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American Emissions Regs

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Eeyore:
Absolutely right there is - and cats is a topic I can have a real rant over! (thank you Johnson Mathey!!  :evil: ).

Anyhoo. Emissions regs generally call for low nitrous outputs and stuff like that. The problem with yank motors generally is that the fuel consumption is horrific. Road car or truck, they're generally pretty poor. And thats the problem. CO2 is a function of the amount of fuel burnt and the thermal efficiency of the engine. Burn more fuel, get more CO2 - and there's the problem. Three-way cats increase fuel consumption too, which simply makes the problem worse.

Cheers
 8)
Eeyore

V8MoneyPit:

--- Quote from: "Eeyore" ---Burn more fuel, get more CO2 - and there's the problem. Three-way cats increase fuel consumption too, which simply makes the problem worse.
--- End quote ---


Ahh! I'm not alone! I've been reckoning this since they were beginning to get introduced in the late 80's and early 90's in the UK. We had people at Lotus who were proving that engines fitted with cats produced more of certain emmisions that those without. Early cats could increase fuel consumption by something like 10% IIRC. No doubt they are better now, but they are still a serious restriction in the exhaust system.

The Ford lean burn programme at the end of the 80's had far more going for it than catalytic converters, but they were basically 'out voted'. Bit like Betamax and VHS!!!

Range Rover Blues:
Ford and Rover together.

It was no coincidence that the regulation allowing cars with engines below 2.0 litres to run on lean-burn strategies was canned whilt the Germans were in power.

Where is it they make BMW and Mercedes again......

The USA?

no

China?

Not in the 90's


Germany?

Bingo.  not a conflict of interests at all then :?

Eeyore:
Not overly the case. To get the best outta 3-way cats you need to run 'em on lean and rich cycles alternatively (both cycles harvest and release different compounds from the cat). The US demanded cats therefore Europe and Japan had to follow with mass-market cars simply 'cos the US was a big, big market. Clenliness of exhaust outputs became an marketing issue, too. Other countries picked up on the hysteria and bingo! Cats became mandatory or standard and lean-burn was eliminated because it would kill cats.

Personally, I would have rather had a Mondeo doing 70 to the gallon.

Nah, I blame the States, Europe was guilty of only following suit.  :wink:

Cheers
 8)
Eeyore

Range Rover Blues:
That's my point though, how many (read how few) cars with less than 2.0l engines get exported to the USA?
In comparison how many big engined luxury cars get exported, loads and loads.  So it was in the German interest to follow the US federal emission test, even though it's completely irrelivant in the colder Europian climate!

It was an oportunity for BMW and Merc to stab the competition in the back.

Once again business driving politics.  Nice :evil:

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