Automobile

Automobile

Of or relating to any vehicle, usually designed to carry passengers, that operates on ordinary roads and typically has four wheels and a gasoline or diesel internal-combustion engine.

Industry: Automotive

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Automobile

Turbocharger

Automotive; Automobile

A supercharger powered by an exhaust-driven turbine. Turbochargers always use centrifugal-flow compressors, which operate efficiently at the high rotational speeds produced by the exhaust turbine.

Within a turbocharger's operating range, lag is the delay between the instant a car's accelerator is depressed and the time the turbocharged engine develops a large fraction of the power available at ...

Turn-in

Automotive; Automobile

The moment of transition between driving straight ahead and cornering.

Understeer

Automotive; Automobile

A handling condition in which the slip angle of the front tyres is greater than the slip angle of the rears. An understeering car is sometimes said to push, because it resists turning and tends to go ...

Unitized construction

Automotive; Automobile

A type of body construction that doesn't require a separate frame to provide structural strength or support for the car's mechanical components. A unitized body can employ monocoque construction, or ...

Universal joint

Automotive; Automobile

A joint that transmits rotary motion between two shafts that aren't in a straight line. Depending on its design, a universal joint can accommodate a large angular variation between its inputs and ...

Valve float

Automotive; Automobile

A high-rrpm engine condition in which the valve lifters lose contact with the cam lobes because the valve springs are not strong enough to overcome the momentum of the various valvetrain components. ...