Cars - have we really moved forward?

1970 ford 'BDB' engine 1700cc = 200 bhp

1968 'BDA' 1601cc = 120 bhp

Obviously drank fuel but thats why RS twin cam Mk1 Escorts are so much fun...

legrandefromage":2ncztcxi said:

Anyway - bored now. Cars are a crap waste of money , unless its one of these:

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I was watching this on ePoo, :roll: if i had the spare cash

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0310267911

cherrybomb":2ncztcxi said:

Petrol engine design was set back decades by the American big three (Ford GM & Chrysler) when they forced the adoption of catalytic converters to reduce emissions because they refused to invest in the development of engines using lean burn technology.


Lean burn engines are a much better bet for reduced emissions and improved fuel efficiency than the engines we are still stuck with, but since it is now written into legislation that catalytic converters must be fitted to all vehicles with petrol engines the technology is dead in the water. Exhaust gasses from lean burn engines would destroy a catalytic converter because they run too hot.

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Quite interesting and worth further investigation. I didn't think catalytic converters were a must, just the emission output has to be within the given values :?

yea thats whai i thought, its not mandatory to have a cat, but it would be impossible to meet emission regulations without one (unless some serious ahem tinkering with the fueling that would render the car undrivable on the road).

Easy_Rider":3raqrc78 said:

I didn't think catalytic converters were a must, just the emission output has to be within the given values :?

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You may well be right. It's been a while since I looked into it.
The crux of it is though (from memory) that the big manufacturers pushed for catalytic converters which enabled them to meet emission limits (that they fought to have raised) while still using old inefficient (in terms of economy) engines that had been in production for decades.
Cats have a very limited lifespan and use some very environmentally unfriendly materials in their production. Lean burn technology had the potential to give us petrol engines with much lower emissions without the need for a Cat which would also give mpg comparable to, or better than, modern diesel vehicles but with Cats now a cheap way to meet emissions the development halted.