62 mpg at cruise. Ultra Low Emmisions version in test; uses uretha injection.
Can't buy it in US, gas is too cheap here!
Waaaaay too painful for this dude!
With all due respect to John, not because the oil companies are making gasoline they want to sell at exhorbitent prices but because the fuzzys who make the rules at EPA don't like the smell of diesel fuel; think that diesels are noisy and do not like to hear them; and who observe old technology diesels and see the emmission as an undiserable side consequence. These fuzzys make the rules for all of us who would prefer to use diesel.
Sounds like a pisser of an injection!
The problem is that sulfur compounds (which can be as high as 2,000 parts per million on some refined Diesel #2 fuel sold in the USA) can chemically act like sulfuric acid (one of the strongest industrial acids out there) and quickly corrode the fuel-delivery system and exhaust system of the diesel cars sold in Europe. Fortunately, that issue will change within the next 18 months. By then, the EPA will mandate that the sulfur content of diesel fuel must not exceed 80 parts per million, identical to the standard in California now for motor fuels.
With the sulfur impurity issue resolved, we can now get diesel engines with direct combustion chamber fuel injection, common-rail high-pressure delivery systems, relatively simple catalytic converters and particulate traps. This will allow diesel cars to even meet the very strict ULEV standard for exhaust emissions.
Besides the obvious benefit of 30-35% lower fuel consumption, the other advantage of diesel engines is that they can also run with only minor modifications motor fuels that are derived from any high carbohydate plant source (most common grains, soybean, sugar beet, sugar cane and the jojoba bean as examples). This plant-based fuel--called biodiesel--is actually even more beneficial to the environment since this fuel has no issues with sulfur impurities and also the exhaust byproduct from the fuel does not have particulates, either. That's why biodiesel is of such interest to a number of large transit agencies that operate a large number of diesel-powered buses.
What a slug, I wouldn't even consider it!
That's almost as bad as riding a bicycle.
"It's got a cop motor: a 440 cubic inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas."