LAME

 

Not that I've ever installed either, but I've always been told that even though a turbo increasing the air pressure into the intake just like a supercharger... it's not considered forced induction. Oh well.

 

Kyle, I've never in my life heard that distinction. A turbocharger is a form of "supercharging" the intake charge, through the use of an exhaust-driven turbine (where the "turbo" part comes from). It is sort of a more specific subset of the general sense of supercharging, and over time the word supercharger has come to mean engine (belt) driven to keep it distinct from an exhaust gas driven turbine.

Go to the Forced Induction forum on the board and you'll find plent of both belt driven blowers and exhaust turbine driven blowers. All considered Forced Induction (as opposed to Naturally Aspirated) as far as I've ever seen or heard.

 

Joe, I couldn't have said it better myself....

 

I don't think GM plans to support DOD with a manual, at least anytime soon. I believe there are too many variables introduced by the manual transmission for the controls logic.

 

Dear God is that convertible top ugly.

 

I thought it was obvious--the engine name is stupid.

A sportscar should have an inspirational name and if you're going to mold a name on the engine too, it should do the same. Ecotec sounds like a cheap a$$ economy car engine.

Something along the lines of "Inferno" or "Fireball" would be good since the car is named solstice.

 

Heh. While you may be right...."Inferno" or "Fireball" are names for candy or soda. Let's leave the supermarket names to Buick.

 

How about "Hammer of Thor" or "Velocity Avenger" or "Massive Love Muscle Motor of the Ages"?

Honestly, LS1 made a name for itself just using two letters and a number, I don't really see it as a big issue.

 

I kind of see the point with the "Ecotech" name...

Not only is it hard to say (Is it "echo-tech" or "E-ko-tech"?) but it's name starts with what looks like the word "Economy"... while that is fine for pedestrian, budget minded economy cars, it's not exactly awe-inspiring on a performance car.

It's not all that unlike the whole "Old" in "Oldsmobile" stigma....

 

Besides, the ecotec engine is already making quite a name for itself in the four cylinder world.

Lots of tuner types refer to B16i, FZZTop (you get the idea) Japanese engines without blinking an eye. The ecotec has shown up with well over 1000 hp at drag strips and is impressing lots of people, it seems.

But yeah, if they were picking a name from scratch, rather than using a relatively established and respected name, I see what you mean about picking a more aggressive sounding name.

Remember when the first Vette came out? It had the "stove bolt six" out of the pickups, but they tweaked the engine and called it the "Blue Flame six"...

 

LS1 is a lot different than a stupid name like Ecotec.

It's not a real big issue but for some people, but for people like me who already see this car as leaning more towards the female side, since it's a lot like a miata or that toyota 2 seater, it adds to that. Nameing it a xf36 or some crap like that would still be better than ecotec.

Engine names do help and obviously the most successful example is Hemi. There was also Wildcat for Buick and I think the original corvette had an engine named Blue Flame. I was at an Olds car show and there were cars that had "Super High Compression" labeled on the air cleaner covers. Mopar has Magnum, 440 6 Pack

Look at all the little things on older cars that were brought to peoples attention like TurboHydramatic, Powerglide, Futuramic, Dynaride, Positrac, etc. Giving car parts unique names gets people interested and makes them remember.

It's little easy to do things like that that add to the "coolness" of a car. Would you want Ecotec badged on the side of your car?

 

Take it from someone who does marketing all day long. I'm with KillerTA on this.

LS1/B16/alphanumerics don't have any stigma associated with them, so they'll be judged based on what the engine does.

The problem with ECOTEC is "ECO." As in ECONOMY. As in CHEAP. At best, it's an OK name for an economy engine or ecologically friendly engine. It's a very poor name for a performance engine.

Just like "smallblock" is a terrible moniker for the LS-series motors. If GM is trying to elevate "smallblock" to the same realm as "HEMI," they better stop now. Come on, guys, it has the word SMALL in it.

Judging by the results they're getting with the ECOTEC, though, it will likely succeed in spite of the terrible name.

 

I see no problem with ECOTEC. I thought it sounded kind of cool.

You will find it is NOT the name that makes the engine; it's the ENGINE that makes a name great.

If GM starts relying on cool names to sell product, it's over.