Moding Classic Cars

Moding classic cars

Car Technology

The Ultimate Retrofit

No one can deny the style of a classic car.But the fact remains that they were built decades before the entertainment,GPS or power windows were even discovered (technology were not born then),which makes the ride in a classic car a primitive one according to todays standards.But those who dont want to compromise the comfort in a classic car can take their beauties to specialized shops which retrofits the classic car by stuffing it with new technology and changes it to a 20th century car.

These are custom jobs,often requires the entire classic car to be remodeled,not to mention the installation of state-of-the-art electronics.The classic car shown in the picture have neon lights,high end audio system with satellite radio,dual tone suede interior,two oval 15 by 23 speakers mounted in the rear and of course power windows and other automotive technologies.The rear mounted audio system enables the owner to enjoy music when it is parked.All these come with a price,and thats about US $7000

One can also fit video systems,with a trunk mounted LCD,connected to a DVD player.This picture features a 2006 Mustang convertible with a 17 inch display in the trunk.This classic car also has a 7 inch touch screen.It is dash mounted,which can control GPS,radio,video systems,a high end audio system with a 8 by 15 speakers on the front doors.All these modifications in the Mustang cost about $8000 to $10,000.

The modifications are not only done in audio-video and navigation systems,the technology extends upto security systems also.This system will roll up the windows automatically when the driver leaves the car.It has a two way remote.When an intruder is detected,a warning pulse is produced,but if the vibrations continue the pulse changes to a wailing full blast and the system also alerts the owner.

Here are some more classic cars.

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Safer Driving in The Dead of Night

Infra red technology

New Technology

Infrared vision systems are set to become standard in high-end cars

When it gets dark,the probability of your car involving in a crash is very high.In US alone 20% of car crashes happen between midnight and 6am,even though the traffic at that time is quite low than that of day time.

Unfortunately drinking is still a big villain.But the main problem is inadequate vehicle lighting.Current lightings provide visibility up to 50m range,but you need at least 110m to stop a car speeding at 100 kmph.At that speed you can not respond immediately,which adds to the accident rate.

Mercedes,BMW and others big names try to solve this issue by introducing a infrared night vision on new models.They announced this will be available on S class and on 7 series on the Auto show in Detroit,by Mercedes and BMW respectively.It works as follows.Night vision systems uses infrared sensors to show drivers objects 3 or 4 times farther than normal.Pedestrians on this system will appear as bright objects compared to other things around,like trees or road.This helps in letting the driver know about the obstacle lot earlier.

Automotive infrared night vision is of two types;far and near infrared technologies.Mercedes S class offers near infrared technology.This system uses special bulbs mounted next to standard headlights which emits infrared waves.Even though this acts like a high beam this do not blind the oncoming traffic since,human eye is insensitive to infrared waves.So the infrared waves will reflect when it strikes an object,say,a pedestrian and this is registered back in the car using a CCD sensor,which is situated behind the rear view mirror.

The signal from CCD is sent to an image processor which converts it to human viewable form.The Lexus uses a black and white head up display beamed on the windshield while Mercedes uses an LCD unit behind the instrument panel.

BMW uses the far infrared technology.This is slightly more complicated.This one uses a set of phased array of infrared detectors to detect infrared band (heat) emitted by distant objects.This system is passive,which means no special bulbs are needed for this system to work.Now the special receiver system uses the temperature pattern to create a thermo gram.The heat from an animal or a pedestrian is much higher than that emitted by other elements.The system refreshes at a rate of 30 per second.An image processor converts this raw data into images which can be viewed on an LCD unit.

Now on which technology you put your money,far infrared technology or near infrared technology ???Actually “neither one has a clear cut advantage over one another” ,says,Bert Wolfram who introduced both systems.It will cost a car company around $1200 to buy a far infrared system.The camera used in this passive system is of the size of a paperback book.More space is needed for the big camera.While for a near infrared technology,the camera is of the size of a postage stamp.Its small size enables it to be mounted anywhere,on the back of the rear view mirror or on top of the windshield.All these comes as cheap as $300.

With all these dis-favoring factors,the far infrared technology has one major advantage,range.It can detect pedestrians over 400m away.But to keep the retail price low on the ground instead of sky rocketing,the range is decreased to a well reasonable 300m.The near infrared technology systems have ranges only up to 150-200m.

Not everyone supports the infrared night vision technology.Marc Green a professor of opthalmology,says,this is a terrible idea.The main problem is this system causes the drivers focus to shift from road to the screen,also it can even make them feel safe which will finally result in increasing their speed.

But any way the ultimate responsibility for recognizing an obstacle on road lies with the driver no matter whether he have electronic aid or not.

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