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Lotus Teases With a Fuel-Agnostic Two-Stroke Engine
JohnnyBGod writes "Lotus claim to have invented a new, more efficient engine design. The two-stroke, flex-fuel engine can achieve, according to the surprisingly technical press release, 'approximately 10% better [fuel consumption] than current spray-guided direct injection, spark ignition engines.' The engine has a sliding puck arrangement to control its compression ratio, and has direct injection and a wet sump, to eliminate fuel leakage to the exhaust and the need to mix oil with the fuel, two common problems with two-stroke engines. Lotus engineering have released a video explaining the engine's operation."
How on Earth could that rubbish have been modded as informative?
For a start which Monte Carlo 24 hour race is that?
Diesels only win at Le Mans because the regulations have been skewed so far in their favour, in order to provide the illusion of a sport interested in fuel economy (at the expense of people's health). If petrol engined cars were allowed to have the same capacity, equivalent turbo chargers and fuel tank sizes as diesels they could stop for tea every two hours and still win by miles.
In any particular installation a diesel engine may or may not produce less noise than a particular petrol engine in some other car, which is a particularly useless observation, but they are unquestionably dirtier. Petrol engines produce more CO2, generally accepted as a contributor to global warming but in no way directly toxic, whereas diesel engines produce much higher levels of particulate pollution, including the most carcinogenic compounds known to man. I know which I'd rather have in the environment - it's only hypocrisy and self-interest that has stopped governments banning diesel engines from our roads.
Sorry for the rant but I absolutely loathe diesel engines - if we're going to burn something we should at least burn it efficiently and completely.
I agree, the US needs more rape output.
Blame California's anti-car lobby attacking everything they can. They can't get regular gasoline cars off the roads, because those are too common, so they attack niches, including diesel.
And it affects those of us that live thousands of miles away from California, because whatever they do, the EPA does 5 years later. And, because California is the biggest car market in the world, and 13 other states have signed up to California's emissions standards (which are both misguided and set to California's unique geography,) carmakers either have to meet the ridiculous California emissions standards, or not sell to some of their biggest markets.
The emissions controls on the TDI, required to meet California (and now EPA, actually) standards cost $3-5k on top of the cost of everything else. (Yes, the TDI is optioned like a high-spec gas model. Options cost automakers almost nothing, and are a good way to hide things like expensive emissions controls. VW makes a LOT more on a high-spec 2.5 or 2.0T gas Jetta than they do on a TDI.)
Oh, and everything that has to be done to meet emissions... means that the thing gets about 20 MPG less than it would without the emissions controls - 60 instead of 40 MPG, on the highway.
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I really fail to see how you could have modded-up to 5 "insightful", shows how ignorant the average slashdotter can be :-)
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