Posted on 10/05/2015 12:23:46 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
WOLFSBURG, Germany—Two top Volkswagen engineers who found they couldn’t deliver as promised a clean diesel engine for the U.S. market are at the center of a company probe into the installation of engine software designed to fool regulators, according to people familiar with the matter.
The two men, Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi ’s chief engineer, and Wolfgang Hatz, developer of Porsche’s winning Formula One engines, were among the engineers suspended in the investigation of the emissions cheating scandal that sank the company’s market value by 43% since Sept. 18 and triggered a world-wide recall to refit the engines to meet clear-air standards, these people said.
Messrs. Hackenberg and Hatz, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, are viewed as two of the best and brightest engineers in German industry. They were put in charge of research and development at the Volkswagen group shortly after Martin Winterkorn became chief executive in January 2007. Mr. Winterkorn, who resigned over the scandal, couldn’t be reached for comment. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Hackenberg
Perfect :-)
Waiting for VW response => ‘Those a**holes must have stolen the wrong test!’
Ah, it was the workers, not the company.
Got it.
Porsche hasn’t supplied engines to Formula 1 since 1991, when they failed to score a single point.
They’re following Obama’s lead of tossing people under the bus. (A green energy bus)
>> triggered a world-wide recall to refit the engines to meet clear-air standards
Yeah, I’m sure those little vehicles are disproportionately destroying the globe.... /s
I own one of those little f#ckers... Gonna drive low gear just because.
The governments keep raising the bar for pollution and mileage. It is past the point of being unrealistic.
Das Scapengoaten.
>> The governments keep raising the bar for pollution and mileage. It is past the point of being unrealistic.
That’s one of the reasons I drive a 2000 model diesel one-ton.
I’ll never buy a new diesel truck again. Nor a new tractor. Only used ones, thank you.
*** FUEPA ***
Car pollution does suck. There is nothing wrong with wanting to breath cleaner air, especially if you have to live in a high car density town or city.
This wasn't a little bit of cheating - the cars put out 10 to 40 times the allowable amount of NO emissions. That is asinine.
“The governments keep raising the bar for pollution and mileage. It is past the point of being unrealistic.”
Yeah, for sure. VW isn’t the first, theres been tinkering by other auto manufacturers with emissions test software in the past. My guess is that the EPA will lay a heavy fine on VW and then exempt these eleven million or so vehicles under scrutiny. There’s really nothing that can bee done to improve engine emissions on these vehicles. And, there’s functionally nothing wrong with them. But, this will be interesting however it plays out.....
Ah, disciples of Smokey Yunick's school of creative rule reading. For those of you in Rio Linda that is cheating without getting caught or interpreting then rules as they didn't say I couldn't do that.....
The way VW is reacting, I’m sure that it’s very bad. But the testing that was done by that outfit in WVa doesn’t appear to be enough to quantify how much dirtier these engines were than the allowed limits. 10 to 40X is a big spread. The EPA and the California Standards will have to do their own controlled testing to establish the true figure. Just sayin’.
“There’s really nothing that can bee done to improve engine emissions on these vehicles.”
Sure there is. The obvious way is to make the engines run in “Test Mode” and diable the performance software. Owners won’t be happy with the diminished mileage and performance, but some will undoubtedly re-program their engines back after each annual emissions test.
And no one will ask is NOx really that big of a problem. Their are a handful of engine tinkers that say it isn't and we have wasted billions of barrels of oil because we won't run lean and get the better fuel mileage because of EPA Nox Regs. The rules went coo-coo-banana-nutsoo in 95' went Clinton said we will take 95% of the emissions out of cars in 1995. Ya but... They were already 95% cleaner than their 1960's counterparts so he was going after that last 95% of the last 5%... Ever hear of Kelly Johnson's ( Lockheed SR-71 fame ) axiom on overall design? You go for the 80% because the last 20% you try to squeeze out of a vehicle design isn't worth it, it is not cost effective. We are in splitting hairs territory and it is no wonder cars are so expensive, not to mention the exotic technologies they are adopting to meet Obama's fuel regs.
These don't have some huge battery that needs to be taxpayer subsidized, and they challenge all of the Government motors weenies as failures.
When all the dust is settled, I won't be surprised to find some criminal government conspiracy to take these things down, they're simply too good, and we can't have that.
I bet these guys had a Eureka moment in the lab: “There’s no steering data changes when you’re on a dynamometer!”
Thanks for the clarification, I couldn’t remember when, or if, Porsche supplied F1 engines.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.