classic car

  Diesel has always had a bad rap. Though everyone knows it got you better MPG, diesels were loud and belched dirty, black smoke forth into the atmosphere. Diesel engines were reserved for large trucks for the most part, and it was seen as antisocial during the oil crisis to have giant, smoke-belching truck. Not to mention that diesels generally made your car much slower, limiting performance by large amounts and were hard to start. It wasn't until the late Seventies that diesels were used in everyday cars such as the VW Golf in America, though even these were slow-selling. Diesel is in for a turn-around ,though, because in the past few years diesel technology has made rapid strides from dirty and slow to fast, clean, and overall, green.

  As Volkswagen Group's recent ad campaign for Audi proclaims, diesel is no longer a "dirty" word. The fuel that we usually associate with Sulfur and Nitrogen smoke have gotten much better. New technology has completely transformed the diesel tech in the last few years, creating cars that are fast, clean, reliable, and fuel-sipping. For example, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI gets almost 50 MPG, has all the comforts of a regular Jetta, is quiet and composed, and is just as fast accelerating. There seems to be almost no downside to a diesel besides its reputation from the past, which is why they have transformed Europe and started in the US.

  So what is "Clean Diesel"? This fuel is actually achieved by producing Ultra-Low-Sulfur Diesel, or ULSD, which cuts the amount of sulfur in the diesel by 98 to 99% compared to the Diesels that all of these used-to-be facts are related to. This also benefits performance, as sulfur clogs the emissions and engine systems, limiting performance and frugality. This means that, with today's ULSD technology, diesel is actually more frugal than hybrid tech, with better performance. So you can have a car with Prius-like MPG and GTI-like responses.

Yesterday, I saw tons and tons of two-door Audis, which are relatively rare for Northeast Wisconsin. They were basically swarming as I searched through the Fox Cities for a suitable project, speeding down the highway and providing photo opportunities at every turn. I managed to get only a few good photos, but they were enough. Particularly popular yesterday were Audi TT Coupes, with one pulling onto the highway behind us at the same time that two of them passed on the other side of that interstate. Was there a car show, an unknown day for Audi owners to celebrate, or is it just the intuition of an Audi owner to come out on the same day as everyone else does.