Diesels in the US - A foreigners perspective

[Geraint Lloyd]

Andrew Buc wrote:
> On Saturday, May 13, 2006, at 08:29  AM,
cobram at juno.com wrote:
>
>   
>>  the A8Q TDI diesel that made the 40  mpg run in
>> England?
>>     
>
> 40 miles per US gallon, or per Imperial gallon? Even
the latter would 
> be impressive!
>
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>   

that would be imperial gallon. it's a big engine
though. there's more 
fun to be had with the less OTT stuff
my 98 passat 110bhp 1.9tdi estate used to do 40
miles/us gal at ~100mph 
on the french motorways loaded with family and camping
gear.
not driving for economy there.
the previous owner claimed to have it do more like 50
miles/us gal but 
i'm a rally driver and have a hard time being that
disciplined.
as far as vw diesels go, this is now old
technology.........

i remember the change to low sulphur diesel in the uk
was entirely painless.
the filling stations started advertising 'Low
Pollution / Sulphur City 
Diesel'  then phased out the old stuff
since a diesel will happily run on veggie oil (the 1st
demo of 
compression ignition used peanut oil if i remember my
history) the 
sulphur grade seems immaterial to the running of
engines designed to run 
on the 'old stuff'. the current vehicle fleet owners
won't even notice 
the difference.

as far as i understand the issue, low sulphur diesel
is coming to the US 
and Canada very soon due to federal legislation in
both countries.
the only people who are excited about this are those
of us who have been 
to europe or read european car mags and know that
there are vehicles out 
there that provide fun and economy in the same box and
want a share of 
the action.
experience of a friends 150bhp PD (unitary injectors)
6 speed golf 4 
1.9TDI proved that even before he fitted the chip.
standard torque was 236 lb/ft
chipped, it was 287 with 180bhp.
a new 911 Carrera S develops 295 lb/ft
the same engine was in the A4 over there, but had a
reduced torque 
figure in the 5 speed manuals (not the 6 speed though)
'cos the old 5 cogger couldn't handle it.

as for bio-diesel try
http://www.bio-power.co.uk/index.htm where a bloke 
makes his own fuel for his passat using used frying
oil

geraint
 



>   

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