So, I have to wonder if the reason we are moving ahead is that the
current crop of engineers was growing up in the heyday of the muscle
car? They want the power and we now have better tools to produce it.
And, I would agree that most commuters don't need a whole lot of
horsepower. My 76 115 300D is reasonably good in most cases and I think
it is 77HP if memory serves to be correct. It struggles a bit in
certain spots. We don't have a whole lot of freeways with merge ramps
around here much so I don't have to get up to high speed all that
quickly in most cases. The one spot that I run into periodically that
makes me want more umph is a spot on the trip home from the lake. It is
on the bypass around Kenora. If I go through town which I often do, then
I have to come to a complete stop at a T intersection where the highway
through town feeds me back onto the bypass heading west out of Kenora.
So, I have to stop, and then make a 90 degree left turn onto the highway
where the traffic is moving at 60+ mph. AND the first half a mile or
more going west is uphill.
I won't be up to much more than 50 mph by the time I crest that hill. I
can easily get over the speed limit going down the other side, but
getting to the crest of that hill from a dead stop is an issue and I
often end up with transport trucks on my back bumper even if I have not
pulled out when there are any vehicles approaching that are all that
close. As you will have guessed, this is 2 lane so there is no left lane
for them to pull into and go around me. I can get over onto the shoulder
a bit but then they are probably over the center line if they want to go
around me and there may well be oncoming traffic that would also have to
shift right onto the shoulder at least in part. Not a good situation. It
would appear that most current vehicles are better able to get up to
speed than my old diesel.
Randy
On 07/12/2012 10:08 AM, Jim Cathey wrote:
The thing I think is funny is how much horsepower has been gained in
the last 2 decades. We think of these cars from the 70's as being
hot rods, but nearly all of them have less horsepower than a Honda
Accord does now.
The 60's cars were hot, the 70's were not. Marketing was working
overtime (ala "The Marching Morons"?) to try to sell those pigs as
hot anyway. Go-fast stripes, etc. Pollution standards were asinine,
measured in ppm rather than parts-per-_mile_, so the 'solution' was
to stuff a big choked-to-death engine in there that probably emitted
as many or more nasties than a smaller, more efficient and powerful,
and perhaps slightly dirtier in ppm engine that would have certainly
wasted less gas, and thus, ipso facto, emitted less pollution. But
hey, at least that smog was pre-diluted with a lot of air! Saved
Brownian motion from having to do it in the atmosphere, there's a
'big win' for you.
It's amazing that _finally_ they've gotten back to the power levels
they once had, probably surpassing them, it only took them fifty years
or so. Of course, the new engines are a lot cleaner, longer-lasting,
and more reliable. But we're probably 20-30 years behind where we
would be if regulators weren't so f-ing stupid. And a lot of needless
petroleum burned along the way.
The next frontier, of course, is to figure out that a typical transport
appliance doesn't need more than about 150HP in order to be quite
driveable,
so the smaller more fuel-efficient engines should be coming along soon.
Hell, my 55HP 200D is _very_ driveable, it's the extra torque (and the
manny tranny) that make it so.
-- Jim
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
