Porsche’s six-stroke engine

Who loves a good internal combustion engine (ICE)?  Confession time would have me say that I still love the special characteristics of an ICE and the awesome soundtracks that they can make – none being more special than a sonorous and legendary V8 or even a fully vocal high-pitched straight six. 

Now there is news in the hood that Porsche has patented some new technology whereby the introduction of a six-stroke cycle for an ICE of theirs will be made.  The common four-stroke cycle that is already used by almost every auto manufacturer, including Porsche, has four strokes: intake, compression, ignition, and exhaust.  Porsche states that the six-stroke cycle will make considerable gains in power output while also lowering its levels of emissions.  This is great news for ICE fans.

How does it work and what’s the difference?  As the numbers suggest, the conventional four-stroke cycle makes a power stroke one in every four times that the piston moves on its vertical axis.  Thus, in a conventional four-stroke engine, each piston helps to drive the car about 25% of the time.  Porsche’s new six-stroke engine will provide a power stroke twice in its six-stroke cycle – that’s two power strokes out of every six that the piston moves on its vertical axis (or one in three).  This means that each piston is helping to power/drive the vehicle about 33% of the time it’s moving.  The six-stroke cycle works as follows: intake fuel and air, compress the fuel and air mix, ignition (power), intake more fuel and air, ignition (power), and exhaust. 

By allowing the piston to have a variation in its travel length inside its chamber via clever internal gearing and a special vent design, the six-stroke engine can produce more power strokes within its cycle.  For the first three strokes, the piston works like a normal four-stroke.  Then, on the fourth stroke, the special gearing allows the piston to drop lower in its chamber, presenting some more scavenging ports that allow more fuel and fresh air to enter the cylinder while the exhaust gases escape out the exhaust ports.  The fifth stroke ignites the fresh fuel mix, and then the sixth cycle gets rid of all burnt/spent gases.

Who wouldn’t want a great sounding faster and more efficient new Porsche sports car? However, this is not all that the clever team at Porsche have been up to.  Porsche has already worked towards creating a fuel that is considered to be a carbon-neutral synthetic fuel made from carbon dioxide (CO₂) that has been captured from the atmosphere.  That’s right, it is essentially using or recycling atmospheric carbon as fuel for their ICE vehicle.  

While still leading the charge for ICE fans, Porsche has not abandoned EVs.  It is also worth noting that Porsche is also going in all guns blazing with EV technology as well.  Most new models of Porsche have an EV in their line-up already, and the Taycan is a pure EV.

All the same, I’m fascinated by this new six-stroke technology and am looking forward to seeing it in whatever new offerings Porsche decides to serve up.

What Do You Get If You Cross A Saab 900 Turbo Cabriolet With A Nissan Figaro?

It’s possible to get a hinny in the equine world, but how did the auto world possibly come up with the Morgan Midsummer?  For those with little equine knowledge (and to be honest, I didn’t know that a hinny existed), let’s first of all clear up what a hinny actually is.  A male horse (stallion) and a female donkey (a jenny) can get together and produce a domestic equine hybrid called a hinny – a cross between a male horse and a female donkey. 

I was more familiar with the flipside of this, where a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare) got together and produced a mule.  I’m not quite sure why I linked a Morgan with the equine world, apart from the obvious connotations of horsepower, but I think it comes down to the Morgan being a really cool modern car that has a beauty that it has all of its own but then has a hint of cars from yesteryear, ones that were also a bit exclusive and cool, even back then. 

The Saab 900 Turbo Cabriolet is a bit of a stallion.  I mean, look at all that exquisite eighties leather used to make its interior and some of the most comfortable seats I’ve ever enjoyed.  Then there’s its striking angular styling, cool three-spoke aero mags, black soft-top roof, and the powerful 2.0-litre turbo engine that made this a quick and exciting car.  Little wonder, then, that the Saab 900 Turbo Cabriolet, with his angular black physique and soft salt and pepper stone chips, attracted the attention of a lonely but very pretty pale aqua Nissan Figaro.  Result… well the modern-day Morgan Midsummer, of course!

