What Have You Learned from Tech?

[Morgo]

Just reading the latest Race Engine Technology mag..
Long time ago I read Hot Rod and PopHot Rodding but became suspicious about the content.
The RET is first class info (and the ads are real high-end products;not some "tuning" junk).
Actual team/shop/developer guys talk about their winning engines;not some novice "reporter" making up the stuff.
Yeah,RET is quite expensive mag but worth it.
https://www.highpowermedia.com/c/31/rac ... technology

[Truckedup]

The ones I know with them do that with their dd work trucks. That’s a problem when they break them during the weekend. D’oh.

Most of my millennial friends are into dirt bikes (if they’re into motor sports at all). They’re orders of magnitude cheaper than cars and are just barreelly still affordable enough fhat you can play with them while still paying off your student loans.

We have millennial grand children, lol. Three girl and one boy has a tuned Diesel truck ,yes they do DD's like you say, 1200 ft lbs of torque tears up shit..He's also into jet skis and sleds, but not bikes...Me and him and his dad built a BBC supercharged mud truck...He and guys he hangs with are not stereotypical Millennia generation created by the media..The friends I have my age are more interested in the comfort features of their new SUV and saving their estate if they gotta strap on a droll cup and go to the nursing home...They shake their heads at my vintage racing bikes and hot rod street bikes...

[Truckedup]

The ones I know with them do that with their dd work trucks. That’s a problem when they break them during the weekend. D’oh.

Most of my millennial friends are into dirt bikes (if they’re into motor sports at all). They’re orders of magnitude cheaper than cars and are just barreelly still affordable enough fhat you can play with them while still paying off your student loans.

We have millennial grand children, lol. Three girls and the one boy has a tuned Diesel truck ,yes they do DD's like you say, 1200 ft lbs of torque tears up shit..He's also into jet skis and sleds, but not bikes...Me and him and his dad built a BBC supercharged mud truck...He and guys he hangs with are not stereotypical Millennia generation created by the media..The friends I have my age are more interested in the comfort features of their new SUV and saving their estate if they gotta strap on a droll cup and go to the nursing home...They shake their heads at my vintage racing bikes and hot rod street bikes...

[hoffman900]

The ones I know with them do that with their dd work trucks. That’s a problem when they break them during the weekend. D’oh.

Most of my millennial friends are into dirt bikes (if they’re into motor sports at all). They’re orders of magnitude cheaper than cars and are just barreelly still affordable enough fhat you can play with them while still paying off your student loans.

We have millennial grand children, lol. Three girl and one boy has a tuned Diesel truck ,yes they do DD's like you say, 1200 ft lbs of torque tears up shit..He's also into jet skis and sleds, but not bikes...Me and him and his dad built a BBC supercharged mud truck...He and guys he hangs with are not stereotypical Millennia generation created by the media..The friends I have my age are more interested in the comfort features of their new SUV and saving their estate if they gotta strap on a droll cup and go to the nursing home...They shake their heads at my vintage racing bikes and hot rod street bikes...

Judging by the crabbiness of old people I know who sit around and watch tv all day, I'd say it's the older generation that's shaped by the media . The political section here proves that point. No one here is alive before print media and radio... Sorry, but comments like that irk me.

Another good source are the Honda white papers in their R&D Library. https://www.hondarandd.jp/index.php

[numboltz]

For some reason this topic made me think of HPI or Hotrod Parts Illustrated
which was a low budget one man band parts magazine I suspect and the tech stuff
was totally non-commercial in attitude. Anybody else remember that mag?

Old friend used to do really funny parodies of Hot Rod mag's tech articles and road
tests. Too bad we don't drink anymore.

And then there was the Schaller 1/4 speed cam...

[novadude]

Check out some of the older Hot Rod magazines from the early to mid 1960's and you can see an amazing difference in the writing as well as the quality of the information. Back then they didn't have TV shows and other stuff so maybe that's the source of some of the dilution..

I agree. It seems that the quality of tech articles was much better 30+ years ago.

[Zmechanic]

I've learned light years more from the internet. With forums like this, youtube, etc, you can get as close as physically possible to the actual person with the knowledge. Not 2nd or 3rd hand with middle men that may or may not have an agenda (pushing product, swaying opinion, etc).

Want to learn some machining, cool, watch Abom79 or Keithfenner and it's like you pulled up a chair in their shop and got to see a pro do it they would do. It can't get much more instructional than that.

Welding? Jody from welding tips and tricks. His camera work is so good, it's basically like being behind his welding helmet while he does it.

[groberts101]

I've learned light years more from the internet. With forums like this, youtube, etc, you can get as close as physically possible to the actual person with the knowledge. Not 2nd or 3rd hand with middle men that may or may not have an agenda (pushing product, swaying opinion, etc).

