Martinmaxx
Diabolica,
You are right about the fact that the PD1.9 150hp Diesel is in a high state of tune, vs the low pressure 1.8 Petrol. But BMW has already released an even more powerfull Diesel engine, from an hp/liter point of view. The 535d has 272hp and 560Nm of torque with only 3 litrers of displacement. That is almost 91hp per liter in a diesel engine. That means that Diesels have not reached their peak yet.
Yes. I'm sure they haven't.
But that almost makes my point.
I'm exaggerating a bit here just to prove my point, but you can virtually get the power you want from a turbocharged engine.
They do that a long time ago with petrol engines and they're starting to do it with diesel engines now (for road and race performance). But the costs - and in most cases the weight - of the engines is so high, I don't see the point.
And look, 270 hp can easily be extracted from a 2.0 petrol engine and there are a few normally aspirated petrol cars with those 91hp per litre.
Martinmaxx
I don´t know how you have tested these vehicles, or under which conditions, but I have driven both the GTI 180 hp petrol and 150hp Diesel, and the latter was much quicker in real world driving thanks to it´s torque. Maybe you have tested them at a race track, and found the petrol quicker. Please comment.
My "tests" were made in normal roads using various types of GTi's and TDi's. There's little of cientific about them I tell you, but the majority of them came out that way.
And personally, I find a petrol engine much more exploitable (and fun) in real world driving thanks to it's wider rpm range.
The narrow power band of a diesel engine in which it delivers all it's power isn't an advantage.
But maybe in the end this is all down to personal taste.
. Maybe some of you have more info ?)
