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I love Entourage.  Though my favorite show right now is Mad Men, I love Entourage because it’s simple and I don’t have to think.  One of my good frriends would succinctly describe the show to a neophyte as “a show about problems men wish they had.”  Another good description I’ve heard is “Sex and the City” for twenty-something males.  Whatever, I’m sold.  Men are much different than women in that we have to be cool and act indifferent regarding how vain us men actually are.  And Entourage is the only show that I know that strikes a chord just right that allows us to laugh at ourselves about it.  

I also love it for the product placements, specifically the collection of fine automobiles.  ’Vince’ is the golden boy of the entourage.  He wouldn’t hesitate at dropping a quarter of a million on a Ferrari California for his driving component, Turtle, on his birthday.  (Whom we see pulling up to a stop light next to 50 Cent moments later in that particular episode.)

And “E” (Eric) has been under the generous favor of Vincent to be cruising around L.A. in a brand new convertible Aston Martin (DB9 Volante to be precise).  And he’s paired with a grown up but still kind of lil’ Bow-Wow.

And everyone knows the black classic convertible which Johnny Drama drives.  You know what it looks like, but you may not know that it’s a 1965 triple black Lincoln Continental Convertible with the most distinguishing characteristic: the suicide doors.  I mean who else drives this thing?  When someone mentions Entourage I bounce the opening theme song through my head with a camera rising over the Lincoln as the foursome step out into the L.A night.  Timeless.

Ari Gold.  The insensitive, callous, no-nonsense, Loyd-get-out-of-my-way agent who every man wants to become.  Ari walks with the East Coast authoritative swagger, darting his eyes around his agency looking for any excuse to berate anyone in order to shape the company into what he wants it to be.  And Ari drives home in either a brand new Lexus LS or the Mercedez S class.  (That’s gotta be some magical product placement arrangement to allow him to switch back and forth as often as he does.)  

In previous season’s the foursome were ferried around in the ostentatious (but lustful) yellow Hummer H2, driven nearly exclusively by Turtle.  But now the chauffeuring is done in the standard “Black Raven” Cadillac Escalade.  (FYI: Escalade is actually an English noun that means an ascent or climb over protected or craggy walls.)  I think the Escalade has served it’s time and needs to be replaced.  Though at first I didn’t like it, Entourage would be a perfect springboard for the Porsche Panamera.  (The industry was aghast when Porsche announced this 4-door sedan.)  With a car like this, the public will hate it until the manufacturer convinces them that they actually love it.  And this is most easily done by meticulous product placement.  Whatever the price-tag, Porsche needs to become good friends with the producers of Entourage and then have the foursome cruising around in L.A.  After that this car will officially be hot.  

Why is that Ashley girl on the show?  She looks like she’s 14 and it’s creepy.  Get E a new girl.

I am a huge fan of technology.  If it’s smaller, faster, lighter, I want it.  As my understanding of technology grew so did my appreciation for truly innovative technology.  Today I want to talk about turbochargers.  Not just because the technology is a cool concept, but because it is an innovation that seems perpetually new.  (A car is instantly three times as cool after the word ‘turbo’ is placed in front of it.  Try it: “Look, there’s a turbo UPS van….)  So what keeps the turbo as a ‘new’ technology: the public’s general lack of understanding of how it works.  I don’t mean to insult, but there are a lot of people who drive turbo cars that don’t know what’s going on under the hood.  By imparting a general idea of how turbos work I hope the world will appreciate them just that much more.

Your typical car engine works by harnessing tiny explosions of gasoline combusting with oxygen.  Propeller airplanes work the same way.  But way back in the day pilots wanted to fly at higher altitudes because the air is thinner and had less drag on the aircraft.  But thin air means less pressure and less oxygen.  Then the explosion inside the engine cylinder was smaller and the plane didn’t have as much power.  This was a problem.  Engineers got it in their head to increase the air pressure artificially (and consequently the amount of oxygen) inside the engine cylinder.  But this requires some additional energy.

Once combustion has occurred the exhaust gases are expelled out of the cylinder.  These gases can actually be moving quite fast.  These engineers designed a wind turbine and stuck it in the path of the exhaust.  This rotating turbine was connected to a shaft that eventually delivered power to a compressor which forced additional air (and oxygen) into the engine cylinder.  Problem solved!  Planes could fly higher and maintain power.

Now imagine Tim Taylor’s grandfather thinking about sticking an airplane turbo on his car engine.  (Insert white-man-grunting-like-monkey sound here.)  But that’s exactly what somebody did.  Now instead of a sea-level amount of oxygen being use for combustion, the engine is performing as if it’s in the oxygen rich environment of 12,000 ft below sea-level (which doesn’t exist).  That’s a turbocharger in a nutshell.

How about some variations on the turbocharger?  Like why have one turbo when you can have two.  Place them in sequence so that the air is compressed twice for extra power.  Some higher end BMW 5-series do this.  Or mount them in parallel to distribute the work of compressing the air.  The new Nissan GTR is a magnificent example.  Porsche produces a smart turbo that varies the angle of the blades on the wind turbine in front of the exhaust for increased performance and fuel savings.  Yet another reason to salivate over the 911 Turbo.  If I had to choose between these three cars I would just take one of each.

So go out and enjoy your turbo power and pretend to be Paul Walker.  God bless America.

Update: Check it out, this post inspired a comic at http://zawebcomic.blogspot.com/