Blackraven

http://www.worldcarfans.com/10911262...idering-diesel

What the hell?

I do admit, diesel engines are superb for regular cars (because the torque delivery works well in traffic and overtaking) but for sports cars? WTF!?!?!?!?

IMHO, I hope they don't consider such rubbish. If they want fuel economy in their sports cars, then IMHO, invest in hybrids or full-electric or hydrogen or what ever instead.

Haaay, I guess all I have to say is:
If you do like this though, well all I have to say is: Enjoy your REVLESS plain-jane sports cars then.

/rant

Seriously, diesel sports cars are a ****ING joke

Ultra Vip

um.... audi TDI????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi_R10_TDI

it won almost every race it entered since it debuted in 05

March 2006 12 Hours of Sebring
June 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans.
September 2006, the #2 Audi R10 won the 9th annual Petit Le Mans endurance race at Road Atlanta in Georgia
17 March 2007, the #2 Audi R10 won the 55th annual 12 Hours of Sebring.

just saying diesel is nothing to frown on and can be a powerful powerplant given the right engineering.

DustinV

Ever heard of the Volkswagen Golf GTD? That's the diesel version of the Golf GTI and it is a very potent machine. The Audi Le Mans TDI racer is pretty famous by now - for its victories against gasoline-powered rivals.

There are some people that dislike diesels in performance cars because of the associated noise and low-rev capabilities. I think we can agree that this image is something a diesel engine, even a modern one, can never shed. However, I don't think hybrids are the answer either because some people will always complain about the lack of "feedback" from the engine from a noise perspective. I might be wrong here, but I always have this image in mind that people who drive sports cars want to hear the engine make some noise. For the vast majority of buyers of sports cars, I seriously doubt fuel economy is an issue making diesels and hybrids irrelevant to them.

AMG actually offered a couple of diesel models before. I never knew this until I came across C30 CDI AMG sportcoupe in downtown Stuttgart. At first I thought the owner had somehow manage to obtain the necessary badges to fool onlookers. But when I went home that night and searched the web, I discovered that it was indeed a genuine AMG product. AMG offered a limited series of performance diesels to the European market but only in the form of the last generation C class. This meant that buyers had the choice between the sedan, estate and the sportcoupe model with a 3-liter 5-cylinder diesel engine with 231-horsepower. 0-100 kph took place in 6.1 seconds for the sportcoupe and 6.5 seconds for the sedan and estate.


The idea of a diesel-powered sports car is nothing new and was even tried in the 1950s in the US.

http://www.the-blueprints.com/bluepr...1951_indy_500/

mmarshall

Why are you so surprised at this? There is no need for "WTF" comments here.

If you have been following the posts/comments here in CAR CHAT and auto industry itself, you would know that the days of conventional, gas-powered, high-performance V8s and V10s are numbered.....and almost gone. The upcoming CAFE and emission rules, like it or not, will simply kill many of them off. In some cases, extremely tall-geared, overdrive transmissions that allow these big engines to loaf along and idle at highway speeds help some, but even with them, some compromises are inevitable. Diesels, hybrids, multi-displacement engines, turbo V6s (like Ford's Ecoboost), and other fuel-saving devices are simply the wave of the future....so get used to it.

And, yes, the Mercedes AMG engines are some of the first candidates for that kind of change..........their atrocious, gas-guzzing MPG (virtually every one of them is subject to the Federal Gas-Guzzler Tax) simply cannot continue under the new regulations coming up.

spwolf

reason is awful resale values of petrol v6 and v8 engines in Europe... not sure if awful is right word, they have no value at all :-).

diesels are fast, not sure if they can be real sports powerplant in the feel sense as you have limited rpm range but lets not pretend as if these AMGs are driven on the track anyway... most owners will appreciate monstreous push at the back and decent mpg.