A Link Between High-Performance Race Cars and School Buses?

Perhaps it's all a bit premature, but an intriguing concept was reported last week on Wired.com.

Ilmor Engineering of the U.K. and Plymouth, Mich., owned by Roger Penske, may be known to some as a leading manufacturer of engines for Formula-1 and IndyCar racing as well as high-performance marine racing. But the 25-year-old company is also hoping to revolutionize the combustion engine market amid the global green wave of hybrids. electrics and alternative fuels. It recently introduced a prototype gasoline five-stroke engine, a new take on its 125-year-old, four-stroke cousin.

It's an interesting development in a time when increased fuel economy and reduced emissions are on everyone's list of talking points. But the Ilmor five-stroke actually promises comparable output and fuel efficiency as a diesel engine minus 20 percent of a diesel engine's weight and the nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Ilmor also says the five-stroke is ready for tests and could be used in conjunction with a hybrid drive.

Says Wired:

...the technology is '100% conventional' [according to Ilmor] and doesn’t require any new manufacturing techniques.

Ilmor says that the prototype five-stroke engine, based on a design by Gerhard Schmitz, has an overall expansion ratio “approaching that of a diesel engine – in the region of 14.5:1.” Along with its light weight and relatively high output, the extra work done in the low pressure (LP) cylinder provides for better fuel economy.

“Running of the concept engine has produced impressive fuel consumption readings over a very wide operating range,” the company said in a statement. “This is because at the onset of knock a greater percentage of work can be extracted in the LP cylinder, giving a degree of self compensation.”

Navistar, Caterpillar to Build Trucks in China ... Are School Buses Far Behind?

The wires are rife with articles on an agreement reached between Navistar, Caterpillar and the Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Company to begin production next month on medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in China.

Caterpillar announced last year in a separate cooperative agreement with Navistar that it was leaving the U.S. domestic truck engine market, and in the process foregoing its own solution to the 2010 EPA emissions requirements. Instead, Cat is focusing on the construction vehicle market, and this week's agreement with Anhui Jianghuai will make it the largest construction vehicle manufacturer in that growing market.

Meanwhile, the deal with Anhui Jianghuai signals that Navistar is continuing to make inroads the global vehicle and in China, where total vehicle sales have surpassed thos in the U.S. during the first seven months of the year. Writes the Financial Times:

In the first seven months of this year, total vehicle sales rose 23 per cent in China to 7.2m, while it dropped 32 per cent to 5.8m during the same period in the US.

The venture is expected to be set up next month and focus on the production of medium and heavy duty trucks and engines.

It would utilise JAC’s existing production bases while deploying the capital and technology from its US partners. JAC said details of the joint venture would be released soon.

Navistar has also been working with Mahindra Mahindra since 2005 on manufacturing light-, medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks and buses in India and for export markets. In 2007, Navistar also began producing its advanced diesel engines for Mahindra and Mahindra's trucks and buses in India.

While there was no immediate word on if any of the agreement may parlay into the production of school buses, as Navistar owns IC Bus, there has been an uptick of interest in recent years by Asian-based manufacturing companies in North American school transportation trade shows.

Gooooooooal!

While Los Angeles Galaxy soccer star David Beckham has fallen out of favor with many fans after he temporarily left the team earlier this year to play for powerhouse AC Milan of the prestigious Italian League Serie A, we had to chuckle at a doctored photo we found on the Photoshop page at Worth1000.com.

Reads the creator's comments:

"After he didn´t score for the LA Galaxy, Beckham was fired but he got a new job as a school bus driver."

If you look closely at the patch on Beckham's right chest, it appears some lucky employee at Martinsville School District southeast of Indianapolis lent his body to one of the world's premier soccer players in the world. But I wonder what wife Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham would think about all of this.

Navistar Points to CARB Research to Back Up Claims Against SCR

Navistar, the parent company of IC Bus, has taken its fight against selective catalyst reduction and for advanced exhaust gas recirculation as the right choice for meeting upcoming EPA 2010 emissions requirements in lowering nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions at the tailpipe to no more than 0.2 grams. Currently, Navistar is suing the EPA in federal appeals court as it contends the feds by allowing SCR in its regulations will being increasing public health risks due to urea, the additive used in SCR to reduce NOx in the engine that has been used for the past two decades in Europe.