Want to learn some machining, cool, watch Abom79 or Keithfenner and it's like you pulled up a chair in their shop and got to see a pro do it they would do. It can't get much more instructional than that.

Welding? Jody from welding tips and tricks. His camera work is so good, it's basically like being behind his welding helmet while he does it.

I ain't no spring chicken anymore either but I'll give an AMEN to that.

There are TONS of naturally gifted and overly smart people out there figuring things out on their own, always has been and many have become our folk heroes and legends. BUT.. finding and actually studying and accumulating their knowledge is the tougher part. The internet now allows that old technological disconnect to be supercharged via fiber optic and satellites.

I sometimes wonder how much smarter certain individuals might be/could have been with the resources we know have at our fingertips. IMO, the most special thing about places like Speedtalk is the vast pool of knowledge and resources located on the servers. You can pay for the condensed versions?.. or shuffle through 10's of thousands of pages in the free bin after you log into the forum. I for one am extremely grateful to have such options these days and my own personal knowledge base has skyrocketed above what would have been my natural/hard knocks/life exposure learning curve.

PS.. Mr TIG is pretty good too!

[rebelrouser]

I am an avid reader, never took many technical articles in magazines unless I could verify information. I learned the most from seminars, went to a couple mopar performance seminars got to talk to lee shepard, tom hoover, herb mccandless, lots of good info. Also did the morgan chassis seminars, went home after that one and did a 4 Link for my Anglia, made top three in points 4 years in a row after the link install. Car was so evil to drive it might have saved my life as well. It was an old gasser I turned into a bracket car. I learned a lot from guys at the track. Funny since when I was young they helped me, I try to pass some of the knowledge along, most of the time they seem to resent the help, so I don't open my mouth unless asked now. One time I made a comment on how a guy had a car set up that I had built several years before, he would not take my advice, seems he hit the wall that day. And since the internet came around, sites like this are amazing, its like drinking beer and bench racing 24 hours a day.

[Kenova]

And since the internet came around, sites like this are amazing, its like drinking beer and bench racing 24 hours a day.

I agree, the amount of knowledge at hand is amazing.
Although I must admit I'm gettin' too old to be drinking beer 24 hours a day.

Ken

[Walter R. Malik]

And since the internet came around, sites like this are amazing, its like drinking beer and bench racing 24 hours a day.

I agree, the amount of knowledge at hand is amazing.
Although I must admit I'm gettin' too old to be drinking beer 24 hours a day.

Ken

I have learned about more tech HERE in 5 years than I retained from 50 years of the combined reading of all the magazines in my past.
Although, there is a lot of crap here, too.

[MadBill]

Learning how to separate the poop from the pearls is a major part of the S/T experience..

[hoffman900]

And since the internet came around, sites like this are amazing, its like drinking beer and bench racing 24 hours a day.

I agree, the amount of knowledge at hand is amazing.
Although I must admit I'm gettin' too old to be drinking beer 24 hours a day.

Ken

I have learned about more tech HERE in 5 years than I retained from 50 years of the combined reading of all the magazines in my past.
Although, there is a lot of crap here, too.

+1

I have particularly enjoyed posts by (in no order) Darin Morgan, Larry Meaux, Calvin Elston, Mike Jones, Harold Brookshire, Neels Vannik, Clint Grey, Jon Schmidt, Bill Jones, and many more. I find the camshaft topics most interesting and we were lucky to have the discussions we did with guys like Harold while they were around. I started at this site in 2005 while in high school - I'm lucky in that regard.

[hoffman900]

I’m not really interested in cylinder heads, so for me, my favorite grouping of topics center around:

Jon Schmidt, Neels Vannik, and Clint Grey - throw Calvin Elston in that mix too on occasion.

and

Jon Schmidt, Harold Brookshire, and Mike Jones.

If any those three were in a topic together, there was a lot of great information thrown around.

The best part about Harold posts is you have to treat them like a scavenger hunt. Some posts he claims he won’t give up velocity or acceleration values at lash, then you find a post where he just gives out some numbers anyway - either on here or elsewhere.

I find Mike more cryptic, I’ve glossed over a lot of his stuff that I have since gone back and realized he said more than I think people give him credit for.

Jon Schmidt - a very smart guy and gets everyone really thinking. I don’t think everyone appreciates the delivery, but he certainly cuts to the point.

Clint - I wish he would give up more information

Neels - always a gentleman and another very smart guy.

Calvin - that guy is an artist - both in theory and practice. His stuff just flat out works and looks awesome in person.

Forgot to add Stan Weiss in the mix too, he’s posted some very informative graphs over the years which has certainly helped put a visual to the words.

[Firedome8]

ST is a speed secret.