How It Works

This is the strangest engine you've likely never heard about. Back in the late 1960s and early '70s, a number of automakers were experimenting with odd engine setups. Heck, that happens all the time, even today. This particular setup was quite odd, however, in that it was a diesel rotary. Making it...

Getting the most of your vehicle, with regards to fuel economy, is to play a game of efficiency. You have to find the most efficient manner of driving in a given situation. That leads some to put a vehicle in neutral and team up with gravity for a bit of downhill acceleration. Modern cars, however...

The name of the game here is power-to-weight ratio. That's how you can have one car out perform another. As you climb to higher and higher speeds, you're going to need more and more power. That's why a car like the Bugatti Chiron packs a W-16 engine producing 1,480 horsepower. It needs that...

Ever driven a brand new car and then the same model but one with much higher mileage? They don't often feel the same. In fact, the older car might even feel like it has less performance. The scenario isn't an odd one, as there are quite a few ways that a car with more mileage can lose performance...

Dodge has unleashed a mighty machine upon the world. It's not the 707-horsepower Challenger or Charger SRT Hellcat siblings, but rather the more powerful Challenger SRT Demon street-legal drag car that comes complete with its 840-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 engine. It has so much power...

Taking your car to a dyno is often a great way to produce bragging rights, especially after installing various aftermarket modifications. Following the results owners often swear by the figures, but variances in the equipment itself can lead to numerous results that skew the figures themselves...

Most people aren't willing to grab a brass brush and drag it across a body panel on their fresh, clean car. Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained is here to do just that to show off a bit of science. That science involves the protective film he recently applied to his cars, and it's the reason...

Have you ever heard of a "hot inside V"? It's not a sandwich. Our friend Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained is here for a quick lesson on this en vouge turbocharging setup for today's engines. A hot inside V turbocharger layout places the turbo or turbos inside the valley between the engine...

A car in need of a complete rework of its paint will typically need its existing paint to be removed. If you want the job done right then you'll have to start from the beginning, making sure each step along the way is performed correctly. Larry Kosilla, the man behind the Ammo NYC car care brand...

Jason Fenkse knows a thing or two about explaining the engineering of any given subject. He's managed to parlay that knowledge into a successful YouTube series in which he does so, week in and week out. What's not as good at, though, is driving a virtual car on a virtual race track. Still, it's...

Fuel-pump producer breaks down who gets what from a gallon of gasoline Once you’ve calmed down and stopped cussing about the price you pay at the pump when you refill your car, be it classic or contemporary, have you ever wondered about where your money is going? So has Auteria, a Texas-based...

Apparently, Peter Gabriel is getting into the wrenching game. At least that's what this video has us reminiscing about. Gabriel, for those youngsters among us, is the musician who utilized stop-motion animation (among other art forms, including claymation) to create to the memorable "Sledgehammer"...

Mercedes-AMG revealed its highly anticipated Project One hypercar at the 2017 Frankfurt motor show, and while much of the conversation has surrounded the fact it boasts more than 1,000 horsepower, there's plenty of clever, if not mesmerizing, engineering going on throughout the entire car. The...

The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon ushers in a couple of firsts for production cars, and today, we're here to take a look at two of them in greater detail. Both the transbrake and the torque reserve system are production car firsts and they help the Demon launch with incredible force at the...

Our future will be filled with electric cars. It's where the world is moving, and the cars bringing us to this place are getting better and better everyday. Heck, the Tesla Model S P100D is one of the quickest machines on the road right now. Still, we love the combustion engine and the tuning...

In a car with a manual gearbox, you can use that stick to your advantage in more ways than the simple act of shifting gears. If you want to slow down, instead of relying on just the brakes, you can pop your gear lever into a lower gear and use resistance from the engine to slow you down. This is...

There's concern among many enthusiasts that the manual transmission is on its way out. This coincides with the notion that electric cars are the future and internal combustion engines will continue to fall out of favor as electric car charging infrastructure and technology exits infancy. If there's...

You've heard the term before, but do you really know what powder coating is all about? It's not simply an airgun spraying a powdery substance that magically turns into a bonded surface on your wheels. There's a whole lot of science going on, which means we need to turn to our favorite engineer...

For those who daily drive a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, it's likely a common practice. Rather than rowing through all five or six gears, drivers will skip from third to fifth, fourth to sixth and so on. But is this practice safe to do? Engineering Explained tackled the common...

As fuel economy and emissions standards continue to tighten around the world, automakers continue to seek ways to make power while using less fuel. Mercedes-Benz, never one to let its engines rot on the vine, is taking the next step to do just that with a 48-volt system for a new 3.0-liter...