Why Ford Econetics break the rules May 31, 2009
Posted by richard in : Green cars , 3commentsTO be eco, you need a small, tiny engine. Yeah, right.
That’s Politician’s logic at work. Look for blacks and whites in things they don’t understand. Big is bad, small is good, always and forever more. Smile, smooch baby, job done.
If only they spoke to engineers, such as the engine chief at Ford’s Dagenham plant. He’d tell them, like he told me, that Ford eschewed the smaller, ‘more eco’ 1.4-litre TDCi for its Econetic models.
Fitted the 1.6-litre TDCi instead. Which, as it’s bigger, is clearly ‘not as eco’.
Wrong.
Yes, he said, in ideal conditions, the 1.4-litre might use a smidgen less fuel. But, real world, the characteristics of the 1.6-litre make it far more suited to the Eco treatment. Traits such as:
• Very low rev torque ramp-up: the turbo wakes up at 1200rpm, meaning much lower revs (and, conversely, taller gearing) can be carried
• Torque curve shape: the step between non-turbo lethargy and meaningful torque delivery is much better profiled to eco driving – it’s not ‘switch-like’
• Part-throttle characteristics: allow ECU software to be massaged so fuel delivery can be turned right down
• On-throttle immediacy: small throttle inputs elicit immediate, meaningful response, making it feel ‘bigger capacity’.
The demands and characteristics on the 1.4-litre mean it would be swamped. It would have to be worked too hard in practice, negating any eco benefits a lab bench revealed.
Light loads work best for eco driving. Hence, the development of the ‘bigger’ engine here.
Luckily, there are no tax disincentives to stop him following what he knows, rather than what politicians tell him should be true. Imagine if, say, the engine size-based company car tax rules of a decade ago were still in place…
If Ford played chess, don’t take it on
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If Ford played chess, don’t take it on May 23, 2009
Posted by richard in : Uncategorized , 2commentsHEAVENS, I’m admitting something here. That I used to be in Chess Club at College.
OK, not for long. And I did used to put Breeders tapes (yes, tapes) on in the background. But, partake I did. Which is why I know Ford is like a member of said Club.
The feared member. The Club player I never dared play. The champ, the whizz, the one who nobody could beat – his moves were like a perfectly-placed onslaught of brilliance from the off. The git.
Bit like Ford right now (well, apart from the git bit).
Market share is booming. The right cars are flying out of the showrooms just at the right time. The dealers find they’re still able to make all the right noises for customers.
Checkmate, rivals.
It’s almost momentous, Ford happening to launch the brand-new, brilliant, bedazzling Fiesta and pretty decent Ka, just as the country enters a major recession and switches wholesale (well, 35 percent or so, according to the SMMT) to superminis.
Think of the Blue Oval right now just as we thought of the St Georges Cross flag seller, in the 2002 World Cup. Yes, him, on the beach in the Costa del Sol right now.
Is this by chance or design? Did Ford foresee changing market conditions? Did it intentionally make the Fiesta so damn great because it KNEW the market was switching this way?
Whatever, it’s working. Historically so. Mainstream is back in vogue, and the blue collar’s fave is reaping the benefits.
Damn, it’s good. You won’t catch me taking it on. Now, where’s me Breeders tape…
The most depressing engines in esistance: Ford 1.8D
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The most depressing engines in existence: Ford 1.8D May 17, 2009
Posted by richard in : Minutiae of cars , 4commentsA Fiesta van made me think of this. Droning its way along, like a git.
Causing plain aural offence.
No wonder diesel was a dirty word within Ford for years. When it was making clunkers like this, I pity for the poor durability engineers who had to put 150k miles on the things.
It’s just so droningly raucous, the 1.8D. In anything it’s in, from Fiesta van, to Escort LX hatch, to Orion Ghia saloon. Clattery, like kettles packed into a cement mixer – yet, totally ineffective with it.
Sans turbo, this thing is dog slow. Not particularly torquey. Simply, old school diesel.
No hill will defeat it, say old school diesel stalwarts. As if the ability not to grind to a halt up a hill is something to boast about. My mum’s old 950cc Fiesta could do that, without the need to proudly compare itself to a Sherpa.
I drove one in a Fiesta, which revealed to me something else about this idiot of an engine. Not only is it clattery and slow, it also resonates, horrendously. Drones, moans. Buzzes. Is, basically, an irritating fool.
Not even those in the sanctity of other cars can escape it. No Euro V here – you’ll often spot them by the smoke they emit. Plumes. Lovely.
Ford put a whole lot of ghosts to bed when it common-rail’d this unit back in 2001. Transformed it, natch.
Shame the brands popularity mean there are still far too many of these on the road, depressing me.
The Alpina that’s faster/greener/rarer than a 325d
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The Alpina that’s greener/faster/rarer than a 325d… March 16, 2009
Posted by richard in : What I learned today , 2comments
BMW usually covers all bases, but a hole in its range was highlighted today. OK, it’s a small hole, but nevertheless…
What’s the 3 Series diesel buyer to do, who finds a 320d too slow, but a 325d too, well, you know, ‘not quite a 330d’?
