Quote:
|
Originally Posted by blackx
How so  |
Because the main advantage of a diesel is the cruising fuel economy, which is because there is no pressure drop across a throttle in a diesel (no throttle), which means less work on the piston, which means improved efficiency. Not explained well, but that's the gist of it.
Quote:
|
already there you've gone far beyond the vast majority's understanding of how to drive a car. a lot of people who call themselves competant rag diesels senseless petrol stylee when that's simply not the best way to drive them. it takes a slight understanding of how the engine and turbo function to get the best acceleration - for example i find that unlike petrol, it's best NOT to floor the accelerator in a diesel with a turbo.
|
The thing is you can feel the change - you know instinctively when the car is running out of puff because the seat of your pants (and the rate of increase of the speedo/rev counter) tells you. Trying the next gear to see if it's any better is a good thing to do, and after, say, 3 minutes you'll have a pretty good understanding of when to change gear.
But maybe I feel that because I know to look for it??
As for not using full throttle in a turbodiesel, how would that help? Are we talking from an economy point of view or a 0-62 point of view? If you are going for speed or acceleration surely more fuel (and it'll be metered automatically so you can't just dump too much in) equals more power = more heat = more boost = more power etc? Lower throttle (which is a misnomer in a diesel, but the pedal is still called the same thing!
) would make you slower but perhaps save fuel - although it is generally better to accelerate as fast as possible to your cruising speed (like a boy racer) rather than take a year to reach it (like a granny) from an economy point of view, assuming you don't have to suddenly slow down again for a roundabout or traffic light...
So (and I don't have a VAST amount of diesel experience, even though I drive a couple fairly regularly) I would have said that more throttle = a good thing. And it masks the diesel clatter quite well too
