Diesel Plague

["R. Cummings" <cumm@flash.net>]

Phil Said:
>The ultimate worst place to be is not a city street, but the outside
>lane of a motorway in still air towards the top of a hill.  Just about
>all SUVs and at least half of new company cars are turbo-diesels - you
>see _huge_ plumes coming out of new or nearly-new vehicles.  Yesterday,
>going down the M4 towards High Wycombe, I actually had to back off from
>a stream of these particulate pumps and seek a spot of clean air.
>
I'm a bit surprised that this occurs in Great Britain. In the late 1970's
and early 80's my least favorite but one of my most frequent drives was on
the Autostrada from Milan to Turin. Uphill, no wind, and thousands of under
powered little flat out diesel cars. My eyes would burn for hours.

Today in the U.S., car manufacturers are adding charcoal filters to the A/C
systems which reduce air flow, become plugged, increase blower motor power
and are expensive. They do this because their European and Japanese
competition have it so they must have it. One of our customers offers it as
an option. Surprise! they sell almost none.

Fortunately, despite the fact that we are no strangers to air polution, we
don't need them yet.

Bob Cummings
87 Coupe GT