Well, you’d think, the 1 Series comes in twin-turbo four-cylinder 123d guise. With 214bhp, it’s got bags of go. It’s obvious, then. Chuck this into the 3 Series, revive a classic nametag from the past, and bingo. Yet another niche filled.
Not so fast. Earlier today, BMW told me there are no plans for a 323d. Pity. The engine is a gem, and the lighter 2.0-litre engine would help create a wonderfully balanced high-performance diesel.
Help, however, is at hand! See, Alpina GB clearly shares my thinking. And has just started importing the Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo. Yes, it’s a 3 Series saloon, with a 123d engine transplant, and the usual hardcore Alpina makeover.
It looks great. But if, like BMW, you think ‘hey – why not just buy the peachier six-pot 325d’, here’s some stats:
Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo/BMW 325d M Sport
Price: £29,950/£30,825
Power: 214bhp/197bhp
0-62mph: 6.9secs/7.4secs
MPG: 52.3mpg/49.6mpg
CO2: 143g/km/153g/km
Compelling, aye? Furthermore, with the Alpina, you get a stackload of ‘in the know’ kudos to boot. Those stripes, those badges, those wheels, that ALPINA sticker on the front splitter…
But is it any good? Are pace and economy fair substitute for the loss of six-cylinder smoothness?
A test drive request has duly been sent. Watch this space.
MultiAir does MultiJet for petrol March 8, 2009
Posted by richard in : What I learned today , add a commentDiesel has devoured the bulk of car maker development budgets in recent years.
It’s been a quick and dirty way for them to reduce parc CO2 emissions. Petrol’s been left lagging. Fiat’s helping it catch up, and giving us a new acronym in the process. MultiJet for diesel, meet MultiAir for petrol.
As the company that invented common rail injection, now de rigueur for diesel, MultiAir is thus maybe quite significant (not least because it’s not as dirty as diesel). But what on earth is it?
A way to make petrol engines 25 per cent more fuel efficient, that’s what. God knows, they need it. Geneva was the first signs that development budgets are switching to petrol. How they’ve some catching up to do. The weediest 1.2 Grande Punto can’t even average 48mpg. The zappy 90bhp 1.3 turbodiesel? Nearly 63mpg. Plus 20g/km less CO2. That’s a big difference (circa 25 per cent in fact), even if the problem is that you do pay for it.
Now then. How it works. Fiat told me that if you want to enhance diesel performance and emissions, you need to control how much fuel you inject into the cylinders. It’s down to how accurately you can do this, too.
For petrol, though, the trick is to play with not the fuel, but the air being injected.
Normal engines have a ‘dumb’ intake valve. This can only open or close. How much air goes into the cylinders depends on the throttle valve, further up the air supply chain. This is (says Fiat) wasteful. What you should be doing is controlling the intake values themselves, electronically. At source, rather than further up the chain, so to speak. How to do it cheaply, though? That’s what’s been keeping car companies busy, apparently, since the 1980s.
Fiat’s solved this. MultiAir is easy, cheap, variable valve actuation, giving full independent control over what the intake valve does. Hurrah. Diesel eco without the diesel cost, plus cheaper fuel to boot. This is big stuff. But this realisation didn’t come before I’d interpreted a tech-heavy press release…
Eventually, I found out MultiAir uses a piston connected to the intake valve. It’s moved by a cam, but the clever part comes because it’s connected via a hydraulic chamber. A solenoid valve controls this. This can have two states – open or closed. Now, then:
• Solenoid closed? Oil behaves a like a solid body. Intake valves do what the mechanical cam says.
• Solenoid open? Bingo: intake valves decoupled from intake camshaft! They close instead under valve spring action. (This is why Fiat also fitted a hydraulic ‘brake’, for soft and controlled valve closing…)
So, what tricks does it offer? Well, the solenoid is always closed for maximum power. But for low-rev torque, independent operation comes in. It opens near the end of the cam profile, meaning the values close early – trapping as much air in the cylinders as possible.
However, for part load, it opens much earlier, which does all sorts of clever things to airflow. This boosting torque. Or, it can be opened later, boosting ‘higher-in-cylinder’ turbulence. These two modes, called ‘MultiLift’, can be deployed in the same stroke, which is the really, really clever part. And which is why it’s taken so long for the ECU engineers to map…
It’s not just for petrol, either. Potentially, it reduces diesel NOx emissions by 60 per cent, and taking 40 per cent of unburned hydrocarbons out of cold start emissions. Indeed, Fiat says that this is just the start. MultiAir could even see petrol and diesel engines unified, rather like Mercedes and VW are proposing with DiesOtto.
The first MultiAir will be a 1.4 Alfa Romeo later this year. Fiat will also fit it to its new two cylinder engine, coming to the 500 in 2010.
No need to hedge bets on the fuel of the near-future, then. Seems it’ll be a bit of both…
