will diesels take over petrol sportscars

Z

zedphil

New Forum User
After 30 years of driving petrol sportscars i went to audi for my new s-line convertible the rep said "why dont you try the diesel sir its faster and it will return 50mpg "
I never thought i would be driving a "KNOCKER" once you get used to changing up at lower revs its a lot quicker

ITS FASTER BUT IT SOUNDS CRAP :smash:

phil
 
Half right...
It sounds crap if you don't like driving a bus!

Otherwise yeah... Torque is cool, yappy at low(ish) revs is fun. Sensible reasonable fun Audi. My mate has one and until very recently so had my boss (both A4's). Great car if that's your thing (they're built well and look the part). If it's the A3 then cool, get the golf deisel or better still the fabia / leon instead and get yerself a proper car bargain (they're exactly the same car).
 
Hi,
A neighbour has a VW EOS (Golf) convertible.She folds the electric tin roof down, starts up the diesel engine and clatters off down the road like an old van!
I would want something that sounds a bit better in a convertible...In fact my 280ZX sounds much better with the roof panels off than that!
As a daily car turbo diesels do make sense though...despite the high fuel cost!
 
Had a bit of a race (not really a race) with a massive Merc CDI thingy this morning, it just went whilst my 300 was trying to go sideways!

Torque is king, which is why I love big twins when it comes to motorbikes. I like the 300 because it's a fairly lazy engine and despite being a turbo still sorta grunts around in the mid range.

But you're right, they sound crap, the chuck sooty crap everywhere. There's no point in trying to go quick descretely in a diseasal because every time you put your foot down or drop a gear the whole world knows as they disappear into a cloud. I saw a nice looking new 3 series diesel the other day trying to boot it up a hill infront of me and it was just smoke everywhere. Kinda spoilt the look and image of his new Beemer when it was doing that.

My petrol vehicles may not these days have the same performance, but I still hate diesels :) Well apart from Transit van diesels they're ok...
 
JEZ300Z said:
Hi,
A neighbour has a VW EOS (Golf) convertible.She folds the electric tin roof down, starts up the diesel engine and clatters off down the road like an old van!
I would want something that sounds a bit better in a convertible...In fact my 280ZX sounds much better with the roof panels off than that!
As a daily car turbo diesels do make sense though...despite the high fuel cost!
Click to expand...


Tie some cans to her rear bumper and see if she notices teh difference
 
ferrari are still using good ole petrol !!!!!
i think it is a long way off yet before they takeover,
 
Diesel engines have come along way in the past few years most pull like a train must be that torque thing, if you do high milage they are just the job, I remember when VW brought out was it the TDI GT Golf it would out run the GTI !!
 
i always have diesels for day to day driving got 1 of them new sri astras at the mo goes like stink even better when you press the fun button in the dash. didnt peugeot race there HDI diesel at le,man.s 24hour,
diesel,s are already better than most normal petrol cars now, and are fast catching the performance cars too.

martin
 
Russ said:
Had a bit of a race (not really a race) with a massive Merc CDI thingy this morning, it just went whilst my 300 was trying to go sideways!

Torque is king, which is why I love big twins when it comes to motorbikes. I like the 300 because it's a fairly lazy engine and despite being a turbo still sorta grunts around in the mid range.

But you're right, they sound crap, the chuck sooty crap everywhere. There's no point in trying to go quick descretely in a diseasal because every time you put your foot down or drop a gear the whole world knows as they disappear into a cloud. I saw a nice looking new 3 series diesel the other day trying to boot it up a hill infront of me and it was just smoke everywhere. Kinda spoilt the look and image of his new Beemer when it was doing that.

My petrol vehicles may not these days have the same performance, but I still hate diesels :) Well apart from Transit van diesels they're ok...
Click to expand...

The black smoke is caused by what is called "tip in" ;) The boost increases slower than the fueling does so the engine over fuels slightly (the fuel pump is what controls the fueling and is directly controlled by throttle position, the turbo (ie airflow) doesn't respond as instantly so you end up with excess fuel in the chambers).

DIEsels are RAPIDLY getting better than petrol engines (which in fairness are about as advanced now as they ever will be). The Audi Lemans cars, the Seat Leon TDI touring cars, what next?

Torque is key when it comes to acceleration and Diesels WAY out perform petrol engines in that field!

The 400Z - Nissan's first performance Diesel Z Car? Can you see it? :D

Cheers,

Andy
 
TVR petrol engines produce a whopping amount of torque which is cool. All of the Mopar classics produce fab amounts of torque too. It depends on what your after. If you need a nippy town car then a mid sized deisel is always a safe buy, but a smaller petrol engine with a turbo is a far better idea. Vroom...
 
Litre for litre, a diesel engine produces MASSES more torque than its pesky petrol equivelant! And before anyone argues, ALL my vehicles are petrol, including my transit van :(...... Diesel really is the way forwards! Just watch some BTCC footage from this year and watch those Seats down the straights....

Cheers,

Andy
 
I have no problem with either (apart from the daft noise). As long as they keep making cool looking cars I couldn't give a hoot what powers them!
 
We had a Volvo TD something as a courtesy car about six months ago. Six speed manual. All the toys. Went surprisingly well, didn't clatter like a diesel should do, and over the course of a week the fuel guage barely moved.

Okay, no SOUL, but who can afford one of those these days?
 
Martin W said:
didnt peugeot race there HDI diesel at le,man.s 24hour,
diesel,s are already better than most normal petrol cars now, and are fast catching the performance cars too.
Click to expand...

C'mon guys - Peyugeot raced there last year as well and before that there was a Lola 'Caterpillar' diesel....but Audi won last year and this - the pugs and Audis don't smoke and you can hardly hear them - that's the problem !

In France the % of diesel vehicles on the road has topped 70 - how did Rover, Range Rover, Jaguar and the Japs ever hope to sell anything other than diesels here ?

Our Vel Satis does over 30mpg in mostly town work (it weighs 1650kg) her A3 does 49mpg in town and both have sufficient torque to be very pleasant to drive, especially on M-ways.

Diesel is the not the future - it is the now ! Later, it'll be hydrogen or electric or a combi but only when fuel prices rise so high or govts. legislate against fossil fuels.

Keep your track-day Z and sell the rest - but diesel !
 
everyone has to watch there pennies in todays climate. so the cheaper road tax is also a factor. next year if you own something like a new petrol range rover the proposed charge for annual road tax is approx £1000!!
 
It is for the VXR8 too. £980 tax! The lambo murc has the highest emissions at a staggering 500 odd gubbins per somethings. But if you want to spend too much money on a 10 year old Audi platform instead of a real supercar you deserve to be penalised!
 
Ahhh I love the fact road tax and petrol have gone up (not really but here's my point).

On my commute now I regularly have the beefiest car, because I'm the only idiot running a 3ltr twin turbo to work and back. I win now each morning :D
 
No road tax here ! ....and I have a driving range of over 500 miles in cosseted luxury in my diesel Renault (6 speed too) ! Silly isn't it - 2.2 4 cyl. and it's giving 20 more hp than a 240Z !
 
You can grin as much as you like. We over this side of the ditch happen to LOVE getting shafted for tax on every single thing we do.

Me must do... we voted the b*st*rds in....
 
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