ATTN Automakers - This Sucks

"PS9" (PS9) 11/12/2013 at 12:26 • Filed to: engine bays

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The last thing I want to see when I pop open an engine bay is a giant sheet of high-temperature plastic. The guy who convinced the whole auto industry this was a good idea should be shot (not to death. You know, like, with a squirt gun or something), because the beautiful machines providing the motivation for our vehicles deserve more than an ugly hat

Our engine bays are getting uglier. Part of the reason for that is because no one cares about how an engine should look when the flow simulation program testing the prototype intake says you can be .05% more efficient by bending a pipe this or that way. That's fine. Pretty engines are more of a perk than anything else. But not being able to give us an awesome top half is no reason to just slap a sheet of corporate logo'd plastic on the thing and call it a day.

If you're going to do it, you can at least be tasteful. You can at least put some effort into it. How about a pair of covers topping a great looking intake manifold? Or even one that improves the look of the engine? It's worse than nothing + great looking engine bits, but it's still better than a flat sheet of cut-to-fit sterilite

The best engine bays don't need no damn plastic engine cover. To prove it, here's some engine porn.

oldirtybootz > PS9 11/12/2013 at 12:28

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When I popped the hood on my Dart Aero I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Aero package deletes the engine cover.

Chairman Kaga > PS9 11/12/2013 at 12:30

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The appliancification of the automobile. Most consumers don't want to be reminded their cars are complicated collections of machinery. It's intimating and confusing.

HammerheadFistpunch > PS9 11/12/2013 at 12:31

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Want to know why? NVH. Direct injectors make a helluvva din.

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > PS9 11/12/2013 at 12:31

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IMO, this can be somewhat extended to automotive design in general as well. I'm not saying cars nowadays look bad or anything, but sometimes I feel they don't quite look like machines, but organisms. Automakers shouldn't try to hide mechanicals just for the sake of hiding them, they look great and much less boring than plain sheetmetal covering everything.

Party-vi > HammerheadFistpunch 11/12/2013 at 12:33

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Bingo.

PS9 > Chairman Kaga 11/12/2013 at 12:34

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Got the perfect vehicle for those people.

Milky > PS9 11/12/2013 at 12:35

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My biggest dislike of the crossfire, it has the "sheet".

At least Mercedes put some effort in and actually showed some of the same engine.

PS9 > Milky 11/12/2013 at 12:36

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That cover looks fucking awful. Like an art project for the local community college topped with a can of silver paint from Lowes. UGH.

Milky > PS9 11/12/2013 at 12:42

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I know, it looks like crap. I really dislike it, because people like me that get Crossfires, or someone who buys a twin turbo Cadillac are the ones who paid money for something other than a commuter car. Sure on a camry, I don't think anyone will care if you cover it up. But people that care aka car people don't want to see that shit.

/endrant

Chris Clarke > Milky 11/12/2013 at 12:50

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But a Camry owner will never look under the hood anyway. Just seems like more work for the deal mechanic. Probably one way to add an extra .4 hours of labor to every repair.

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > PS9 11/12/2013 at 12:54

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Totally fake:

Not fake:

PS9 > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. 11/12/2013 at 12:56

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Your bottom image got kinja'd

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > PS9 11/12/2013 at 12:57

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Just click on it and it'll come up.

ESSSIX GmbH - Accountant/Wagon Thumper > PS9 11/12/2013 at 13:00

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IIRC its done for sound control and to get it to temperature faster. Useless to us gear heads.

Its like smothering with a pillow; hard to scream, hard to breath.

Milky > Chris Clarke 11/12/2013 at 13:10

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I guess I should of spoke more clearly because that was kind of my point. On commuter cars like camrys no one cares. But on vehicles car people buy, we want to see something more than a piece of plastic.

Chris Clarke > Milky 11/12/2013 at 13:14

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All my engine covers are piled up in the cellar. What I don't get is that some people, on other forums I peruse, spend hundreds of dollars on fancy carbon fiber engine covers..?

Milky > Chris Clarke 11/12/2013 at 13:28

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Well to be fair I was very much considering spending 100 bucks on ebay for one the Mercedes covers because I dislike mine so much. Also both my air filters in actually in the engine cover so I can't just take it off :( ....

.... looks like I'm stuck with it.

But most engines don't need engine covers, so getting something in carbon that doesn't need to be there seems incredibly flawed from a functional standpoint.

Meatcoma > PS9 11/12/2013 at 15:51

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95% of engine bays look more like this without those covers. All they are is a way to hide your oil leaks.

PS9 > Meatcoma 11/12/2013 at 16:08

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Oiled stained head > Shitty Sterilite plastic sheet. I'll take real engine bits over fake lego ones anyday of the forever calendar.

Meatcoma > PS9 11/12/2013 at 16:27

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Like yourself, I did not state that I approve. I would much rather see a small leak and be able to fix it before it blows quarts of liquid onto my driveway or windshield or whatever. Just merely stating my guess as to why they were introduced.

NaturallyAspirated > PS9 11/12/2013 at 17:50

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Agreed 100%.

Compare this:

to this:

thevancen > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion 11/13/2013 at 14:12

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Its so nice seeing mechanical stuff working. Like that aero engine Brutus thng with the BMW aircraft engine. The rocker arms are on the outside, of the hood! And it didn't explode to get them there. Kind cool to be able to see the valves moving while youre driving the car.

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > thevancen 11/13/2013 at 14:24

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Exactly. Someone compared the new Audi Quattro to the old a while ago on the FP, and I found myself forced to agree with the comment, because the old one simply looked a fine, well deisgned machine. You could see the rear axles and suspension struts from below the rear bumper, and the oil pan and engine peripherals from the front, you could see the headers heading out from the front of the engine and there was an overall feeling that the muscular body was there simply to accomodate wider tires and improved mechanicals and not to hide them.

It was machine, not an organism, and it was beautiful.

DeltawingGothamDeserves > PS9 11/18/2013 at 10:19

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This thing on our Audi A3 2.0. I hate it