Commonly Used Terms with Cars

Commonly Used Terms with Cars

1.      Ground Clearance (mm): It is the distance between the base of the tire and the underside of the chassis of a car. Best is 172 mm for Indian Roads.

2.      Wheel Base (mm): It is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheel of a car.

3.      Track (mm):

§  Front Track: It is the distance between the centers of the front wheels of a car.

§  Rear Track: It is the distance between the centers of the rear wheels of a car.

§  Front Track should be greater than the rear track as it provides for stability to the car during turns.

4.      Displacement (cc):

§  Engine displacement refers to the volume swept by all the pistons in an engine.

§  It is the volume of air "displaced" by the pistons during a single engine cycle. 

§  In terms of a single cylinder, displacement is the volume of the space traveled by the piston.

§  An engine measurement in cc is the total of the volumes displaced by the cylinders of the engine through one revolution.

§  It is nothing but cubic capacity - in terms of each cylinder effective volume x no of cylinders - this is nothing but power of vehicle (on assumption of equal rpm)

5.      Torque:

§  The rotational force that is generated by the engine is called torque.

§  It tells you a lot about how fast the car can accelerate.

§  It is equivalent to Rate of Pickup.

6.      Power:

§  It is the rate at which work is done, that is the rate at which energy is transferred by force.

§  It is equivalent to Engine Speed

7.      LX, LXI, VXI, ZXI, LD, LDI, VDI, ZDI

§  X indicates petrol engine

§  D indicates diesel engine

§  I indicates car has power steering and power windows

§  L indicates base model with basic features only

§  V indicates full function model (i.e L + A/c, Music player, Alloy wheels, etc.)

§  Z indicates luxurious model (i.e. V + ABS, Airbag, etc.)

§  These terminologies are used with Maruti Suzuki Cars

8.      GL, GLS, AT

§  GL indicates basic model with manual windows, steel wheels, etc.

§  GLS indicates full function model with power windows, power door locks, alloy wheels, sunroof, etc.

§  It is mainly used in Hyundai,

9.      RPM (rotation per minute):

§  This is the speed at which the engine is rotating the flywheel.

10.  MPFI (Multi-Point Fuel Injection)

For running of a petrol engine fuel should be mixed with air and supplied to the engine cylinders according to the speed and load conditions. In earlier years this was achieved with the help of carburetors. But in modern cars fuel injection system is used. It may single point, multi point or direct injection. In single point injection there will be only one fuel injector placed at the inlet manifold which continuously spays fuel. In direct injection fuel will be directly injected into the engine cylinder at the proper timing.

Multi point fuel injection or MPFI uses several injectors, normally respective to the number of engine cylinders and placed in the inlet port of each cylinders.It is to be noted that fuel spaying is taking place out side of the cylinder at the correct time according to the piston position inside the cylinder.There will be electronic control unit or ECU which will be receiving feed back from several sensors like engine speed sensor, fly wheel position sensor, vehicle speed sensor, atmospheric temp. sensor, accelerator pedal position sensor intake airflow sensor. This ECU will control the correct amount of fuel to be injected and the proper time at which the fuel will be injected at any speed and load condition. This will ensure maximum power output at minimum fuel.