July 19, 1896, Zhongnanhai, Beijing

"This is the Centrino car that Avalanche has just developed?"

Surrounded by everyone, Chen Zeyu looked at the car in front of him that had just been sent from Nanyang, the Xunchi car produced by the newly established Avalanche Automobile Company, on the grass next to the Sheji Altar.

In this era, the crude and smoking car was not popular with most nobles, and the well-decorated carriage was still their essential means of transportation, but Chen Zeyu was sure that the one in front of him would not be included. Thanks to Chen Zeyu's design, judging from the appearance alone, the Centrino car in front of him is very similar to the Buick Regal of later generations. Of course, subject to the current level of mechanical craftsmanship, this car can only be regarded as a "particularly tough" version of the Regal, but even so, the car has greatly surpassed all the cars of the same era in terms of appearance.

Aside from the car's trendy shape and gorgeous interior, Chen Zeyu is most interested in a series of new technologies used in this car.

In addition to the battery lights that dot the body, the wheels of the car are modeled after Michelin-style pneumatic rubber tires. What surprised Chen Zeyu even more was that this car actually used a diesel engine!

Different from the bulky and smoking diesel engine used in the tractors produced by the early Avalanche Tractor Company, the diesel engine of this Centrino Automobile adopts the newly developed electronically controlled pump injection technology of Avalanche Power Company, which not only considerably reduces the original thick body mass of the diesel engine, but also greatly reduces the vibration and black smoke problems of the diesel engine. The new 96XBD four-cylinder diesel engine has an impressive 88.2 kW or 120 hp and a thermal efficiency of 28%.

The power of this diesel engine may not be comparable to the thousands of horsepower of the turbine engines of later generations, but it is important to know that it is now the 19th century, and the power of the most advanced diesel engine made by the Frenchman Diesel at the same time is only 1.1 kilowatts. If the Frenchman were to know the progress of Seris's companions at this time, he would definitely jump to the moon in astonishment.

The end of the 19th century was the era of the second industrial revolution around the world, and all kinds of new inventions, new technologies and even better industrial designs will be unfolded at this time. In such an era of new technology, it is not difficult to get one or two inventions, but whether you have the vision and the courage to actually realize them is another matter. Maybe it was a huge success in theory, but it didn't necessarily meet the appetite of the market at the time, and maybe at the same time as it was made, the inventor would be shocked to find that his peers were already doing the same thing, and the progress was faster and better, which would undoubtedly mean a huge loss of investment for the former.

For the inventors of this era, it is great to dedicate their precious time, energy, and wisdom to the progress of science and technology, but it is unfortunate for a considerable number of them, because they were born in the same era as Chen Zeyu!

Circling around the Centrino car with great interest, Chen Zeyu commanded the engineer to open the front engine cover of the car, from the appearance of the newly developed 96XBD diesel engine is more compact than he expected, shouted the engineer from Nanyang and asked, "Is there any other model produced by the power company?" ”

"To the Führer, the 96XBD is the smallest engine model that has been deliberately reduced to your requirements. In addition, the company has also developed three diesel engines with different speeds and powers, which are 96XBE, 96XBF and 96XBG in terms of models. The 96XBG, which is used in avalanche trucks and tractors, is about 2.5 times the size of the 96XBD, with 550 hp, and the performance of the 96XBE and 96XBF is somewhere in between. Engineer Xu Zhenpeng explained respectfully on the side.

With the engineer's explanation, the smile on Chen Zeyu's face gradually bloomed, "Okay! ”

is just a one-word evaluation, but when Chen Zeyu says this word from the mouth of today, it suddenly makes everyone around him smile.

"Hehe, I shot several types of avalanche-powered gasoline engines in Luzon Province one after another, but I didn't expect to force these people to another road." Chen Zeyu smiled bitterly and shook his head, he didn't know what to say, could it be that miracles were really forced out by someone.

Historically, until the 21st century, whether military or civilian, diesel engines have been limited in use due to well-known excessive mass, vibration and noise. Even now, Chen Zeyu is still deeply impressed by the kind of tractors in the countryside that often rumble with black smoke, and his memory is that the German Steyr company later developed a new diesel engine, but that was decades later. And the diesel engine that can be commonly used by family light cars was not popularized until Chen Zeyu "encountered an accident".

Chen Zeyu, who had been dealing with the military industry in his previous life, had already been keenly aware of the strategic value of these newly developed 96XB series diesel engines.

Not to mention the huge commercial value that the Centrino sedan can create in an era when cars are generally up to 60 kilometers per hour when equipped with the smallest 96XBD diesel engine, the maximum speed of the Centrino sedan is 160 kilometers per hour. Just thinking about the scene of the republic's diesel-powered aircraft coming off the assembly line in the future, Chen Zeyu was extremely excited. On the battlefield, others use gasoline, but their own side uses diesel, and the advantages in safety performance are self-evident. In addition, due to the higher thermal efficiency of diesel, a car with the same fuel tank with diesel fuel will have a greater range of aircraft. In terms of practical value, the 96XBF has been developed now, and the horsepower created per unit volume has completely reached the level of the engine used in the German Tiger tank during World War II! At that time, the Tiger tank still used a gasoline engine, how could it not make Chen Zeyu excited.