Saab isn’t really dead yet, because the cult following of the 900 and other great Saabs of yesteryear are still being restored and cherished by many a car enthusiast.  The Nissan Figaro also has a dedicated following too, with her cute and loveable cabriolet style born back in the early nineties.  Morgan, on the other hand, are still in business – very much in the business of making new cars. Their latest project, called the Midsummer, is a brilliant progression of the niche brand’s range of open-top roadsters that span back to the very first model that emerged in 1909/1910 known as the three-wheeled runabout, which was a single-seater that used a 5.2 kW Peugeot twin-cylinder motor.  After deciding that a two-seater version was much more inclusive, the little Morgan Runabout became the only car ever to appear in a shop window at Harrods of London.

Morgans are fun!  And the Midsummer is no exception.  Fifty of these new models will be made, and most of the car will still be hand built.  The 2024 Morgan Midsummer is a two-seat open-top sports car that represents the shared vision of Morgan and Pininfarina, who have worked in partnership on this new model to celebrate the timeless beauty of Morgan sportscars.  The Morgan Midsummer boasts Morgan’s CX-generation aluminium chassis, and with a BMW 6-cylinder turbo as its power source, this little sportscar will be sure to fly! 

In the Morgan, as always, wood is used in its construction, now as a design feature rather than for all-out strength.  For the Morgan Midsummer, many layers of teak are used to create the car’s shoulder line and cockpit surrounds.  This gorgeous natural look takes around 30 hours to make by hand, and when it comes to the curvaceous and eye-catching body panels, a further 250 hours of literal handiwork are performed for making these beautifully handcrafted pieces.  The combination of human love, dedication, and care, which are so easily disregarded in today’s robotic processes, makes this a standout vehicle with elegant sports car lines and huge desirability.  This car won’t be thrown away so easily in decades to come.

So what do you get when you cross a Saab 900 Convertible with a Nissan Figaro?  A Morgan Midsummer with BMW power!

The Hot Sports Cars Of 2024

Most people who love driving have dreamed about owning or at least driving a sports car at some point in their lives.  Some sports car greats that come to mind are the Porsche 911, BMW M4, Subaru WRX, Ford Mustang, Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, and even Tesla cars.  We often hear about Toyota leading the new car sales charts, with Australians also loving the Ford Ranger and other great new utes, along with Mazda SUVs.  But what about those of us who love to own and drive a sports car?  What are the more commonly sold new sports cars been recently?  Let’s take a look.

Our focus here is on the common sports cars, not the crazy wild exotics that tend to be reserved for the rich and possibly famous – the sort of things that most of us can only dream about.  We’ll keep things within the bounds of the possible and look at the sports cars that keen Aussie drivers actually purchased.

Helping to shed some light on this question comes from the data that were released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).  What’s on their list?  Of all the sports cars bought new for under AUD $80,000 last year (2023), 1573 Subaru BRZ Coupes were sold.  This made it the number one sports car choice in Australia.  The stylish BRZ just pipped the ever-popular Ford Mustang, with 1475 new Mustangs added to our roads last year.

Third spot went to the lovable BMW 2 Series Coupe, which would have to be my personal pick of the bunch.  BMW enticed 1164 of the sports car buyers of 2023 to own a new 2 Series Coupe.  That’s very impressive for BMW.  Interestingly, the Subaru BRZ also beat out its almost identical twin, the Toyota GR86 Coupe sports car, which managed to attract 1144 sales throughout 2023 and popping the GR86 into fourth spot – this was only 20 units shy of the BMW’s tally.  

After the tightish competition among the top four sellers, there was a bit of a gap between fourth and fifth place, with sales in the triple figures rather than in the thousands.  Surprisingly, at least for me, was that the incredibly popular and stylish Mazda MX-5 had to settle for fifth place getter (653 sales).  Also, the quick and fun-to-drive Nissan Z car came in sixth place, with Nissan being able to shift 449 sales.

