I've said a number of times on OcUK before that my pet hate is the modern-diesel driver. The type that assumes his or her car is a rocket ship because the in-gear acceleration is much greater than the equivelant cc petrol. This sense of overawing power generates a level of confidence in the cars power abilities as, day-to-day, it seems very fast and relatively, it is.
At the average traffic light grand prix, the sort that my mother, aged 51, will take part in while driving her 74hp Astra, the modern diesel driver will literally "blow away" the competition, as, like my mother, petrol drivers feel where the torque begins to drop and shift, rather than changing at or a little past the maximum power point. This gives the modern diesel driver the edge as their torque hits with a sharp punch and doesn't let off a newton metre until around 3500rpm in the average TDCi/CDTi/D-4D etc. car. This means that the modern diesel driver is extracting a much larger proportion of the accelerative potential of their vehicle than the petrol driver who will probably shift at around the same rpm, thus often losing the "race".
The above also gets applied to the major roads as well, where because of the torque advantage the driver can leave most other vehicles in the plume of smoke that gets excremented with a bit of a full throttle and be off in to the sunset.
As few may know, I retired from driving the 300hp Citroen Xsara with condoms for tyres and am now the pilot of a 98 2.0 Mondeo Ghia. Performance, handling and ride are surprisingly similar, but the Mondeo succeeds when it comes to general comfort. With the working AC as well, in this heat the Mondeo has the edge.
The 2.0 Mondeo Ghia is by no means light on it's feet. A quick glance at the back of the owners handbook reveals the kerb weight of the "LX" vehicle being 1328kg (Including 75kg for driver, 90% full tank of fuel and all required fluids). For starters, I only weigh 54kg, so that's down to 1307kg and for the purposes of the calculation, at the moment I have a 25% full tank of fuel so we're down to 1278kg. Unfortunately, it isn't an LX, so we need to add on a bit of fat. If Fox's GhiaX baby weighs 1400kg with all his stick on bits and a bottle of coke, then I can't see 1360kg being unreasonable. So 1360kg it is. With 128hp and 176Nm, we have 94hp/ton and 129Nm/ton respectively.
If I were to pick a car at random, say, an 05 plate 2.2 ST TDCi Mondeo Estate, we have some more figures - 1574kg, 152hp and 360Nm - 97hp/ton and 229Nm/ton. Look at that juicy torque figure - 265 lb/ft for the elderly here - enough to make the modern diesel driver's head dizzy with excitement. But is it any good? In short, it seems, no.
I've just been out for a drive, you see, and despite an aggressive attempt from the exact same ST, he couldn't get his car in front from 0-50mph and only match my performance. This demonstrates what I've been trying to say all along. The "Modern Diesel" isn't necessarily fast, it just uses a bigger percentage of its fast-ness day-to-day than a petrol equivelant. Despite the ST having more than twice my trifling 176Nm, it was all lost in pulling the extra weight, turning the massive drivetrain and because of the small ratios needed to be able make the car driveable without having to change gear every 10mph.
At the average traffic light grand prix, the sort that my mother, aged 51, will take part in while driving her 74hp Astra, the modern diesel driver will literally "blow away" the competition, as, like my mother, petrol drivers feel where the torque begins to drop and shift, rather than changing at or a little past the maximum power point. This gives the modern diesel driver the edge as their torque hits with a sharp punch and doesn't let off a newton metre until around 3500rpm in the average TDCi/CDTi/D-4D etc. car. This means that the modern diesel driver is extracting a much larger proportion of the accelerative potential of their vehicle than the petrol driver who will probably shift at around the same rpm, thus often losing the "race".
The above also gets applied to the major roads as well, where because of the torque advantage the driver can leave most other vehicles in the plume of smoke that gets excremented with a bit of a full throttle and be off in to the sunset.
As few may know, I retired from driving the 300hp Citroen Xsara with condoms for tyres and am now the pilot of a 98 2.0 Mondeo Ghia. Performance, handling and ride are surprisingly similar, but the Mondeo succeeds when it comes to general comfort. With the working AC as well, in this heat the Mondeo has the edge.
The 2.0 Mondeo Ghia is by no means light on it's feet. A quick glance at the back of the owners handbook reveals the kerb weight of the "LX" vehicle being 1328kg (Including 75kg for driver, 90% full tank of fuel and all required fluids). For starters, I only weigh 54kg, so that's down to 1307kg and for the purposes of the calculation, at the moment I have a 25% full tank of fuel so we're down to 1278kg. Unfortunately, it isn't an LX, so we need to add on a bit of fat. If Fox's GhiaX baby weighs 1400kg with all his stick on bits and a bottle of coke, then I can't see 1360kg being unreasonable. So 1360kg it is. With 128hp and 176Nm, we have 94hp/ton and 129Nm/ton respectively.
If I were to pick a car at random, say, an 05 plate 2.2 ST TDCi Mondeo Estate, we have some more figures - 1574kg, 152hp and 360Nm - 97hp/ton and 229Nm/ton. Look at that juicy torque figure - 265 lb/ft for the elderly here - enough to make the modern diesel driver's head dizzy with excitement. But is it any good? In short, it seems, no.
I've just been out for a drive, you see, and despite an aggressive attempt from the exact same ST, he couldn't get his car in front from 0-50mph and only match my performance. This demonstrates what I've been trying to say all along. The "Modern Diesel" isn't necessarily fast, it just uses a bigger percentage of its fast-ness day-to-day than a petrol equivelant. Despite the ST having more than twice my trifling 176Nm, it was all lost in pulling the extra weight, turning the massive drivetrain and because of the small ratios needed to be able make the car driveable without having to change gear every 10mph.
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