Dear Scooby...what a quaint, innocent way to view the USA

Several states have followed CA's lead and adopted emission standards that go way beyond environmental concerns. In CA, VW operates under the threat of fines for selling their extremely efficient (50+ mpg for the passenger cars) and exceptionally clean burning TDi vehicles. I have heard that for every TDi sold in CA or sold to a CA resident by a dealer in another state, that VW has to either pay a heavy fine or reduce the number of Gas cars they sell by 2 (to meet fleet emission standards for the brand). So, VW "voluntarily" withdraws the TDi's from the market and also prevents dealers in other states from selling to CA residents. Only way around it is to buy used (7500 miles on the clock) from out of state or have an out of state friend "buy" it. You pay the friend and drive it home...wait until the 7500 miles tick off then register it & pay your sales taxes to the CA DMV.

The real kicker is you can walk into a domestic brand dealer and buy a diesel truck (which are less technically advanced in terms of fuel mileage/pollution control) off the lot, no problem.

There is hope though. Supposedly we will be getting low-sulphur diesel fuel in '06 and that will allow the current TDi engines to meet the current emission standards. I would not be surprised if the state again raises the bar on the levels allowed, just keep the protectionism running longer.

Sorry for the rant...

Mike.

VW super efficient and clean TD's are fined because of emission standards while low tech domestic diesel trucks are sold without such problems ?

I sure hope these aren't the same people that are talking to the world about "open markets" ?

Wouter

Surely sailors, of all people, can understand how systems of rules can get out of hand and/or be abused. Another example - Subaru increased the ground clearance of the new Subaru Outback so that it qualifies as a "small truck" under US Law. Why? Because trucks do not have as strict requirements under fleet mileage rules. Essentially the same vehicle was previously not a truck. It's just crazy.

as long as the thread is hijacked...
i researched biodiesel before i got my used 2001vw tdi 1.9ltr./ 44mpg, which seems to tow the TheMightyHobie18 better than the 99 ranger 3.0liter/ 20mpg.
there will be new emmission standards coming out that are quite strict. The 0% NO (i think that's the right chemical formula)is the only compound that 100% biodiesel emission #s can't meet. In other words it burns very clean and in the future a filter for the NO would mean a diesel car running biodiesel would meet all emission standards. food for thought.
Rudolf Diesel showed his engine, running peanut oil at the worlds fair.
once the chemists figured out that one of the byproducts of gasoline would run the diesel engine,...the rest is history.
Considering Mr. Diesel had friends in England, traveled there frequently, and died on 1 of the ferry rides, it is not unreasonable to wonder if the nazis caused his fall from the ship. They were using his engine in their uboats and wouldn't have wanted the English to obtain his technology.
In the US today they are still going to drill pristine arctic lands for what? a 1 year supply of oil in spite of the fact that Bush just acknowleged the Hawaii biodiesel guys with some sort of tribute.
if your county puts fryer oil in the land fill, it could have been made into biodiesel.
also regular cars can burn ethanol, made from crops. although the diesel is a more efficient engine, it is more costly to build.
once all the crude oil is gone, plastics will need to be made from prolly hemp oil.
$.02

Back to the sailors in the video...
what was their speed? Did they figure out how to handel a monster gust and hit warp speed?

OK, thanks. Nuts !

Just for a little of our interesting rules... We get taxed on any company cars via CO2 tax. So, my car -Old Subaru WRX is right (well nearly) at the top of the banding so I don't have a company car, I have a car allowance that allows me to buy what I want - I.e. keep my scooby as is; nice 9 year old example, V low milage and a nice big turbo, lighter than the current cars and will do (depending on who you believe) 0-60 in somewhere between 5 and 5.8 seconds. Do I love it. Oh yes. Do I get to surprise a few of the less super "Supercars" - yes - well up to 60 anyway and then aero's take a hit and I loose.

Now, the only problem is pursuading the wife that the un-used car allowance should be a boat allowance, then I could have a new boat every year ! (if only)

My Vehicross likes to eat up scoobies on the Rally track



Anyone that is sick of emissions testing can come to North Carolina.

No emissions testing in half the counties here (although I think that may be changing soon).

What spec is your Vehicross ?

What spec are the scoobies ?

I've very tempted (except for the fact I have no money) to buy a WRX 300.

Hijack...

Sulfur emissions are a problem with diesel. Always have been and always will be because of the fuel and technology used. Personally I'd take an ethanol car over diesel any day. It has it's commercial applications, thats about it.

Variable valve timing in engines, hybrid engine systems and focused engineering can overcome mileage issues in the next 15 years. After that, we have to say good bye to the aging internal combustion engine.

and... cool video.

Ummm....that's why the US is finally going to low sulpur content (like most of the rest of the world) fuel by '06 (unless Mr. Bush decides to "flip-flop" ).

Biodiesel also solves this sulphur content issue, but like ethanol there are high production costs when you start talking about going main stream with it.

BTW, VW has a concept carbon fiber car running a diesel-hybrid getting nearly 300 miles to the gallon.

Mike.

Not true. Sulfur emmissions from burning any fuel are a directly proportional to the sulfur content of the fuel. The US on-road diesel specification for sulfur drops to 30ppm in June next year - the same as low sulfur gasoline. So the SOx emissions from diesel vehicles per pound of fuel burnt will be the same.

Flump correctly notes sulfur removal. Organic-Sulfur compounds are present in crude, but can be TOTALLY removed from diesel- just costs $. It isn't that expensive either. I used to regularly clean up hexane, a hydrocarbon laboratory solvent, by stirring with concentrated sulfuric acid: This totally removes S- and unsaturated compounds.

OK, I have to take responsibility for hijacking this thread. With that admission out of the way, someone tell me about the Turbo Diesel VW Toureg. I'm actually leaning toward a truck (for the camper and to haul all my stuff), but the Toureg would be a great second car for hauling the kids and still able to tow the boat comfortably. Does anyone out there have one of these?

Touareg

VW UK Touareg home page

V10 TDI

(I am also a bit of a car nut too)

I like the forum info on Toureg at this US site VW Vortex

Be warned, the Toureg is an expensive little lump of metal...especially the V10 TDi version.

Cheers!
Mike.

Okay,
just contacted Team Nissam, Jörg Gosche.
The conditions were 30-40 knots windspeed achieving "ridiculous" 20.0 knots of boat speed.
He wrote, that due to the width of only 20 yards there were no real options to pick up speed. You simply could not bear off when you needed it, so the options were, sheet out when the gusts hit, or not to sheet out - but then we flipped.

Fritz