they have the brand power to demand higher prices currently) and reliable cars. And I don't know how the toyota supra is comparable to cars of today- unmodified it is a whopping piece of @%#@ compared to a c5 or c6 corvette. I would take a fox body mustang or c4 corvette any day over a early 90s piece of japanese manufacturing. But this is besides my point I mentioned those cars to demostrate GM's engineering prowess- they can build cars that can outrun cars in every direction that cost 2-4x lets not forget that the z06 gets about the same gas mileage as your honda accord or toyota camry. I haven't seen toyota do that yet. True the big three needs to restructure their entry level and moderate income cars- this demographic is no longer loyal to america for the very reason that they live there anymore as evidenced by this thread and the big three took advantage of that and made lots of profit and hired lots of people on that phenomenon alone. They must now lose the concept of planned obsolescence win back these buyers by using their engineering prowess to build superior entry and mid level cars to the japanese that will last equally long. The big three has been producing cars since the 1950s and have employees that are taking pensions/benefits/high salaries if they are still working from 50 years of commitment. The japanese cars did not get serious until the late 70s if not early 80s that is 20 years less drag. They need to disolve their unions to reduce drag without bankruptcy and receive LOANS to give them the cash to subsist on the low profit margins they must make with to restructure and reposition themselves as the global leaders in the automotive industry. If you look at my profile I have a honda car and we love it- I have nothing against the japanese manufacturers they had a different business strategy that is proving to be more profitable currently (well before everything hit the fan) after decades of it not being so- I don't see any manufacturer making crazy profits right now. I am just making sure the american manufacturers are not kicked while they are down without giving my two cents

Nope. I've been asked to do it a bunch of times and also to enter events like King of the Street. I just don't really have the time to take a week off. I think it would be pretty funny and I could easily sitck a hitch into the receiver of the parachute mount and pull a little trailer.

He's buying a Ferrari

um . . . it's a pontiac.

Thanks. Personally I like anything that is fast. I've never been one of those Ford vs. Chevy guys. Don't get me wrong, the brand battle shootouts are a lot of fun to run at. It is hard to say how much et gain is possible with a 15 inch setup. I do have 15x10 alumastars with a 17" front skinny alumastar. Both times I tried to run them I broke. The best run on that setup was a 9.17 @ 161 so I have to figure there is probably a bit of et to be gained. The question is whether it takes away from the fun of the car. I must admit, the car looks mean on those tires though. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v711/novi357/Picture003.jpg

Here are a bunch: Motor: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v711/novi357/a2wmotor2.jpg Interior: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v711/novi357/interior1.jpg Me on Pinks All Out with Rich going WTF? as I ripped off a 9.33. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v711/novi357/pinks3.jpg From the magazine shoot: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v711/novi357/mmffshoot1.jpg Cool race shot: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v711/novi357/acbf69e6.jpg Pulling a 17" fat front rim off the ground (1.42 60' time) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v711/novi357/launchpic1.jpg

I'll tell you whatever you want to know about it. I would classify it more as a car that has been in magazines than a "magazine car". It definitely wasn't built for that purpose and it is not a show car by any means. The basics of the combination are: 427 cid, procharger F2 with an a/w intercooler, Accel Gen VII, EFI Spyder intake, TFS-R heads, 2 inch primary long tubes, 3 inch exhaust out of 3 inch tailpipes. The car is a full drag suspension although most people look at the car and think it is a road race suspension because of the way it sits. I drive it all over the place as it has a transmission with o/d in it. Cruises at 60 mph at about 2200 rpm. Most of the time I race the car on 17 inch drag radials just because it is more fun and surprises people. The car has a stock hood and you can barely see the cage in it. My current best is 8.87 at 160.77. An average pass for the car is in the 9.15 or so range in the high 150's.