Comparison of the aesthetics and design of luxury car engines

osunick.com

9 points·rdl··3 comments

For something like the lexus, where everything except the dipstick and brake fluid cap are accessible, I wonder why they wouldn't get truly innovative and do away with the concept of a standard opening hood.

For the most part, this will only be worked on by people in the know. Does the hood of a car have to open for everybody? Can't we get access to all the more common bits by a gas cap like flap?

It's been done on a few cars. The MCC Smart car is mid-engined, so it features s "service flap" where the hood would be for things like fluid reservoirs. The engine bay is accessible by lifting a flap in the trunk. The Audi A2 was front-engined, but used a service hatch arrangement as a weight-saving measure - the hood was designed to lift off completely and had no hinges or prop.

A service hatch would be a fairly substantial design problem on a performance car. It means that the manufacturer is forced to locate the various fluid bottles close together, most likely near the very front of the car. This is prime real-estate for air intakes and radiators, because taking air from the high-pressure region at the nose has double benefit - more airflow where you want it, less drag where you don't. Elaborate routing of fluid hoses and reservoirs would mean extra weight, which is generally anathema in the car industry.

The Porsche Boxster and Cayman have no service hatch for the engine at all, and a tiny section under the hood that has a few reservoirs for fluids.

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