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The Case for Diesel: Clean, Efficient, Fast Cars (Hybrids Beware!)
Popular Mechanics ^ | 30 Dec 07 | Ben Hewitt

Posted on 12/30/2007 8:51:21 AM PST by saganite

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To: TheBattman
I REALLY would like a new Jetta Diesel-— but the problem with buying a diesel now - the new fuel standards and engines require the newer ultra-low sulfur fuel - which I have yet to see a station carry yet.

Huh?!?

At least 80% of diesel produced for on-road use for the past year is Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel. If you look at a diesel pump, you will see a little sticker on it somewhere that looks like this:

I haven't seen the old diesel fuel anywhere on the West Coast since summer of 2006.

81 posted on 12/30/2007 12:04:18 PM PST by B Knotts (Anybody but Giuliani!)
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To: BlueMondaySkipper

It’s a practical, utilitarian vehicle, and looks the part. I don’t think it’s as ugly as its sibling, the current CRV. At least the design is clean and simple, not weird and overstyled, like the late Pontiac Aztek. Personally, I like it, even the rubber (?) fenders. Some of us think stocky powerful things, like big trucks, locomotives, oxen, and A10 Warthogs are beautiful in their way.


82 posted on 12/30/2007 12:08:26 PM PST by hellbender
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To: wrench
The diesel is the great grandfather of the jet engine.

Now how do you get THAT? Jet engines are turbine engines, if anything they derive from the steam turbine engines that developed at the end of the 19th century.
83 posted on 12/30/2007 12:11:52 PM PST by Kozak (Anti Shahada: There is no god named Allah, and Muhammed is a false prophet)
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To: Huck

I rented a 1.6L diesel VW Golf in Germany. It was as quick, if not quicker, and easy to drive as a gasoline car. Started immediately every time. At first I wasn’t even sure it was a diesel, until I rolled down the window at a stoplight, and yes, there was a little growl, barely perceptable. Otherwise, in no way was it “loud, hard to start, or foul smelling.” Just 50 mpg on the Autobahn.

I’ve talked to some mechanics about them in the mean time, the difference is electronics. The fuel and ignition control is fully electronic now; old style, (loud, hard to start, and foul smelling) diesel engines like in the 70s and 80s were mechanically controlled.

The engineering elegance of a modern diesel car is a far cry from the hokey double motor contraption of a hybrid. I’d put my money on a MODERN diesel any day.

Oh, and a diesel Golf at only 1.6 liters will do 125mph steady on the Autobahn.


84 posted on 12/30/2007 12:15:36 PM PST by AnalogReigns
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To: saganite

FR bookmark


85 posted on 12/30/2007 12:18:12 PM PST by Dad yer funny (FoxNews is morphing , and not for the better ,... internal struggle? Its hard to watch)
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To: TWohlford

No it isn’t. Locomotives do not turn off when coasting.


86 posted on 12/30/2007 12:21:04 PM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: Kozak

Diesel fuel is very similar to kerosene, or, JP4 jet fuel.


87 posted on 12/30/2007 12:21:08 PM PST by AnalogReigns
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To: Hawthorn

THey haven’t figured out a good way to make diesels intant on-off capable. Hybrids turn the engines off when not needed and then turn them back on instantly when you press the accelerator down far.


88 posted on 12/30/2007 12:22:46 PM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: NVDave

Yes, but widespread adoption of diesels would threaten the ethanol racket, so I would expect farm-state Congresscritters to vote against pro-diesel measures.


89 posted on 12/30/2007 12:24:45 PM PST by hellbender
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To: AnalogReigns

Big deal. So the kerosene lamp is the great grandfather of the Jet engine?


90 posted on 12/30/2007 12:25:17 PM PST by Kozak (Anti Shahada: There is no god named Allah, and Muhammed is a false prophet)
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To: Kozak

The aelipyle is the great-great grandfather of the jet engine.


91 posted on 12/30/2007 12:29:16 PM PST by hellbender
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To: Kozak

Yeah right. If that’s the case then a burning stick is the ancestor of the nuclear warhead.

Whatever.


92 posted on 12/30/2007 12:35:34 PM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: hellbender

WHat the heck is that


93 posted on 12/30/2007 12:35:52 PM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: Huck
But that's only because they're loud, hard to start, and foul-smelling.

You should spend some time in Europe. There are diesel 5-series Beemers and Benzes over there. They don't smell, don't pollute, are faster than many gasoline engines over here.

BTW, I'm not a Greenie nor a CAFE advocate. My AC Cobra:

Mark's Shelby AC Cobra

Photobucket

94 posted on 12/30/2007 12:37:44 PM PST by Cobra64 (www.BulletBras.net)
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To: mamelukesabre

aeolipyle, aeolipile
n. first steam engine, with globe made to revolve by steam jets, described in 1st century AD.


95 posted on 12/30/2007 12:39:43 PM PST by hellbender
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To: wrench
I agree!

Photobucket

96 posted on 12/30/2007 12:40:48 PM PST by Cobra64 (www.BulletBras.net)
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To: Cobra64
I think Audi's diesel road racer (which won LeMans) could lick your Cobra ;-)

Seriously, I wish someone could make a Cobra (a factory product, not a kit car) with a modern engine. Or something like a Jap XKE. I bet it would sell. But nanny govt. wouldn't allow it because it wouldn't pass bumper and crash tests, I guess.

97 posted on 12/30/2007 12:49:58 PM PST by hellbender
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To: hellbender

That one I agree with. Heron was THIS CLOSE to kicking off the industrial revolution in the 1st century AD.......


98 posted on 12/30/2007 12:59:26 PM PST by Kozak (Anti Shahada: There is no god named Allah, and Muhammed is a false prophet)
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To: hellbender
Seriously, I wish someone could make a Cobra (a factory product, not a kit car) with a modern engine. Or something like a Jap XKE. I bet it would sell. But nanny govt. wouldn't allow it because it wouldn't pass bumper and crash tests, I guess.

You got that right brother. Great minds think alike. Look at the retro crap coming out of Auburn Hills, Detroit...
Photobucket

These would sell like hotcakes:
Photobucket

I think Ford just announced a Steve McQueen Bullitt Mustang that sorta looks like his GT350-ish car from the movie.

Close but no cigar.


99 posted on 12/30/2007 1:03:26 PM PST by Cobra64 (www.BulletBras.net)
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To: saganite

A lot of companies are working on this, I’m looking at a U.S. company called CREE.


100 posted on 12/30/2007 1:05:43 PM PST by stevio ((NRA))
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