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diesel cars. NO!
shardian:
And alot of the bad fumes/smoke from big trucks on the road can be attributed to them illegally using farm grade diesel that is high in sulfur. Here in WV, there are a ton of coal trucks - almost all of which use farm grade. If they get caught, they pay the fine. It still works out to less than buying full price diesel.
ErikRuud:
These guys did go across the country using used fryer oil, however they had a portable BioDiesel plant on a trailer to do it.
Foe the ultimate in Diesel power check out the Audi R10. I saw a lot of coverage of this thing racing. It was incredible, not only was it quiet, it was clean! the R10's were almost spotless at the end of the race compared to the normally fueled cars.
danny_galaga:
it really doesnt matter about vegetable oil. how many people are going to bother using vegetable oil in their turbo-diesel audi or chrysler 300 whosawhatsit? i dont care what they tell you. a diesel engine is a diesel engine. its got direct injection, its got pistons that move up and down in cylinders. ALL diesels get smokey once theyve been running for a few years. some of the worst are toyotas. drive behind a few diesel landcruisers with your windows open to see what i mean.
nope, unless they are going to use diesel in gas turbines, we are headed for a very smokey city environment...
here, the city council know the truth. they actually BUILD their own buses (volvo or something chassis). all the buses they build are converted not to vegetable oil, but to LNG. its cleaner, its QUIETER and australia has heaps of LNG. hell, we are now exporting it to china. why bother with overseas oil at all...
Level42:
Diesels are very popular here in Europe and with a couple of reasons:
1) Very fuel efficient (I use 1 liter to drive 17 km's, my car is a Skoda Oktavia, about the same as a VW Golf Variant (=stationwagon) Try that with any regular petrol engine...)
2) It does NOT emit CO2 gasses
3) Diesel fuel is a lot cheaper here compared to regular gas (Diesel=1,10 Euro/liter, regular gas = 1,50/liter)
I've been driving diesel powered cars as well as normal gas cars and one's powered with LPG which also used to be pretty popular here in Holland.
The development of the Diesel engine of the period of time I've driven them is amazing to say the least. I hated it when I got my first company car. It was an old Opel Kadett with a 1.6 Diesel. 4 shifts. When starting it in the morning, it sounded and felt like a tractor. It couldn't go faster than 130 km/h.
My current car has a 1.9TDi and the power of the engine is amazing. It is also very silent and nice running. You've got much more pulling power across the RPM range. It starts to pull right from the start. I'd prefer this type of engine over a regular gas engine anytime.
Also there's a particle filter installed which reduces up to 70%. I guarantee you won't see my car putting out smoke.
Anyway, the real problem is we should forget about fuel powered cars at all and start gettting the electric powered cars ready for serious use. An electric engine is a lot more efficient (80% compared to 30% with traditional fuel engines).
TOK:
The electric car debate (plug in and charge electrics, not hybrids) usually brings up the topic of burning coal or fossil fuels to create the extra electricity. Not sure how it really works, but the contention is that you aren't eliminating pollution with electric vehicles, you're just moving it to somewhere else in the chain.
California, which would be a prime market for electrics has recently suffered rolling brownouts because there is not enough electricity production for normal use. Plug in electrics will be a big problem for their biggest potential market.
They are coming too. GM has plans to launch them, and the Tesla electric sports car is slated for release in 08. It's completely electric and will go 200 miles on a 5 hour charge.
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