Let Wu Zuonan, Liang Cheng and others next to him sit in the back seat, and Chen Zeyu personally acted as a driver for them.

Under the explanation of Xu Zhenpeng, the engineer in the passenger seat, Chen Zeyu began to skillfully ignite, shift gears, and loosen the clutch! There was no jerky feeling in the whole process, and Xu Zhenpeng next to him was dumbfounded.

Chen Zeyu snickered in his heart while skillfully driving on the stone road next to the altar, joke! Compared to the people in this plane, he can be regarded as the ancestor of driving.

And the entire Centrino car, whether it is the 5-speed transmission of the joystick, or the arrangement of the clutch throttle, Chen Zeyu designed it early on, and it is naturally easy to drive at this time.

The noise of the Mercedes-Benz car is much lower than Chen Zeyu imagined, and it has completely reached the level of the gasoline-engine family car in later generations, and this result once again verifies Chen Zeyu's previous ideas.

Looking at the familiar rearview mirrors on both sides of the car, the amount of exhaust particles is not inferior to that of gasoline engines of this era.

Chen Zeyu, who was satisfied, pressed the raised area in the middle of the steering wheel again, and the unfamiliar and familiar horn sounded instantly-

Chen Zeyu suddenly remembered that he hadn't fastened his seat belt yet, shook his head with a wry smile, and slowly stopped the car.

"The seat belt of this car is in the middle" seemed to see Chen Zeyu's thoughts, Xu Zhenpeng hurriedly said on the side.

Nodding, Chen Zeyu once again showed his unique foresight, fastened his seat belt quite skillfully, and looked at the few people around him, but they all relied on the gourd.

At this time, such a strange phenomenon appeared in Zhongnanhai, a novel four-wheeled car was "running in circles" around Zhongnanhai, and many military and political officials of the cabinet and the State Council everywhere left their affairs and walked out of the office together after hearing the arrival of the first domestically produced car.

The people gathered together looked curiously at this domestic car that was being "dedicated to testing" by Chen Zeyu, the head of state, and many people were also quite itchy in their hearts, and they just wanted to go up and try it themselves.

After a good car addiction, Chen Zeyu slowly parked the car at the side of the social altar.

After getting out of the car, he motioned to Wu Zuonan in the back seat, and Liang Cheng also tried it, and saw that the two young people behind him who had the opportunity to cool off in person almost didn't grab it.

After asking another engineer to go up and guide them, Chen Zeyu called Xu Zhenpeng, who had explained to him before, to his side.

"What is the fuel consumption of this Centrino per 100 kilometers?"

"I would like to inform the Führer, this car of yours is specially made, and for your safety, the body is all made of large alloy armor. Therefore, the fuel consumption is a little higher, about 15 liters per 100 kilometers. The average Centrino model is much less, around 8.6 liters. ”

Chen Zeyu was amazed again when he heard the answer, seeing that this Xunchi model was not smaller than the Buick Regal of later generations, but he didn't want fuel consumption to be so low.

"How much does a bicycle cost?" Chen Zeyu then asked.

Xu Zhenpeng recalled for a while and said, "Well, according to statistics, after adopting the assembly line production method, the cost of a single Centrino Regal model car can be controlled at about 1200 Chinese yuan." Of course, this is talking about the ordinary version, and your bulletproof version is far more than that, estimated to be more than 20,000 yuan per car. ”

Chen Zeyu nodded slightly, "It's okay, the cost control is good." ”

The cost of a Centrino Regal bike is about the same as he expected, and most hand-built cars in the West now cost around £1,000, and better ones from £1,500 to £2,000. Before the American Ford invented the assembly line production of the Model T, the car at this time was still only a luxury for the rich. Chen Zeyu also didn't expect the cost of such a complex Centrino to fall to the level of $260 (£52) for the Model T.

Chen Zeyu is already satisfied with the cost of 1200 Chinese dollars, so that even if Avalanche Automobile Company leaves 300% of the high profit margins, the price of a single Centrino car is only 4800 Chinese dollars (equivalent to 480 pounds), but it is equivalent to half of the similar products in the European market before, coupled with its own performance and shape and other advantages, the competitiveness of Centrino cars is not known.

"Let the company continue to speed up production, and order me another 20 special models."

Chen Zeyu explained while listening to Xu Zhenpeng's introduction.

"By the way, how is the company's research and development on gasoline engines?"

"Dr. Zhu Baokui of the company has developed a new gasoline engine, but the performance is still not as good as the 96XB series, the current unit efficiency can only reach about 40% of the 96XB series, in addition, this gasoline engine because of the flammable and explosive characteristics of gasoline can not use the compression-ignition structure of the diesel engine, the design is more cumbersome, and the maintenance is not too mature." Xu Zhenpeng reported as he walked.

"After you go back, tell the manager Qian Wenkui, and ask him to increase the research and development of diesel engines for me, and at the same time, I can't leave behind the development of gasoline engines. In the future, the company's cars exported to Europe and the United States will only be equipped with gasoline engines, and diesel engine models are only allowed to be sold in China. In addition, the aircraft production plant in the pipeline can also start, and I see that this type of 96XB series fully meets the requirements......"

Seeing that Wu Zuonan and the others were still "playing" with the new car in front of them, Chen Zeyu walked over with a smile......