You'll probably find that, although the 2 vans are similar in footprint,
the new one weighs more due to the need for beefier structures for
mandated crashworthiness, airbags, and the related wiring and
electronics, not to mention all the power equipment that comes standard.
I'll also bet the new one has much more hp than the old one, and maybe
even gearing to make the van feel more powerful. Power and weight cost
fuel...
For the modern diesels, my money would be on the fact that these diesels
need to pass ever tightening emissions standards. Otherwise, why put a
bunch of expensive electronics on it?
Even Spridgets got heavier as the decades wore on - my 1500 supposedly
weighed 1850lbs, which is a lot for such a tiny car. Nowadays, try
finding any car that weighs under 2500lbs.
-=Chris
Chris King
http://home.comcast.net/~kvcbk/
<-----Original Message----->
From: bjshov8 at tx.rr.com [bjshov8 at tx.rr.com]
Sent: 5/9/2011 11:55:05 AM
To:
Cc: spridgets at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] OT waaaay OT Electric Vehicles.
> I think Smart Cars are stupid. I read somewhere that the guys putting
> the Hyabusa motors in smart cars for performance are realizing better
> fuel economy if they drive them appropriately. That, if true, is
> upsetting.
You can see my rants concerning design of things in other threads today.
I don't have faith that the automotive engineers are designing engines
in the best way possible. 22 years ago I had a minivan with 4.3L engine,
it would get 24mpg highway. Now my wife drives a similar sized vehicle
with 4.7L engine, it only gets 17mpg highway. So in 22 years we have not
improved the design of our engines and instead we have gone backwards?
Almost anybody that tunes EFI engines these days says they can give you
a tune that will make more power and get better economy. So why do the
original designers not do this?
> As far as having "different Diesel" I think it would probably just be
> a matter of refinement. If Euro Diesel is more advanced and better,
> then we should migrate toward it. If not, we should keep going and
> save our migrations for something more advanced and better.
We have different grades of gasoline for sale at the same gas stations,
we could certainly have different grades of diesel for sale there too.
There could be a different grade for automobiles vs. trucks.
> OTOH, many farmers and users of heavy duty Diesel pickups are getting
> furious when they get a new truck that gets 12-15MPG when their 5- and
> 10-year old trucks got 18-22MPG. That, IMHO, is due to government
> meddling and is a crime against the free market system, capitalism,
> and humanity.
I have not understood the desire to mess with a diesel engine. Diesel
engines always had an injector pump and that was all they needed. The
injector pump handled the timing and the amount of fuel injected.
Air/fuel mixture was not important. These things worked fine at the
simplest level. Now gasoline engines are different- air/fuel ratio is
very important, and timing is important. These things can be controlled
precisely by a computer and make the engine perform very well. But none
of this is needed with diesel.
Now we have electronic controls on diesel engines. All that this has
done is to allow the engines to be modified in the aftermarket for high
horsepower. It hasn't helped the off the showroom floor vehicles, buy
has gone the other way by making them less fuel efficient and making
them very complex and expensive to repair. If you study the fuel and
injection system of the modern Ford diesel pickups it will make you want
to slap the engineers around. They are certainly not engineers in the
same sense that I am an engineer.
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