burningchrome said:
Most diesels are dogs, unless they are rammed under the hood of some monster truck displacing some 6.5 liters. Unless there is a modern diesel created that suits my particular automotive desires, I won't buy one. I'm not going to buy some econo-diesel shitbox, I will only buy a real car. Something with effortless acceleration that can easy disintegrate its rear tires.
You're a bit behind the times, there. The BMW 330d can keep up with its petrol powered cousin through 135 mph. Current Mercedes offerings are similarly potent. And VW is coming out with a V10 TDI version of its Phaeton sedan, which it will be bringing to the US, that is said to spank the petrol versions of the car quite soundly.
burningchrome said:
Most diesels are dogs, unless they are rammed under the hood of some monster truck displacing some 6.5 liters. Unless there is a modern diesel created that suits my particular automotive desires, I won't buy one. I'm not going to buy some econo-diesel shitbox, I will only buy a real car. Something with effortless acceleration that can easy disintegrate its rear tires.
You're a bit behind the times, there. The BMW 330d can keep up with its petrol powered cousin through 135 mph. Current Mercedes offerings are similarly potent. And VW is coming out with a V10 TDI version of its Phaeton sedan, which it will be bringing to the US, that is said to spank the petrol versions of the car quite soundly.
ummm...
You may not understand what I mean by "effortless acceleration". I've diven gas BMW 330s before and they aren't that fast, "effortless acceleration" means power in all gears at all RPM's. You hit the gas and the cars lunges forward, frantically building RPM's. 330s don't lunge, they aren't aren't frantic. They have smooth, crisp acceleration I'll give them that, but they don't lunge. M3s lunge, 540s lunge. That is what I want.
Also, they way Mercedes quality has slipped I wouldn't buy anything with a 3-pointed star on the hood and for the price of a Phaeton I'll buy something really fast thank you.
To give you some perspective, my last "fast" car which I sold a little over a year ago was a tuned Buick Grand National. (I have 2 other cars a beater AE-86 and a Blazer.) That car had effortless acceleration, it hesitated for like half a second before it remembered it had a turbo. Once the boost was on all hell broke loose. That was a fast car, their are few new cars on the road now with comparable speed and acceleration.
32OneImTheBomb said:
Making bio-diesel at home. Could someone describe the process in brief? Or is that imposible?
Get a book called 'From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank' if you want to do it -- it discusses the whole process in great detail, and some of the possible options for using straight vegetable oil.
Here's the short version of the process, leaving out a bunch of the fiddly bits (i.e. don't use these instructions to try to make biodiesel -- buy the book):
... list of instructions ment to be taken in only the most general sense
...
These instructions are incomplete and are meant only to give a sense of the process.
You appear to have missed the point completely with this article.
The problem is not with the hybrids getting "lousy mileage" it's that the the metrics used are inflated FOR ALL VEHICLES. Hence the new hybrids aren't getting "typical mileage.
The "typical gas vehicle" actually still gets lower mileage than the hybrid, regardless of the metrics used to measure said mileage.
plonk
Campbell, CA
February 2003
MAY 14, 2004 12:46 PM