Andy M3

Has anyone ever seen a diesel compeate on the track - with diesels becoming more popular, with lots more power i wondered who was brave enough to track one.

The only one i have ever seen is a chipped golf tdi with 18's on standard suspension go round silverstone last year - it was pants ?!?!?

davyboy

Seen plenty at the ring.

Hardly soul stirring stuff are they.

Senior_AP

Saw a few Leon's.

If you've got a diesel and you wanna track it, no reason why not. Should still be a laugh.

davyboy

....just slow and dull.

Senior_AP

....but faster and less dull than not tracking at all??

davyboy

...I suppose, if you really must.

Senior_AP

If you've a diesel......something to do innit.

Edcase

There are a couple of diesels running well in the vw cup that supports the british gt.

They pull visibly fast out of the bends.

Shame about all that smoke

johnfelstead

oh the pain. Too slow on throttle response to be fun on track. There was one running stupid boost used in the BRC a few years ago that did very well against the 2 litre NA F2 cars, so they can be made to fly, but dynamically they are pants.

Reffro

There's a new Caddy van racing in the VW Cup races, with a Superchip tuned 2.0 TDi engine, I think its running about 230bhp.

Dapster

I think you'll realise the problem before the end of the first straight. All torque and no revs. It'll be an absolute pain trying to keep up with anything with 4k revs to play with and a block of concrete for an engine stuck over the front wheels. Also, you'll need the lariest set up possible - tick every box in the sports pack option list and even then you'd regret not being in a 1.6 Zetec Focus....

Brendan Hughes

Track I dunno, but I gather MattOz surprised the Ring Taxi in his 330D, or am I remembering my facts badly?

DocJock

You are remembering them loud and clear Brendan.

jon77

What about the Fabia vRS beating a Cooper round a track on both 5th Gear and Top Gear? Torque proved to be the winner over handling on both these occasions.

kammy

Top gear tests are a load of tosh. Visit one of the mr2 mk1 web sites for how they alter the results. As for diesels around the track, there has been afew in the past Le mans. They have the power, but as mentioned earlier they have narrow power bands etc.
Kam

MattOz

Diesels have been winning in Europe on track for some time. IIRC, a diesel Golf won the saloon car class in the Spa 24h race a couple of years ago. BMW also successfully track the 320d in Germany. In the UK, there is a MK4 Golf diesel that competes in one of the VW series.

My old 330d faired well at the Ring , and I know that my latest one would be better, given the increase in bhp and torque. I should imagine that it would fair less well at a shorter UK track, but then it'll give a standard UK WRX a run for its money, so we'll have to try it one day.

Diesels just do things differently (lazily) and provided you overcome this with smooth flowing driving and carry decent corner speed, they can surprise people. And of course, everyone knows that "proper" diesels have more than 4 cylinders!

Matt

TaviaRS

It has been done as some of the SouthWest owners can testify.

Dreadfully slow though

mw2655

i can confirm this, though i would say pretty fast, not slow

mw2655

i hope nobody minds me linking this.....

mw2655

and it was quite a bit faster than me in this.......

TaviaRS

LOL! Think I was just lucky or you were all just being kind to me

It may not be quick in a straight line, but it goes round corners quite well

carl

I've seen some Peugeot diesels racing in a one-make series on Motors TV. They looked like one of the prototype "sports car of the future" designs Peugeot produced, except there was a whole grid full of them.

Took me a while to work out they were diesels. I knew they sounded "odd" but I couldn't quite put my finger on it (they revved a bit higher than ordinary diesels).

Edit: they were actually Peugeot RCs.

and the series is the Peugeot RC Cup.
http://www.automobile.lycos.fr/mag/n...rticle&id=9576

mynickers

At trax last year I was shocked to see various overly chav'd cars with noise oil burners under the bonnet. Didn't see them in serious action but even drivign around the paddock they seemed to shift! I thought they were mad, and wondered why they would waste their money on such folly when for the same cash so many alternatives were on offer.

Little did I know there was soon to be a mass main stream line of hatches on their way to match... ?

CraigH

Theres someone selling a V10tt Toureg engine for £800....that'd be cool in a Lupo bit front heavy maybe.....

Brendan Hughes

Craig, I think you mean "on" a Lupo...

QuattroMNC

A few years ago 3xVW Golf mk3 tdi's followed a half season of the British rally championship, this was done to prove a point more than anything, but they were right there scoring fastest times, they werent competing for the championship so runnung in a diferent class to the championship guys but hitting the same times.

Clett

An Ibiza TDi won the 2002 Austrian Touring Car series against things like Integra Type-Rs, Celica 190s etc.

Some links:

http://www.upsolute.com/eng/racing.html

http://www.tourenwagen.at/template.php?sid=05

Some vids:

Ibiza TDI130 vs. Civic Type-R vs. Alfa 156
http://www.tourenwagen.at/video_a1ri...rd01_a1ring.ra

Ibiza TDI130 vs. Civic Type-R
http://www.tourenwagen.at/video_salz...rd_salzburg.ra

ricardo

But the petrol ones aren't allowed turbos are they....

Flat 4x4

Used to take my A4 V6 Tdi Quattro on track (3-4 years ago). Passed on the straight, great out of bends. On Audi meets, it was quicker than the 180 TT's at sprint circuits.

Recently - now on Skoda, the 185bhp Fabia vRS's (6 of them) were a match for the Octavia vRS's at the National meet - and not far off the 220-230bhp ones, and these are Scooby matching from personal experience.

Stuart J

A Diesel ran at Le Mans this year in the 24 hour but kept breaking transmissions, not sure but it might have been a Peugeot.
I have also been told (DONT KNOW IF ITS TRUE) that they were also banned from Indy racing many years ago because they were too economical & unfair to the other cars as they needed less pit stops