The aggressive marketing performed by Navistar this year has drawn criticism from many in automotive and fleet circles, such as Oliver Dixon's "Spiral of Dispair" article earlier this week on The World Trucks Blog at UK's www.roadtransport.com. But then, Navistar offered a rebuttal by claiming that a June letter penned by Bart Croes, chief of California Air Resources Board research, to the Health Effects Institute, a Boston nonprofit organization planning tests on 2010 engines, that said that the use of SCR represents a "large departure from conventional emission controls by introducing a liquid additive containing an organic form of nitrogen." According to MYETTNEWS.com, The letter goes on:

“Some toxic air contaminants that have been identified with SCR technology include hydrogen cyanide, cyanic acid, nitromethane, hydrazine, acrylonitrile, acrylamide, acetonitrile, and acetamide,” Croes wrote in his letter. “It is hoped that any exotic substances emitted from SCR technology will be at levels insignificant to exposure health effects.”

Although we are encouraged by findings to date, which suggest that the technology can deliver significant reductions of many species of toxicological relevance, this work has also documented the increase in some emissions such as some metals, nitrous oxide and nanoparticles.”

In the August issue of School Transportation News, contributor Bob Pudlewski writes that fleets must individually decide which technology best suits their needs, but either one has an increased price tag.

The debate rages on.

DIY: Build Your Own Plug-in Hybrid?

It might not give step-by-step instructions for retrofitting your school bus, but a new book purports to tell readers how they, too, can create their own plug-in hybrid electric vehicle like the like the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid or the 2010 Toyota Prius.

Perhaps those especially savvy readers can even hold onto the hope that they might eventually be eligible for the next round of federal grants for electric battery and hybrid drive train development. Well, OK, probably not, especially as GreenCarReports.com editor John Voelker gives it less than a stellar review of Build Your Own Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle.

First of all, the book says it can help owners of hybrid vehicles convert them to PHEVs. The author is Seth Leitman, who last year coauthored an updated version of the classic Build Your Own Electric Vehicle. Voelker writes that the book is:

"...comprehensive but slightly disappointing. In part, that's because book publishing takes way too much time. The field of PHEVs is evolving so fast that you can only find truly up-to-date information online.

In particular, the book's list of conversion kits, sources, and background is now several months old. That's a lifetime for a technology whose members exchange information and collaborate to solve technical problems in online forums (eaa-phev is just one of many)."

The commercially-available hybrid diesel school bus currently on the market are from IC Bus, and Thomas Built Buses. IC Bus has both an PHEV and HEV, while Thomas has the latter. If this book review doesn't detract you, and you're the competitive entrepreneurial type, the book can be found on Amazon or in bookstores like Barnes & Noble.

UPDATE: A previous post made it sound like Thomas Built Buses was the only manufacturer with a hybrid school bus available to the market. We didn't mention IC Bus and its own plug-in and regular hybrid-electric models, which has been available the longest, since 2006, and currently has about few hundred in service nationwide. We regret the oversight, a big one.

Thomas Built Buses Dealers Gets in on Tech Competition Craze

We saw this story on a recent in-house competition for heavy-duty truck technicians held at Empire Truck Sales in Slidell, La. In addition to Thomas buses, the Jackson, Miss.-based dealership also specializes in heavy-duty trucks by Freightliner, Western Star and Sterling, as well as American LaFrance emergency vehicle.

The event held on July 25 calls to mind NAPT's annual America's Best School Bus Inspector & School Bus Inspector Training & Skills Competition, this year scheduled for Sept. 22-25 in Greenville, S.C., at Michelin.

CTO Responsible for MaxxForce Leaving Navistar

Automotive World reported yesterday that Dr. Helmut Endres is no longer with Navistar International Truck & Engine. Endres came to Navistar in 2006 and became chief technical officer and vice president of Powertrain Engineering, helping to develop and to design the company's MaxxForce engine line. Considered one of the world's leading He is one of the world’s leading authorities on diesel engines with a disciplined approach to design, validation, cost controls and product quality.

The magazine reported that Endres e-mail inbox is automatically replying to incoming messages by saying that he left the company this month.

Prior to coming to Navistar, Helmut worked for Volkswagon in Germany for a decade, leading a global team of 2,000 engineers. Among his accomplishments are the development of the high-performance V-10 TDI diesel engine in VW’s Touareg SUV and Phaeton luxury sedan, and the introduction of turbo-charged, direct-injection gasoline engines with low-fuel consumption as well as high power and torque.