|
So im going to play a little devil's advocate here, though i think the deisel is a staple of the future specifically for future trucks.
there is a reason diesels have all that emissions equipment, thats because diesel is a dirty fuel. not only is it a dirty fuel, it is comprised of very long chains of carbon, much longer than gasoline chains. thats what gives a diesel such great fuel economy, but if you look at it from a CO2 standpoint then it doesnt look so hot anymore. in some european countries (like germany) they frown upon diesels somewhat because of these facts, its considered enviromentally catostrophic (excuse the spelling errors please).
Diesels provide phenominal torque, but on a very short powercurve. probably the best example of this is the diesel jaguar on top gear. i know some people recall the episode around the 'ring. if your going to have a performance diesel you might as well stick the 12 speed from a semi in there as well, your going to need that many gears to keep it on the torque curve.
they provide excellent fuel economy but at the price of a higher dollar and, in the true "green" fashion produce more CO2. like stated above.
Biodiesel is actually somewhat difficult to make as it requires palm oil to produce. in a small demand yes this isnt a problem, go to a plant nursery and im sure you can harvest enough. But if your going to try and produce a billion gallons of the stuff your going to have to grow more palm trees to collect palm oil from, last i checked you cant produce a mature palm tree in a season. Ethanol is flexible, you only grow it as per demand.
there is a definite future for diesel racing, as shown in the pugeot vs Audi at lemans. the problem is diesels are somewhat underperforming vehicles. the reason the Audi R10 was such a success is that because it was a diesel it got to bend the rules quite a bit. thus the car had close to double the displacement among other things. diesels should be catagorized or limited to make them comparable to gasoline engines again then reevaluate this subject.
as everybody else has pointed out though these are powerful engines that are heavy. one final factor to add is that the price of diesel. our price of diesel is a reflection of international demand. aka if we want more diesel, and europe wants more diesel at the same time, were both going to have to pay a price that supply and demand determines. we enjoy a rather low cost on our diesel because it is limited to "special" applications. if america began to see diesel as the answer then be prepared to pay the 8 dollar a gallon (speculative) pricetag untill the market catches up... on top of the noted equipment cost to provide a diesel motor.
that all being said i am an advocate of Ethanol, and if it can be applied to the HCCI engines that GM is developing (assuming those arent dead) then i would love to wait for a true showcase of technology featuring VVT DOD DI twin-OHV HCCI turbo Flexfuel (or alcohol run) small-8. that would be my $3-7k bump well spent vs diesel I think.
|