World's Biggest Engine

Ken showed me a magazine the other day that showed the world's biggest engine. Being the engine geek I am, I did some googling and found out that the world's biggest engine is a Wartsila-Sulzer two-stroke turbo diesel RT-flex96C. It is available in an inline-6 (RB26000?) to an inline-14 cylinder configuration in 1 cylinder increments. Here's some stats on the 14 banger version:

Bore:   960mm or 37.8 inches
Stroke:   2500mm or 98.43 inches
Speed: 92-102rpm
Peak cylinder pressure: 19.6 bar or 2...

Castrol Top Shop Challenge Results

by Eric Hsu

Click above to read about my take of the Castrol Top Shop Challenge.

Happy New Year 2009!

Happy new year everybody. My goal before the new year, aside from completing the MX-5 calibration work (see below), was to get this new and improved blog up and running. With some help from Aric and the gigantic knowledge base we call the web, I was able to get this up and running today with the exception of the links you see on the top of this column and below the header. The evil scripts, adware, and bots that have infested the JDM Insider site are no longer lurking on this blog. BTW, this blog's new web address is: http://www.beyondthedyno.com/Blogs/Eric. Pleas...

More Supercharged MX-5

Most people get to take a break during this season. Not I. I am living and breathing supercharged MX-5. While I admit that it is the last car I ever thought I would ever be caught driving around, I have learned to enjoy this car. Last month I rolled up in an MX-5 to the Super Lap Battle time attack and the C-West/Hankook guys were questioning my masculinity. After spending a lot of time with various MX-5s, I believe that I could build one that would be pretty damn quick and make those dicks shut the fuck up. MX-5 owners face it: your car is driven mostly by hairdressers. It needs modification to bring out it's pote...

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays everybody. Be safe and don't party too hard. More tech articles are coming in ...

Quickest 1/4 Mile GT-Rs in the US

Here's a pretty good post from Sean who is the biggest GTR nerd for life. He's pretty much the walking, talking, breathing GTR database. Below is part of his post I stole:

These are the quickest Nissan GT-R’s that know of in the US. Apexi’s R33 ran 8.47@165, Signals R33 has run into the 8’s, a few other Japanese demo GT-Rs have run also, but they are not included in this list.

If you have one to add, email Sean.

DSPORT Tokyo Auto Salon Tour

So you want to go the the 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon but don't know anybody else going who's been there before to show you around? The best way to go is on the D-Sport Magazine TAS tour package where they get you entrance on the media only day of TAS and take you around to check out some cool stuff (if you go on the VIP tour). For you R35 GT-R foamers, the tour includes a visit to the Nissan engine factory where the R35 engines are built. For you JDM drift fanatics, the VIP tour includes ride alongs with JDM pro drifters at the Fuji raceway. It looks like I'll be at TAS this year so I'll see you guys there. Make sure to hit me up and say what up if you see me.

Big Three by eric

Big Three

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Concerts

Despite the last 3 months being ridiculously busy, I managed to sneak in a couple of concerts. There's nothing like loud music and a little bit (or a lot) of alcohol. If you enjoy the music or concerts in general, it's a great way to just forget about the outside world for a couple hours. I think I have discovered my new activity for occasional stress relief.

Maxwell @ The Shrine Auditorium, November 1, 2008

While I'm not a huge R&B fan, Saya is pretty hardcore so I told her I would be down to check it out. I was super busy at the time, but you have to pay your dues sometime...

Cosworth EC Pro Development

These last couple of weeks Ben, an engineer from Pi Research/Pectel, and I have been living and breathing 2008 Subaru Impreza STi. The Cosworth EC Pro is designed by the brains at Pectel UK (a division of Pi Research and sister company of Cosworth) for Cosworth. It is exclusively sale and use in the North American market so all you guys in Europe will not be able to purchase or use it (for now at least). There are enough differences between the European market STis and North American STis to make it a very impractical adaptation. For you Americans though, you will soon have the absolute most powerful plug-in ECU available in the...