Wow, 2 years since I first thought that this was a good idea. I have thought about that next post many times, but haven't done it.

Still pining for smaller government (even more so with the multiplicity of abject big government failures that have occurred in the last 2 years) and a Mustang. In thinking about this blog, I think my emphasis, and indeed what I'm interested in about life in general, is the intersection of cars and petrochemicals. My interest in cars is simply a nearly (since the age of 4 or so) lifelong passion, whilst my interest and expertise in petrochemicals is one that I've come to as my vocation.

These are interesting times when it comes to these items. With the drive for higher and higher levels of fuel efficiency, the role of novel chemical processes to make strong plastics and other components for cars has become a huge point of emphasis. In addition, the demand for greener processes has driven us to develop water based paints that have all of the strength and luster of the petrochemicals based ancestors. And finally, with the automakers moving towards fewer cylinders and more air induction (turbo or super charging) lubricants will be asked to work harder than ever on these engines that produce far more heat than the non-blown options in the past.

I'm still quite leery regarding that last point. As the former owner of a 1.8T German engine that experienced a rather nasty sludge issue due to this very issue, for me the jury is still out that BMW, Mercedes, and Ford in particular have done enough to make sure that this will not be the case for them. The reason I pick them out is that they have jumped on board with both feet into the turbo/super charging arena for some of their mainstream cars. I have more confidence in the 2.0T options from the VW/Audi area, as they are the ones who gave us the aforementioned 1.8T issues, perhaps they have it figured out.

Speaking of which, the 2015 Mustang is being launched now, and one of the options is a 4 cylinder turbo. Seems a sacrilege, though back in the Fox body days, this was an option as well. It is surely amazing how much power Ford is getting from these EcoBoost engines, particularly in the F150s. As I have seen with both my Audi and current daily driver (BMW 335d) we'll have to see how these engines are functioning at the 50 and 100K mark to see how this will turn out.

In the meantime, I still pine for the rumble of a 5.0 V8, no relief is sight.