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Figure 1 (above) and Figure 2 (below): Close-ups of the FireStorm spark plug. THE REVOLUTIONARY FIRESTORM SPARK PLUG In a word, plasma. The revolutionary design of FireStorm spark plugs creates an electric plasma that fills the entire combus- tion chamber like a firestorm. It allows you to take an internal combustion engine from the standard 14.7:1 air-to-fuel ratio to an incredibly lean 24:1. At this ratio, all the air/fuel mixture is burned much more efficiently without increasing heat, thus giving an engine more power and fuel economy while creating much less pollu- tion. That's the good news The bad news is that you can't buy a set of FireStorm spark plugs anywhere right now. No spark plug company wants to make them. Robert Krupa is no stranger to the way the automotive industry and spark plug industry operate. He has worked as a tech- nician, then as an engineer for GM and Ford. Krupa explained: "Before I entered col- lege and earned a BS [Bachelor of Science] in engineering, I was taking electrolytic capacitors and mounting them to the plus side of a distributor, which would smooth out the electrical pulses going to the dis- tributor and the spark plugs. With that lit- tle improvement, I was able to make cars run smoother. So, that was the start of this engineering journey I am now on. "T have an electrical background that's very heavily into automotive applications. I have an extreme sensitivity to mechanical noise. I can listen to an engine running and tell exactly what's wrong with it. My hear- ing is so keen that when I worked at General Motors they sent me to Mexico and to Germany and New York to fix engine assembly plants. When I went to New York, they were having problems with engines going in the repair loop. So I looked at what they were doing, thought a while, then made changes to 22 machines and got the engine plant running faster than design intent. The plant manager offered me a job right on the spot." Krupa knows spark plugs and has worked very hard to bring improved designs to the automotive market. Although it was not his design, he is solely responsible for bringing the "SplitFire" uring the past nine years while I D:= working as a market researcher for a major Japanese auto company, I learned that the price of oil worldwide would continue to climb higher due to a steadily growing demand for a limited supply. It was clear from the reports I read that this presented a very real problem to the auto companies of the world. There was a general agreement in the auto industry that the answers to the problem would come in the future via new technologies. For years now, I have wondered where and when the next Edison with a bright idea will appear and invent a "lean, green, driving machine". I have finally found such a man. He lives in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and his name is Robert Krupa. We have all heard the saying, "If some- thing sounds too good to be true, it usually is". The amazing new spark plug designed by Mr Krupa, which he named "FireStorm", is the exception to this rule. I know that when it comes to buying spark plugs, they are all basically the same except for the price. So, why make a big deal about another new spark plug? spark plug to the market over a decade ago. It was a simple variation on standard plugs which featured a split electrode, designed like a snake's tongue, that increased the sparking area of the plug somewhat. It cost more than an average spark plug and generated annual sales of US$60 million in 1993. As fate would have it, Robert Krupa became friends with the legendary Henry "Smokey" Yunick, of Daytona Beach, Florida. Smokey was a Hall of Fame NASCAR stock car and IndyCar builder, entrepreneur and inventor extraordinaire. They met while working on a project for GM. At that time, Smokey was having a ittle bit of trouble hearing. So Krupa set up a knock module and sensor and hooked FireStorm's Capabilities First, let's look at what Krupa's FireStorm spark plugs give an internal combustion engine: ¢ More horsepower; ¢ 44-50% increase in mpg; ¢ Dramatic decrease in emissions. Second, let's see what FireStorm plugs eliminate: * Smog pump; * Catalytic converter; * Radio frequency interference (RFI) and the use of resistors in the centre electrode; * Gap growth; ¢ Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems; * Misfire/hesitation/detonation/stutter and stumble. How, you may ask, is all this achieved? NEXUS = 45 by Robert Stanley © October 2004 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2005 www.nexusmagazine.com