Why Should I Lower My Tire Pressure?

So, you’re cruising down the white sand beaches of Mexico inyour truck with a Diesel Turbocharger, and all your buddies are flying by.  What’s going on? How come they seem to befloating on the sand while you’re struggling? They have exactly the samevehicle as you, right down to the exact same Diesel Injector.  The answer is probably tire pressure.

You may have heard people say that it is good to lower yourtire pressure anytime you go off-roading, but might have never known why. Youprobably don’t want to ask, because not knowing something about off-roadingwould make you seem unmanly. Well, no need to wonder anymore, because I amabout to tell you. The answer is a simple one word solution, FOOTPRINT. Justthink of a camel.  Those things havebigger feet than Shaq, and Mother Nature gave the camel those aircraft carriersfor a reason.  The bigger the foot, thelarger the area to distribute the weight of the camel, which keeps the camel ontop of the sand instead of sinking into it.

When you let air out of you tires it increases the size ofyour cars footprint.  More of your tiretouches the sand.  When you do this youmay think that more of the tire touches in width just by looking at it, but itactually increases the length of the footprint. With this increased length your friends will no longer be leaving you inthe dust… or should I say sand?

Driving in the sand is not the only time when lowering yourtire pressure optimizes your ride. Anytime you are off-road it will help, especially bumpy or rockyroads.  When you go over a rock, a fullyinflated tire has to climb it. Even a small rock can cause the car to thinkit’s about to go up a steep hill. Just driving over a 2x4 piece of wood createsthe same increase in angle as a hill with a 30 degree incline.   When you lower your tire pressure the tiredoesn’t climb the rock or piece of wood, it engulfs it.  Your car stays flat on the road while yourtire eats up the rock and spits it out the back.

Remember when you get back on a hard surface to reflate yourtires.  Tires with low pressure easilybend and break wheels, and driving too fast could overheat your tires. Thelower your pressures are set the lower the speed you should drive.

BMW M Diesels

If you live in the states you’re not going to have to worryabout replacing a diesel injector or a diesel turbocharger for your new BMWM550d, because this car not going to be available for sale in the U.S.  Also not available is the other M Diesel carsthat BMW just announced; the X5 M50d, and the X6 M50d. You can go ahead and addthese vehicles to a long line of sweet rides available to rest of the world,but not available to us.

Ok… I have calmed down. I am no longer upset, and haverealized that even if I had the opportunity to buy one of these, I couldn’tafford it anyways.  So, instead ofwhining about not having one of these great cars, let’s discuss what makes themso great. Each one has all-wheel drive and is powered by what BMW callsPerformance Twin Turbo technology.  “TwinTurbo Technology,” Ha! These cars actually have three turbos.  Two smaller turbochargers deliver responsivepower down low in the rpm range, and then there is a bigger turbo that addstop-end thrust. The engine is a 3.0-litre inline six, which has 381-hp.  The M-Diesels will all go from 0 to 62-mph inless than 5.4 seconds, and gas mileage will range from 36.7 to 44-mpg.

The cars also get the M treatment on the outside of thevehicles too.  This includes side mirrorsand vent bars with a grey metallic finish. The exhaust is highlighted with trapezoidal tips, there is high-glossshadow line trim, and alloy wheels ranging from 19 to 20 inches.

No pricing was announced, and the vehicles will be debutedat the Geneva Motor show in March.

Porsche Goes to New Heights

One of the downfalls of living in a high-rise building is that you have to park your diesel turbocharged VW in the garage, and take an elevator all the way up to your floor.  How many times have you wished that you didn’t have to park in that dark concrete maze, which smells like someone’s old diesel fuel pump? Well, it looks like Porsche has figured out a solution.

A new building in Miami, Florida called the Porsche Design Building is about to take residents directly to their apartments.  It doesn’t matter if you are on the first floor or the 50^th.  The high-tech car elevator will take you right to your front door.  Think of the elevator as one of those claw machines at the local arcade that your kid wastes $100 bucks on to get a stuffed animal, but instead of a stuffed animal it’s your car.

The apartments are going to have windows in the front, so you can see your car while lounging in your living room.  This also means when you pull in, you can wave hello to your family. Just like all the people living out in the burbs. The only thing missing is the annoying neighbor, demanding that you trim you hedges.

Each car elevator ride to an apartment which may cost a mere $9 million, will last approximately 45 to 90 seconds.  That sure is one expensive ride.  For that amount a money they better have some really good elevator music.