What is the point of a diesel as a sports car?
Sure, they have Nm, but who buys a sports car to tow a trailer or something like that? Is a gasoline engine always superior in terms of both performance and sound in roughly the same horsepower range?
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First of all, the question is absolutely legitimate.
In a race, you primarily drive at full throttle, and at full throttle, the advantage of a diesel engine is very small. Its efficiency is perhaps 1-2% better than a gasoline engine. However, this is offset by the engine's greater weight. At top revs, the diesel engine doesn't have significantly more torque than the gasoline engine.
The difference is significantly greater under partial load, however. The diesel engine is significantly more efficient than the gasoline engine, which is also noticeable in the torque. If you drive a diesel sports car a lot in city traffic, you'll need significantly less fuel than with a gasoline engine.
The reason why race car manufacturers use diesel engines ultimately depends on the rules for Le Mans cars. In Formula 1, there are many specifications regarding engine design, which is why everyone uses the same engines.
Things are quite different for the Le Mans Series. There, the designers are completely free to choose their own drive concept, the number of cylinders, and the engine displacement. The only technical limitation is the maximum fuel consumption per lap, which is just under one liter. Driving a fast lap on just under one liter depends heavily on the recovery system (hybrid) and the efficiency of the combustion engine. However, the size of the hybrid system is limited.
Audi is pursuing the concept of making optimal use of fuel with a 4-liter V6 turbo diesel.
In contrast, Porsche used the smallest turbo petrol engine in the entire field last year, with a displacement of just 2 liters and 4 cylinders, and thus regularly outperformed the diesel Audis.
So you could say that the better efficiency and higher torque of the Audi diesel were not enough to beat the extremely low weight of the Porsche engine.
A diesel engine has more torque. The downside is the modest sound (probably enhanced by loudspeakers) and the sluggishness. A diesel doesn't reach revs as quickly, runs out of steam sooner, and doesn't rev high either. A diesel engine therefore doesn't really make sense in a sports car, at least not if you want to drive in a sporty manner. The higher torque offered by a diesel engine can be made up for by a gasoline engine with revs and a turbo. Revs over torque is the motto. But it also depends on the sports car we're talking about! A BMW M3 with a diesel engine isn't quite as unusual as a Lamborghini Hurricane with a diesel. Such a "family sports car" can also drink diesel occasionally; the diesel engine has the advantage of not being as thirsty. For parents who want to drive in a sporty manner but still don't want to hand over their wages at every gas station, a diesel engine makes sense.
So it depends on the car.
Supercars and diesel engines don't mix. Unfortunately, Audi didn't understand this and built the R8 with a diesel engine. It's completely unacceptable.
The Audi R8 doesn't have a diesel engine. A BMW M3 is also always a gasoline engine. It's also not true that diesel engines generally have more torque. Compare a non-turbo diesel with a non-turbo gasoline engine; the gasoline engine almost always has more torque. Besides, the engine torque doesn't matter anyway, because the transmission acts as a torque converter.
I once had an R8 catalog, and it listed an R8 with a diesel engine. The M3 was an example.
Well, not much.
For the "green conscience," perhaps; but a diesel simply puts more mass on the axle (heavier engines).
The thing about "consumes much less" is also nonsense. Power costs money, regardless of whether it's 300 hp petrol or diesel, naturally aspirated or turbocharged.
The difference in consumption is often less than 20%; let's say the petrol engine uses 10 l, the diesel engine uses 8 l per 100 km.
That means – at 15,000 km per year and 1.40 EUR/l (super) – fuel costs are 420 EUR/year.
This has to be put into perspective with higher taxes and higher acquisition costs.
If you don't believe the consumption, just compare:
http://www.spritmonitor.de/de/uebersicht/3-Audi/0-Alle_Modelle.html?fueltype=2&constyear_s=2014&power_s=250&powerunit=2
Listed here are modern 250-300 hp petrol engines from Audi with REAL fuel consumption. Average: 10.0 l
Now simply swap petrol for diesel:
http://www.spritmonitor.de/de/uebersicht/3-Audi/0-Alle_Modelle.html?fueltype=1&constyear_s=2014&power_s=250&power_e=300&powerunit=2
*whoosh* we all have Audi diesels with 250-300hp since 2014: Consumption: 9.68 l
This can still be done with VW, BMW, Mercedes…
Or even in other performance classes..
Try driving a diesel with 250-300 hp. Then you'll know why! These things have so much torque that everything else stops. It's amazing! And you get significantly lower fuel consumption. And if you don't want any noise, that's another plus.
Diesel engines only have "awesome torque" when they're turbocharged. Drive a VW Golf SDI with 75 hp from a 2-liter displacement, and you'll know what I mean. If you turbocharge gasoline engines, these diesel engines are in no way inferior – except for fuel consumption, of course.
Well, it makes sense in that you can make fun of the buyers 😀
Audi R18 RP6 !!!
Here is a good article that might answer your question:
http://www.motorsport-magazin.com/motorsport/news-184976-dieseltechnologie-im-motorsport/
The M550d xDrive is also nice 😉
For the same horsepower, a diesel is superior to a petrol engine because it has more torque. Where a petrol engine CAN have an advantage, however, is when accelerating, and especially when it quickly reaches high revs. While the diesel slowly runs out of steam, the petrol engine still has more power. But only if it's a fast revving engine. If it revs up too slowly, the effect is lost!
A diesel in a sports car would make sense, but nobody wants one because of the lack of sound and lower revs. It just doesn't look as sporty.
I find it bitter that one has to read such nonsense from someone who calls themselves a "car expert." I would urge you to compare the acceleration values and maximum achievable speed of identical models with identical performance, one with a gasoline engine and one with a diesel engine (eg, the BMW 318i E90 and the BMW 318d E90, both with 143 hp). Then you would see: The diesel is actually slightly slower, even though it has 50% less torque. Why? Because it's the power and weight that matter, not the torque. That only indicates how much power is available at what time; peak power is what matters.
It's interesting to tie the whole thing to a single vehicle model, but even if you had given me two or three models as examples, that still wouldn't have been representative.
I also didn't mention at all that two identical vehicles were necessarily meant. Therefore, purely fictitious vehicles could even be meant here.
Yes, of course, the power-to-weight ratio plays a role. With two otherwise identical cars, the one with the lower power-to-weight ratio has the advantage.
However, if two otherwise identical cars have the same power-to-weight ratio, but one is a petrol engine and the other a diesel engine, the diesel has the advantage.
The diesel simply has more pulling power (ie torque), especially in the lower to medium speed range.
The petrol engine can counteract this advantage if its engine reaches its maximum power faster than the diesel engine.
Since petrol engines are generally more rev-happy than diesel engines, this is more often the case than the other way around.
So please first understand what people are actually getting at before you discredit or even insult them.
The diesel consumes less.
Who cares about fuel consumption in a sports car that costs around €30,000+?!
You learn to save from the rich. That's what we say here.
Your diesel engine is probably too heavy for a supercar with around 1000 hp 😀
It probably won't work in terms of torque either. Audi once had an R8 diesel concept and had to limit its power because the torque was too high.