Quote:
Originally Posted by fshagan
Europeans must not care about the environment; they have been using dirty diesel engines for years that can't pass the smog laws in this country, and then they lecture us about carbon emissions.
I can buy a Prius and get 54 mpg; I can't buy any of the diesels that get that high simply because they are dirty, filthy, polluting destroyers of the planet (or something like that; I'll have to ask our Governator). Top Gear's audience does have a choice, so the trashing of the Prius can be seen as entertaining at least. For those in the US, its a non-sequitar ... equal to saying "Why diet when you can go to the moon and be 1/6th the weight" when you really CAN'T go to the moon!
VW and BMW worked on getting diesels approved for the US, and VW is supposed to have a Rabbit/Golf to be sold her by the end of the year, but they have already pushed back the release date as they try to make it clean enough.
I hope they are successful because bio-diesel is much easier to produce than ethanol or hydrogen.
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The beginning of this is hating on europe, the later part is saying that you want diesels - so I assume the first part is tongue-in-cheek.
Anyway, for what it is worth, Japan also has diesels, and modern diesels have good emissions and, even under load, don't smell when you drive behind them. Older diesels on the other hand are a different story. Under load you can't actually breathe properly if you are in a car behind a diesel vehicle. I once drove behind a Ford Escort van that had something wrong with the diesel engine. I nearly vomited but overtook it as soon as I could.
In terms of smog / carbon emissions and so on:
Smog - it is not very nice. If you suddenly switch off all cars, then smog disappears in 3 days, and everything is fine. It is a short term menace that is bad for people's health. If we get to a stage where everyone is being killed by smog, we will switch off the cars and be fine in a few days time.
CO2 - also not very nice. If you suddenly switch off all the cars, then it lasts for a long time. It also causes global warming. It is probably the worst type of pollutant as it has global, and long-term effects. If we ever get to a stage where people are being killed by runaway global warming, we will switch off the cars, and it will be too late, and we will all die anyway!
And that is why I'm into hypermiling - because I can reduce my CO2 output when driving my car. Saving money is another plus of course!. I don't mind doing extreme hypermiling including repeated EOCing because I drive old cars that don't even come with a catalytic convertor
But... I do use a wideband O2 sensor to keep the fuel mixture stoichometric anyway so it makes little difference to my HC emissions.
About the BMW vs Prius thing... The BMW engine was 'idling' as mentioned above (also drafting), and therefore was probably running stoichometric at 14.7:1 ratio. The Prius was maxed out, meaning it would be running rich all the time to prevent detonation, so probably running 10:1 for almost all of the race. Also the gear ratios are different so the BMW was probably running at a much lower RPM than the Prius.