It is worth mentioning that Ford does have the next-generation Mustang rolling out onto its showroom floors as we speak.  This may well be the reason why fewer of these cars were sold last year, as those intending to own a new Mustang may have been holding out to purchase the new model.  And who wouldn’t want to spend their money on a new Ford Mustang with all that legendary performance and style?  Check out our review of it here.

The Two Most Important Things When Buying A New Car

There are various things to think about when we want to buy a new car.  Most importantly, the thought of how much we can afford needs to be right up at the top of the list of things that we need to consider.  Here are a couple of the main points we should be pondering and committing to before we sign any dotted lines on the sales document.

What’s The Top Price?

Our budget and what we can afford needs to be the first point that we get clear in our minds.  Having a figure that we will stick to sets the price ceiling for us, and this is the figure we take with us around the car sales yards.  Any cars over our price ceiling can be omitted from our shortlist.  This makes the task even easier, so those vehicles up to the price ceiling are definitely the ones we can enjoy drooling over, learning about, test driving, and even buying as our next new vehicle. This is, of course, where Private Fleet can help you!

What’s The Purpose?

What are we wanting/needing the new vehicle for?  Is it because we need more space for a growing family?  Maybe we need a new vehicle because it will allow us to carry our elderly parents/in-laws about town or on vacations.  It could be that our trusty ute or van that we use for work has finally run its last race, and we need a replacement… fast.  Knowing our main purposes for the new vehicle gives us an indication of the type of vehicle and body style we should be looking at. 

What I mean is that it won’t be any good getting ourselves a new Toyota Camry hybrid sedan when we will need to take Buster – our large, long coated, and rather boisterous dog – to the local obedience class.  Especially not if Buster is accompanied by his brother.  A Skoda Ocatvia wagon, a Toyota RAV4, or a Honda CR-V SUV with huge rear boot space would much better to suit our needs – and Buster’s.  In this example, even a ute or 4×4 SUV might be the best option, particularly if you love heading down to the beach or heading away on an outdoor adventure in the Outback with Buster and the whole family.

Another example of a purchase fail is if you ended up with a light EV van when you also needed the vehicle to tow a trailer or to cover larger distances far from the urban boundary.  Towing really drains that battery quickly, and there’s nothing worse than being caught miles away from the nearest charging station.

Maybe we just need a solo commuter to get us across town to the office for work.  The distance to work takes us a total distance of 23 km per day, five days a week, and that’s all you want the new vehicle will do.  If this was the case, an EV or hybrid could easily make it onto the list of ideal vehicles.  In this case, these sorts of vehicles are ideal for keeping the cost of running right down and the emissions nice and low.  Something like a BYD Dolphin or Audi eTron, both of which are EVs, or a hybrid BMW or Toyota could do the trick.  It’s all about the price ceiling, however, and there is a big difference between the purchase price of a BYD and the BMW. 

Maybe we could even consider a small hatchback for a city commute or even a sedan, both which have a small internal combustion engine (ICE) or a light hybrid powerplant that boasts very good economy ratings but don’t cost much to buy new.  In this case, the constraints on our budget and the low price ceiling may point us more towards something like a Suzuki Swift, Kia Picanto or Honda Jazz. 

As to how luxurious, expensive, or even exotic our new car may be does depend on our price ceiling.  And the price ceiling is what we will have worked out already before heading out on the hunt for a new vehicle.  Most manufacturers have a wide range within their model line-up; some more than others.  For example, Ford has a base version of its 2024 Ford Everest SUV called the Ambiente that costs around $60k new at the time of writing, a more luxurious Trend ($65–75k), Sports models ($67–82k), and two top of the range Platinum versions stacked with luxury for $84–91k.

If we do our homework, there is no reason why we can’t buy a new vehicle that will be suitable for our needs, be fun to drive, and even be in the colour we want!