| LHD |
Left Hand Drive |
| RHD |
Right Hand Drive |
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| FF |
Front Engine / Front Wheel Drive |
| FR |
Front Engine / Rear Wheel Drive |
| FM |
Front Midships |
| MR |
Mid Engine / Rear Wheel Drive |
| MF |
Mid Engine / Front Wheel Drive |
| RR |
Rear Engine / Rear Wheel Drive |
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| AWD |
All Wheel Drive |
| FWD |
Front Wheel Drive |
| RWD |
Rear Wheel Drive |
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| Oversteer |
When your rear tires spin out and try to get in front of your car. Losing traction in the rear tires. |
| Snap Oversteer |
When the back side of your car loses grip suddenly and your car spins around uncontrollably. |
| Understeer |
When you turn your steering wheel, but your car just skids forward. Losing traction in the front tires. |
| Tank Slapper |
term used to describe the rear end of the car sliding out and hitting another car and/or the wall. See “Oversteer”. |
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| A/R |
Term which denotes size of a turbochargers turbine housing. Technically, “A” is area of volute at a specific cross-section; “R” is radius of the centroid of that area. Here this is easier, |
| AFR |
Air/Fuel Ratio; or, the mass of air inducted divided by mass of fuel injected |
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| Agricultural Excursion |
Sliding off the track and collecting clumps of grass in the nether regions of the vehicles chassis. |
| BDC |
Bottom Dead Center. The position of the piston at the bottom of its stroke |
| Backspacing |
Distance of a wheels mounting surface from the inboard rim |
| Bead |
The inner lip of the tire. The bead anchors the tire to the wheel. |
| Bias-Ply |
A tire construction consisting of rubber-coated piles made of nylon cords. These cords are laid down at an angle to one another and then wrapped around the bead wires. Bias-Ply tires have gone the way of the carburetor. |
| Billet |
Raw material form of forged metal which can be machined into any shape your wallet can handle. |
| Bling-Bling |
Originally derived from the sound made by shiny items in cartoons and toothpaste commercials, Bling-Bling describes anything dope, stupid, phat, or fly. See “Dubs”. |
| Blow-Off Valve |
Valve which vents boost pressure from the intake tract when the throttle plate is closed in order to prevent compressor surge. Make that cool “Pssssh” sound. Also known as “Compressor bypass valve” |
| OEM |
Original Equipment Manufacturer |
| Bore |
Diameter of a single cylinder in an engine block. |
| Bump Steer |
A change in the toe resulting from wheel travel, causing kickback in the steering. Usually occurs on lowered cars without steering rack spacers. |
| Bumpstop |
Piece of rubber which limits suspension compression, or what all those slammed Hondas ride on. |
| Burnout |
The purpose of torque |
| CNC |
Computer Numerical Control. Refers to computer-controlled machine tools used to make cool, expensive things |
| Cam In Block Engine |
Refering to placement of the cam in the block of the engine. |
| Camber |
When viewed from the front or rear of the car, the angle a wheel sits in relation to a vertical line. |
| Caster |
When viewed from the side of the car, the angle between the front wheels steering axis and the vertical line. |
| Center Housing |
The piece between the two spinny things in a turbo which contains the bearings, seals, and oil feed and drain and other nonsexy essentials. |
| Coil Bind |
The point at which the coils of a compressed spring touch. |
| Compression Ratio |
How much the air in the cy,inder gets compressed before the spark plug fires. Measured as the ratio of a cylinders displaced volume plus combustion chamber volume; divided by combustion chamber volume. |
| Cryo-treatment |
a heat-treating procedure that ends with chilling metal parts to -300 degree F in a controlled manner to improve part toughness and wear resistence. |
| SOHC |
Single OverHead Cam. Meaning one cam, in the head actuating both intake/exhaust valves |
| DOHC |
Dual OverHead Cam. Meaning two cams. One intake cam and one exhaust cam. |
| OHC |
OverHead Cam. Refering to placement of the cam over the main portion of the head |
| OHV |
Over Head Valve. Refering to placement of the valve in the head. |
| Dave Point |
The name of the point generated by the intersection of the steering axis with the ground plane. Engineering editor of SCC, Dave Coleman named it after himself since the engineering world forgot to give it an inscrutable techno-term. |
| Wet Nitrous Setup |
A nitrous oxide kit that injects fuel along with nitrous oxide |
| Dry Nitrous Setup |
One that injects ONLY nitrous oxide |
| Boost |
The pressure in the intake manifold that is above ambient |
| Wastegate |
Valve which limits boost by bypassing the exhaust gasses around the turbine wheel of a turbocharger. |
| Four-Stroke Cycle |
An engines thermodynamic process consisting of four phases: Intake, compression, power, and exhaust. Lather, rinse, repeat. All modern passenger car engines use the four-stroke cycle, even the rotary, which just does it without strokes. |
| LSD |
limited slip differential. Also known as posi or posi-track. |
| Left-Foot Braking |
Driving Technique using one foot on the gas and one on the brake. Good for Rallying |
| Threshold Braking |
Braking at the limit of the tires adhesion to provide maximum braking force without locking up. See “Flatspot” |
| Trail Braking |
Technique used to help rotate a car during turn-in. Accompished by keeping the brake pedal depressed for a short period while turning in. |
| Smackdown |
Severe Spanking |
| Spanking |
A thorough and complex victory over an opponent. |
| Offset |
Axial distance between the wheel centerline and its mating surface at the hub. |
| Spool |
A.K.A “full spool” mostly used in drag racing. It eliminates the differential effectively locking the two axle halves together, by eliminating spider gears. |
| Stoichiometric |
Word used to describe the ratio when there is just enough oxygen to burn all of the fuel in a cylinder charge. 14.7:1 is the stoichiometric A/F ratio for gasoline. See “AFR” |
| Turbine Wheel |
The other spinny thing in a turbo that gets tortured by exhaust gas to drive the compressor wheel. |
| Tire Sizing |
Example 205/50-15 (treadwidth [mm])/(sidewall height [% of treadwidth])-(wheel diameter [inches]) |
| Radial |
A tire construction using a layer of rubber-covered steel cables which extend radially from bead to bead. These are covered by several rubber-coated steel belts which are placed under the tread to strengthen the tire. Stronger and more durable than bias-ply tires. |
| Neutral |
When the front and rear tires give up at equal rates, fun and fast. |
| VNT |
Variable Nozzle Turbocharger |
| VTEC |
Valve Timing and Lift Electronically Controlled. VTEC sounds better than VTLEC. |
| VVT |
Variable Valve Timing |
| VVT-i |
Variable Valve Timing Intellegence (reffering to computer controlled rather than hydraulically controlled) |
| Valve Float |
A Potentially damaging condition encountered in the valvetrain at high engine speeds where the lifters lose contact with the cam loves often due to insufficient calve spring rates |
| Valve Lift |
The maximum distance a valve moves from its seat when open |
| Valve Rotator |
found on exhaust valves. Used to prevent hotspots on the exhaust valve by letting it rotate before returning to its seat. |
| Volumetric Efficiency |
Expression used to describe how effective an engine is at inducting the intake charge relative to conditions upstream of the cylinder. One-hundred percent volumetric efficiency means the density of the charge trapped in the cylinder is the same as that in the intake manifold. |
