No. 552010.2.3

Story: A Little While Ago

Hi there, it’s Uchida.

Nowadays, after December started, even people around me are kind of busy.
December is called “Shiwasu” and is written as “” indicating that “”(a master) runs it.


Within the Wangan project, Mr. Takenaka is called “a master” : (because he is the oldest?), and because of this name, maybe, he is busily running around.
As you all know, he’s been busy because of THIS.
Well, since this Shiwasu, not only the Master but also all the Wangan project members have been running around, busily creating software.
I wonder if we can have any year-end and New Year holidays this time...?

Such worries aside, my story goes back a month or so. It was early November.
(I wanted to write a lot earlier, but my turn took forever to come. So the topic is a month late…)

I visited “Tokyo Motor Show” held in Makuhari Messe.
Recently, the population of automobile lovers within Japan has been decreasing. And on top of that, because of the economic conditions, the scale of the show was downright smaller, even compared with the previous one back in 2007.
As an automobile lover, it’s really sad.

The best parts of the show, without a doubt, are Concept Cars and Sports Cars.
Japanese manufacturers exhibited a carbon-body sports car and a compact sports car with a classic name. Those cars made me excited about their future releases.
All in all, I felt that the crowds mainly gathered around those cars, too.


But actually, the attraction of the motor show is not just cars.


Besides the booths of automobile manufacturers, there are many booths of automobile components’ manufacturers. It may be no exaggeration to say that Uchida visits the motor show for these components’ booths.

In the component manufacturers’ booths, components in the advanced technologies used for cars to be released throughout the year of the motor show are exhibited. On many occasions, they are nothing short of eye-opening because of their complex structures and astonishing precision.


For example…

In 2007, respective manufacturers released clutch-less manual transmission cars in a twin-clutch layout.
At the booths of component manufacturers in the motor show of that year, the transmissions themselves were displayed. So I was gazing at those structures.
In 2009, many of the components of a carbon-body sports car were displayed. Besides the body components, the carbon propeller shafts and transaxle transmissions themselves were displayed. So I was gazing at them as well.


…When I write like this, it looks like I am just a mechanical geek. (laughs)


Oh heck! I’ll just go on with the mechanical geek talk then in this issue!!

In this motor show, the item Uchida highly recommended was a hollow spring displayed by a certain spring manufacturer. A coil spring made of about 1cm thick iron bar is used for the chassis of a normal car to stabilize the car body.


↑Spring like this

The size isn’t that big because it is rolled. But since it is originally an iron pole, it is quite heavy. (The diameter is about 15cm.)
Therefore, this product came out with its section of the iron pole with a hollow center to reduce its weight instead of a solid center.
　Solid sectional view: ●
　Hollow sectional view: ◎
It speaks for itself that the weight decreases because of the hollow center, but this also decreases the spring performance as well.
Therefore, the manufacturer refined their materials and process methods and manufactured hollow springs which could provide the same performance as solid springs. That’s why they were displayed.
When I actually picked up both of the springs, I was surprised at their weight difference. It was quite a lot.

I’ve read many car-related articles talking about car performance getting lighter when the “unsprung weight” is light. But the reduced weight of the spring itself also provides a similar effect.


I went on and on leaving the readers out in this issue.
See you around.


(Original article in Japanese released on 2009.12.9)