ZE Horror ! French puts a diesel in His Ferrari !

This was a high performance option from the factory.

True nuff!

 

All the style of the 400 series, and all the performance of a John Deere.

Best of both worlds.....and for only 49,000 USD

 

As soon as Diesel goes F-1, we'll be there too! The technology is getting to the point where bang for the buck of Diesel will definately rival gas motors. By volume, Diesel fuel contains much more "heat" than gasoline...

I wonder what type of Diesel engine is stuffed in that car? Could you imagine 400+ hp and 500+ ftlbs to go play with...and 25+mpg to boot? I don't think its far off that sports cars will go Diesel.

Made our first trip to Europe last October, virtually everything was running Rudolf's powerplants...and they were VERY clean and quiet. Standing at a street corner waiting for a light to turn green I expected a haze of black soot and stench...light turns green, wow, all I could smell was cigarette smoke from the nearby cafe's.

 

On that car it doesn't bother me that much. At least it's a manual. It must be much less expensive to maintain than the original motor.

 

Not true. They are both very similar, but gasoline is actually slightly higher.
The diesel engine is more efficient because they run higher compression ratios.

Modern diesels are fantastic, but they are not sportcar engines. The power and torque are great on autobahns and freeways, but go into a slow tight corner and that power is still missing for the first second or two when you exit, until the turbos spin up.

 

I first tought it wa a 1 april fool.........

a Ferrari diesel, crazy Frenchman, but, racing cars with diesel engine are coming up over here, as seen on the 24 Hours of Francorchamps.....
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Amenasce -

I'm shocked at how little (relatively) outrage this has sparked on FChat! Look what happens to the thread when some poor fool transplants a 350/350 into a Ferrari!

I think you should cross-post this to the 'Classic/Vintage' forum, and then we'll see some sparks fly.......

or not; it is just a (lowly) 400 after all.....

james

 

A diesel BMW won the Nürburgring 24hours aswell, 2001 I think. But it was a Tortoise and Hare scenario. On long distance races the better gas mileage helps, but you won't be setting any fastest laps.

I also think for these races the diesel engined cars are classified seperately. At Le Mans they would not be, and so a diesel would struggle to qualify as it must be within a certain percentage of the fastest qualifying car in its group.

 

FYI, it's listed as a 175 CH inline 6 made by VM Motori, an Italian diesel manufacturer, last I knew they were owned by Detroit Diesel which is owned by DaimlerChrysler. So it's got a varied pedigree! 175 CH = 172 HP.

And Diesel fuel DOES contain more energy than gasoline. From www.exxon.com:

(Gasoline is about 114,000 BTU/Gal.)

 

Probably MORE performance than a John Deere. Mine has only a 4-banger. . . . Would like to see the owner of this car paint it bright green with yellow wheels.

 

That's nothing. About 25 years ago, I saw an Opel GT that had a tractor engine and transmission under the hood. Half the floorboard had been cut out to make room for the monstrosity. The owner loved diesel cars and owned several old diesel Mercedes. The poor Opel had giant tractor levers sticking up between the seats from the transmission. I never saw it run. Wonder if the top speed was above 30MPH.

 

There is a diesel race car series in Europe. A car journalist entered a race in one of the cars but he didn't rate it. The problem was that with so much torque in a light car, it was too easy to break traction coming out of corners, yet didn't have the outright power to reach high top speeds down the straights.

 

Re: tritione's comment about the small block chevy, it also won Nürburgring powering the Chaparral 2D driven by Phil Hill and Jo Bonnier. So with that logic the sb chevy in a Ferrari should be OK too

I could see if you had enough cars to satisfy your need for speed and excitement, having a high tech diesel powered 400 could give you a really nice long haul cruiser. Personally, the point of the 400 is the V-12.

 

Hmmm...Simon, I think a little more research is necessary here:

Interesting stuff! True, the V-12 is the mystique of the 400 series...and I do hate to see such cars modified like this. But I think with the advances in technology in the last decade, an alternative fuel to Gasoline in sports cars is on the horizon. Ya just gotta capture the sound, provide eye-opening performance...and win some races. The gap is closing! PeterB.

 

Al -
We're splitting hairs here, but I believe the 2D was propelled by a 472" Reynolds aluminum big block, pretty shocking for the day....another benefit of GM's "backdoor" racing program.

And I agree with you, the V12 is the 400 series reason (plus the 2 extra seats for guests).

james

 

Link doesn't work

Pump gasoline is about 43.5MJ/kg, diesel is about 42.5MJ/kg.
The density of diesel is a little higher, so I'll give you that

 

Do you have a link to the Chevy 350 powered Ferrari?

T.

 

VOLKSWAGEN (VW) has the PHAETON, that is a V10-5liter TDi with 313HP

AND IT'S a diesel......ntobad at all.

 

WTF?!?!?! It actually is a diesel engine!!! I thought it was just a typo, or some dude who mistakenly filled it with diesel instead of regular gas.

Andrew, meet the guy, and punch him for me. Straight on the nose. . Yeah, I guess I've been playing GTA a bit too much lately

But I just can't believe this crap ... that's worse than a replica ... I'm just speechless.

And I don't care how many races diesels win, they do not belong on sports cars.

 

What a waste of a 400.

AND IT WAS A 5 SPEED TOO!!!

Andrew, call the guy up and tell him to menge le merde for me.

 

Sorry, I wasn't intending to provide a reference link, just citing where it came from. Anyhoo, where I buy fuel at they sell (and price!) by the gallon, not the slug/lbm/kg, so that's what I care about! BTU/$!


And as for the outrage level... I think if it was a 348 there would be more. As for me, I'm a big fan of Diesels and not a big fan of the 400-ish vehicles, so I think this is a nice improvement for a sedan!