The Bugatti

In 1998, the Volkswagen Group purchased the trademark rights on the former car manufacturer Bugatti in order to revive the brand.

The Bugatti Veyron is, by every measure, the world's most extreme production road car. It's the quickest to 60, has the highest top speed, and can absolutely dominate a track.

The Bugatti Veyron is a car built around an engine. Essentially, Bugatti made the decision to blow the doors off the supercar world by creating a 1,000-horsepower engine. Everything else follows from that resolution.

On 6 April 2013, Bugatti set the record for having the highest top speed of any roadster in the world with the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, reaching on average a top speed of 408.84 km/h (254.04 mph)

The Veyron weighs a hulking 4,160 lbs, but even its harshest critics admit its handling is surprisingly sharp. Gordon Murray, designer of the McLaren F1 was very skeptical of the Veyron during its development, but after driving the finished car, he conceded it is a "huge achievement."

The Veyron's brakes use cross drilled, radially vented carbon fibre reinforced silicon carbide (C/SiC) composite discs, manufactured by SGL Carbon, which have a much greater resistance to brake fade when compared with conventional cast iron discs.

Biofuel

Biofuels have been around as long as cars have. At the start of the 20th century, Henry Ford planned to fuel his Model Ts with ethanol, and early diesel engines were shown to run on peanut oil.

A biofuel is a fuel that uses energy from a carbon fixation.
Gasoline and diesel are actually ancient biofuels. But they are known as fossil fuels because they are made from decomposed plants and animals that have been buried in the ground for millions of years. Biofuels are similar, except that they're made from plants grown today.

Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils and animal fats. Biodiesel can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually used as a diesel additive to reduce levels of particulates, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons from diesel-powered vehicles. 
Much of the gasoline in the United States is blended with a biofuel—ethanol. This is the same stuff as in alcoholic drinks, except that it's made from corn that has been heavily processed. There are various ways of making biofuels, but they generally use chemical reactions, fermentation, and heat to break down the starches, sugars, and other molecules in plants. The leftover products are then refined to produce a fuel that cars can use.

In 2010,worldwide biofuel production reached 105 billion liters (28 billion gallons US), up 17% from 2009, and biofuels provided 2.7% of the world's fuels for road transport, a contribution largely made up of ethanol and biodiesel. Global ethanol fuel production reached 86 billion liters (23 billion gallons US) in 2010, with the United States and Brazil as the world's top producers, accounting together for 90% of global production.

Biodiesel is the most common biofuel in Europe. It is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is a liquid similar in composition to fossil/mineral diesel.

Biofuel development in India centers mainly around the cultivation and processing of Jatropha plant seeds which are very rich in oil (40%). The drivers for this are historic, functional, economic, environmental, moral and political.

Thrust

In mechanical engineering, force orthogonal to the main load (such as in parallel helical gears) is referred to as thrust.

A motorboat generates thrust (or reverse thrust) when the propellers are turned to accelerate water backwards (or forwards). The resulting thrust pushes the boat in the opposite direction to the sum of the momentum change in the water flowing through the propeller.

Thrust is the force which moves an aircraft through the air. Thrust is used to overcome the drag of an airplane, and to overcome the weight of a rocket. Thrust is generated by the engines of the aircraft through some kind of propulsion system.

A jet engine has no propeller, so the propulsive power of a jet engine is determined from its thrust as follows. Power is the force (F) it takes to move something over some distance (d) divided by the time (t) it takes to move that distance

In case of a rocket or a jet aircraft, the force is exactly the thrust produced by the engine. If the rocket or aircraft is moving at about a constant speed, then distance divided by time is just speed, so power is thrust times speed

Spark Plug

The spark plug is quite simple in theory: It forces electricity to arc across a gap, just like a bolt of lightning. The electricity must be at a very high voltage in order to travel across the gap and create a good spark. Voltage at the spark plug can be anywhere from 40,000 to 100,000 volts.

Spark plugs may also be used for other purposes; in Saab Direct Ignition when they are not firing, spark plugs are used to measure ionization in the cylinders - this ionic current measurement is used to replace the ordinary cam phase sensor, knock sensor and misfire measurement function. Spark plugs may also be used in other applications such as furnaces wherein a combustible fuel/air mixture must be ignited. In this case, they are sometimes referred to as flame igniters.

Operation::

The plug is connected to the high voltage generated by an ignition coil or magneto. As the electrons flow from the coil, a voltage difference develops between the central electrode and side electrode. No current can flow because the fuel and air in the gap is an insulator, but as the voltage rises further, it begins to change the structure of the gases between the electrodes. Once the voltage exceeds the dielectric strength of the gases, the gases become ionized. The ionized gas becomes a conductor and allows electrons to flow across the gap. Spark plugs usually require voltage of 12,000–25,000 volts or more to 'fire' properly, although it can go up to 45,000 volts. They supply higher current during the discharge process resulting in a hotter and longer-duration spark.

Jet pack

Jet pack, rocket belt, rocket pack and similar names are used for various types of devices, usually worn on the back, that are propelled by jets of escaping gases (or in some cases liquid water) so as to allow a single user to fly.
The concept emerged from science fiction in the 1920s and became popular in the 1960s as the technology became a reality. The most common use of the jet pack has been in extra-vehicular activities for astronauts. Despite decades of advancement in the technology, the challenges of Earth's atmosphere, Earth's gravity, and the fact that the human body is not adapted to fly naturally remain an obstacle to its potential use in the military or as a means of personal transport.

