How electronics stops those darned valves bashing us over the head
I personally never had any great fondness for electronics. I always felt those kinds of innovations just break the magical spell cast by the folks that invented the combustion engine. Folks like we pistons. They annoyed me a bit, to tell the truth. However, I have to say I’ve changed my mind.
This is because, for 60 or 70 years, we pistons were locked in an ongoing battle with those darned valves as every now and then they’d bash us on the head. Let me explain the situation from a piston’s point of view to a non-piston: when a driver made a mistake and either revved the engine too high or accelerated at the wrong instant, those darned valves would bash us over the head, making a kind of ticking noise and really hurting us badly.
I don’t even want to think about the kind of damage that could happen to the engine. Then, electronics came along with its magic wand and that kind of stuff completely disappeared. So, now, even when the clumsiest of drivers decides to hit the accelerator harder than strictly necessary at 1,000 rpm, the ECU steps in and adjusts everything in advance so that we poor pistons don’t get terrible wallops on the head.
PUBLISHED IN PISTUNZEN'S BLOG BY PISTUNZEN ON 10.21.2011
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)
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