That's 12 fewer horses but 31 more lb-ft of torque than the outgoing naturally aspirated 2.4-liter base engine made. It is expected to be SAE certified to 170 hp and 203 lb-ft. The new 1.5-liter shares architecture with those in other products but gets its own unique cam timing (later intake valve closure) and an improved turbocharger to boost performance and economy in the Equinox fitment. Hats off to all the engineers at GM and elsewhere who usually toil in anonymity.Performance should not suffer with the switch to a downsized turbocharged-engine lineup. This new vehicle is far from perfect, but its platform is undeniably rigid. It was a pleasure speaking with Larry and getting such wonderful insight on the design of the 2018 Equinox. The vehicle creation process is similar for all manufacturers, be they American, German, Italian or otherwise. In fact, maybe I should ask my boss to send me to test drive Ferraris to explore the question further. Of course, the process is different when a brand like Ferrari wants a specific tire for a specific car. That’s how one brand of tire or another ends up on a vehicle, regardless of its logo. Some tire manufacturers responded, while others preferred to pass. The engineers had to decide what they wanted in a tire and then issued an invitation to bid.
#Build 2018 equinox drivers
Larry couldn’t help but laugh when he mentioned that drivers always want a tire with extraordinary grip, a perfectly quiet ride, exceptional handling in the rain and that lasts at least 150,000 km! Tests were also performed with Goodyear and Continental tires as well. The 18-inch wheels are fitted with Michelin tires, while the 19-inch wheels have Hankook rubber. Larry also talked to me about the choice of tires. So close is the 2018 Chevrolet Equinox prototype to the production version that it was built with the machine tools from the regular assembly line. It’s only used to validate decisions made several months earlier. Nowadays, the processed information is so precise that the prototype phase is practically irrelevant. And they kept doing that over and over again until they achieved the desired result. This is how they arrive at the best compromise between solidity, weight and cost.īarely 10 years ago, engineers created prototypes after performing tests and returning to the design floor to modify parts. Thus, the engineers can modify a parameter and immediately see the impact on the others. It determines where welds should be for maximum solidity and recommends the best alloy (high- or low-tensile strength steel, aluminum, high-strength low alloy (HSLA) and several other combinations) based on weight, strength and costs.
#Build 2018 equinox software
This software not only helps design the chassis, but also evaluates damage in case of impact, solidity in various situations, torsion resistance and much more. To design the chassis of the new Equinox, they used a program that’s used by other manufacturers, but was optimized by a team of in-house programmers. For starters, engineers use extremely powerful software. Photo: Chevrolet Software for the hard jobsĪs Larry pointed out, however, recent technological advances have made the creation process is a lot faster than it used to be.
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