The First Three Diesel Passenger Cars

[Laurentiu]

The first three attempts to install Diesel engines in passenger cars were, in chronological order:

1929 - Cummins installs a Diesel engine in a used Packard limousine

1933 - Citroen makes the first European attempts at a Diesel powered passenger car resulting in the development of the Citroen "Rosalie" Diesel, officially introduced at the Paris Motor Show in 1936

1933 - began testing a six cylinder 6.3 Liter diesel engine in their Manheim model. By 1936 the 260D was born which is the first truly mass production passenger Diesel powered car

Now for a little more details

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After a decade of fits and starts, during which time the diesel engine failed to take hold as a commercial success, a stroke of marketing hubris by Clessie Cummins helped save the Company. Cummins mounted a diesel engine in a used Packard limousine and on Christmas day in 1929 took W.G. Irwin for a ride in America's first diesel-powered automobile. Irwin's enthusiasm for the new engine led to an infusion of cash into the Company, which helped fuel a number of speed and endurance records in the coming years - including a grueling 13,535-mile run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1931. Such feats earned Cummins' foothold as an engine supplier to the trucking industry.

Video - Diesel Cummins engine powered Packard Newsreel

Source : http://www.cummins.com/


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The history of the Citroen diesel goes back to 1932, year of the first contacts between André Citroen and engineer English Sir Harry Ricardo, whose research in the field of the combustion chambers was going to be decisive to make the diesel engines at the same time lighter and more powerful. As of this time, André Citroen believed in the future of the particular vehicle functioning with what one then called heavy oil.



In December 1932, Citroen made an agreement with the company of Ricardo engineering, in order to be able to use their very new patent of injection. Sir Harry Ricardo (1885-1974), one of the most important engineers of the history of combustion chambers, developed in 1931, on behalf of the London shipping company, the "Comet" injection system . This made it possible to adapt the diesel engine, although heavy and slow, with the buses of London.

[I]Based on "Comet" cylinders and from the existing petrol engines, in 1933 the first diesel engines Citroen were born. Thus, on November 27, 1934, they presented a functional prototype of a Citroen “Rosalie” Diesel. The vehicle had the serial number 480.000, and was equipped with the engine n° 00 1360 of type 10 series DI.




In 1935, several dozen cars are built and proven reliable in a daily use. Citroen officially introduces its diesel Rosalie to the Paris Motor Show 1936.

The early 30's financial crisis faced by Citroen Cars, repurchased by the Michelin family, prevented the series production of the Rosalie 10 DI. On the other hand, many utility vehicles of the time, technologically related to the Rosalie Diesel were produced in series, into four or six cylinders.

The Rosalie 10 DI engine had an output of 40HP at 3.650 rpm. It was a 4 cylinder engine with 75/100 bore/stroke ratio.

The gear box was a 3speed and the clutch was a dry disk type.
It had a worm-and-sector steering system.

The naked frame weighed approximately 785 kg, including 445 on the front axle and 340 on the back. In the light type, the weights were brought down to 635 kg including 380 front and 255 on the back.



Between 1934-1939 about 3000 of Diesel Ricardo-Citroen engines were produced equipping commercial vehicles
Thanks to this system of injection, having proven reliable and with the “suspended” assembly of the engines used as a European pioneer by Citroen, these Diesel cars reached speeds close to that of the gasoline car engines at 3500RPM. They moreover were regarded as comfortable models, in particular, thanks to the little of vibrations transmitted to the cockpit.



Source :http://www.quaidejavel.com
Disclaimer: my translation from French using webpage translators and my trusty-rusty French is quite lacking so use your own imagination


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For Mercedes it all began in 1933 when they began testing a six cylinder 6.3- Liter diesel engine in their Manheim model. After continuous testing,
engine vibration proved to be too great for the Manheim's chassis,
which led to the development of a new four cylinder diesel engine
with the same cylinder dimensions.



In 1936 with engine testing complete, the four cylinder 2.6-Liter
diesel engine, which featured Mercedes-Benz pre-chamber combustion
and a Bosch injection pump, was mounted in the chassis of a gasoline-
engined 200 model. Later that year, consumers were introduced to the
world's first diesel-powered passenger car at the International
Automobile and Motorcycle Show in Berlin, via the Mercedes 260 D.



Although similar in styling to its gasoline counterparts, what set
the 260 D apart was its fuel consumption - 9 liters per 100
kilometers, compared to gasoline engine's 13 liters per 100
kilometers. As if that wasn't enough to spark consumer's interest, at
the time of the 260 D's introduction, diesel cost less than gasoline,
but not by a small margin - the cost of diesel was less than half the
cost of gasoline, a sure sign of the cost effectiveness of owning a
diesel-powered vehicle.



Over the next few years, the Mercedes 260 D was replaced with new and
improved versions and benefited from numerous upgrades, but in the
end, the 260 D will always be remembered for one thing - it was the
world's introduction to the many benefits a diesel-powered passenger
car had to offer.


Source :http://www.theautochannel.com http://green.autoblog.com