Powerhouse Productions Rocketbelt

More commonly known as "The Rocketman", Powerhouse Productions, owned and operated by Kinnie Gibson, is the first company to manufacture the 30 second flying Rocketbelt (June 1994) and to exclusively organize Rocketbelt performances. Since 1983 Powerhouse Productions has performed over show flights in over 40 countries such as the Carnival in Rio de Janerio, Super Bowls, the Rose Parade, Daytona 500, and the Michael jackson Dangerous World Tour, as well as many television shows including Walker Texas Ranger, The Fall Guy and NCIS. Powerhouse Rocketbelt pilots include stuntman Kinnie Gibson and Dan Schlund.

Turbojet pack

Packs with a turbojet engine are fueled with traditional kerosene. They have higher efficiency, greater height and a duration of flight of many minutes, but they are complex in construction and very expensive. Only one working model of this pack was made; it underwent flight tests in the 1960s and at present it no longer flies.

NASA's Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) (compressed gas powered)

In the 1980s, NASA demonstrated the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), a rocket pack that allowed an astronaut to function as his/her own spacecraft, but the system was retired before the decade was over. The MMU is the only jet pack of practical importance. Its operational area is outside a space station or spacecraft, where an astronaut can limitedly move independently. The MMU's propulsion was produced by high-pressure nitrogen gas discharged through nozzles (of which the MMU has 24). The MMU was used after 1984 in three Space Shuttle missions

Spark-ignition engine

The term spark ignition is used to describe the system with which the air-fuel mixture inside the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine is ignited by a spark.
It is a process that uses an electrical field induced in a magneto or coil. The field builds to many thousands of volts and then is collapsed via a timed circuit. The resulting surge of current travels along a wire and terminates at the spark plug inside the combustion chamber. An electrical spark occurs as the charge tries to jump the precision gap at the tip of the spark plug at exactly the moment a precisely metered mixture of fuel and air has been thoroughly compressed in the combustion chamber. The resulting controlled explosion delivers the power to turn the reciprocating mass inside the engine.

Fuels

Spark-ignition engines are commonly referred to as "gasoline engines" in America, and "petrol engines" in Britain and the rest of the world. However, these terms are not preferred, since spark-ignition engines can (and increasingly are) run on fuels other than petrol/gasoline, such as autogas (LPG), methanol, ethanol, bioethanol, compressed natural gas (CNG), hydrogen, and (in drag racing) nitromethane.

Working cycle

A four-stroke spark-ignition engine is an Otto cycle engine. It consists of following four strokes: suction or intake stroke, compression stroke, expansion or power stroke, exhaust stroke. Each stroke consists of 180 degree rotation of crankshaft rotation and hence a four-stroke cycle is completed through 720 degree of crank rotation. Thus for one complete cycle there is only one power stroke while the crankshaft turns by two revolutions.

IC Engines

The internal combustion engine converts chemical energy into useful mechanical energy by burning fuel. Chemical energy is released when the fuel-air mixture is ignited by the spark in the combustion chamber. The gas produced in this reaction rapidly expands forcing the piston down the cylinder on the power stroke.

    The force is applied typically to pistons, turbine blades, or a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into useful mechanical energy. The first commercially successful internal combustion engine was created by Étienne Lenoir.

The piston reciprocates inside the cylinder, exhaust and intake ports open and close during various stages of the cycle. The movement of the piston up or down the cylinder makes up one stroke of the four stroke cycle (Otto cycle). The linear motion is then converted to rotary motion by the crankshaft. The crankshaft is shaped to balance the pistons which are fired in a particular order to reduce engine vibration (typically for a 4-cylinder engine, 1-2-4-3 or 1-3-4-2). The flywheel then helps smooth out the linear movement of the pistons.

The ICE is quite different from external combustion engines, such as steam or Stirling engines, in which the energy is delivered to a working fluid not consisting of, mixed with, or contaminated by combustion products. Working fluids can be air, hot water, pressurized water or even liquid sodium, heated in some kind of boiler. ICEs are usually powered by energy-dense fuels such as gasoline or diesel, liquids derived from fossil fuels. While there are many stationary applications, most ICEs are used in mobile applications and are the dominant power supply for cars, aircraft, and boats. 

Types of internal combustion engine

Reciprocating:

• Two-stroke engine
• Four-stroke engine (Otto cycle)
• Six-stroke engine
• Diesel engine
• Atkinson cycle
• Miller cycle

Rotary:

• Wankel engine

Continuous combustion:

• Gas turbine
• Jet engine (including turbojet, turbofan, ramjet, Rocket, etc.)

Two-stroke configuration

Engines based on the two-stroke cycle use two strokes (one up, one down) for every power stroke. Since there are no dedicated intake or exhaust strokes, alternative methods must be used to scavenge the cylinders. The most common method in spark-ignition two-strokes is to use the downward motion of the piston to pressurize fresh charge in the crankcase, which is then blown through the cylinder through ports in the cylinder walls.

Spark-ignition two-strokes are small and light for their power output and mechanically very simple; however, they are also generally less efficient and more polluting than their four-stroke counterparts. In terms of power per cm³, a two-stroke engine produces comparable power to an equivalent four-stroke engine.

Four-stroke

Engines based on the four-stroke ("Otto cycle") have one power stroke for every four strokes (up-down-up-down) and employ spark plug ignition. Combustion occurs rapidly, and during combustion the volume varies little ("constant volume"). They are used in cars, larger boats, some motorcycles, and many light aircraft. They are generally quieter, more efficient, and larger than their two-stroke counterparts.
The steps involved here are:

1. Intake stroke: Air and vaporized fuel are drawn in.
2. Compression stroke: Fuel vapor and air are compressed and ignited.
3. Combustion stroke: Fuel combusts and piston is pushed downwards.
4. Exhaust stroke: Exhaust is driven out. During the 1st, 2nd, and 4th stroke the piston is relying on power and the momentum generated by the other pistons. In that case, a four-cylinder engine would be less powerful than a six- or eight-cylinder engine.