Full speed ahead on fuel diversity

Sebring '08 Preview: Full speed ahead on fuel diversity!

The American Le Mans Series kicks off its 2008 season next weekend with the 56th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring in central Florida. The ALMS has long had the most diverse field of race cars of any major series in North America and this year it's getting even more so as the series makes a push for greener racing. This is the only series that has cars running on three different fuels; gasoline, ethanol and diesel all play a major part. In the LMP1 class, Audi is kicking off its third year running the diesel-powered R10 TDI. They'll get competition this time from Peugeot, which is bringing one of their 908 HDi prototypes to race in the U.S. for the first time. In the production-derived GT1 ranks, the Corvette C6Rs will tackle an Aston Martin DBR9 with all of them using cellulosic E85 fuel. The same fuel will also power an LMP1 Lola entered by Intersport racing. The rest of the field for now will continue using the E10 ethanol/gasoline blend that was used in 2007. As the season progresses and going into 2009, other teams are likely to make the switch to E85 and possibly even diesel. Although Honda representatives were non-committal at the Detroit Auto Show, it appears that they are looking hard at diesel power especially as they are about to introduce a diesel-powered Acura TSX in the U.S. next year. ALMS officials are also encouraging other alternative powertrains, such as hybrids, and they are open to looking at all options. When the 2008 draws to a close at the Petite Le Mans race at Road Atlanta this fall, ALMS will also introduce their first Green Challenge that will measure a variety of sustainability efforts by teams in addition to their on-track performance and fuel efficiency. ALMS officials are working hard to encourage innovation and diversity in the field that can help advance powertrain and fuel technology. For those of us who enjoy motorsports it's by far the most interesting and exciting series to watch and I for one will be among the happy spectators this year.

Couple travels around Australia and gets 75 mpg in a standard Peugeot 308

When you hear about a "3-liter car," what do you think of? For this story, think not of a car with a 3-liter engine but one that uses 3.13 liters of fuel per 100 km. That's 75 miles per gallon (U.S.) we're talking about a simple Peugeot 308. John and Helen Taylor traveled 14,580 km in Australia (9,100 miles) using a Peugeot 308 with a standard 1.6 HDI 110 HP diesel engine. The Taylor's 308 was a standard model, just like the ones you can buy it from the showroom (at least in Europe and Australia), including Michelin Energy XM1+ tires. They used 453.94 liters of Shell diesel for the trip, which broke a previous record (with a 307) of 3.49 l/100 km (67 mpg U.S.). The CO2 figures (which Peugeot states include the supply chain) were a mere 90.3 g/km.This makes it almost unnecessary to wait for the hybrid! But, please, Peugeot mate this powertrain to a hybrid system and treat the exhaust gases.

PSA pushes back diesel hybrid and moves it upmarket

While it has looked like Peugeot would be the first company to market a mainstream passenger vehicle with a diesel hybrid powertrain, it now looks like it won't come as quickly as previously thought. PSA (parent company of Peugeot and Citroen) has been developing a diesel hybrid system in cooperation with suppliers Bosch, Continental, Valeo and Thyssen-Krupp. The system was originally supposed to debut in the compact Peugeot 308 in 2010. The cost of developing the system was to have been partially subsidized by the French government. With the European Commission putting the screws to that plan, PSA and its partners will move forward without the handout. As a result, the company has decided that in order to recover those development costs, they need to apply the system on a more expensive model first, which of course means the volumes will be lower. The change in plans also means the new powertrain won't appear until at least 2011. At the current rate, Peugeot may still be first to market, unless Mahindra's plans for a diesel hybrid version of their pickup come to fruition in 2010.

Peugeot to run 12 Hours of Sebring with diesel-powered 908 HDi

When the American Le Mans Series held their winter test session at Sebring a couple of weeks ago, Peugeot dropped by with their diesel-powered 908 coupe. For their first visit they did pretty well, beating the more experienced Audi R10s by eight-tenths of a second. In the hands of Stéphane Sarrazin the Peugeot also beat the previous lap record - set by the Audi during qualifying for last year's race - by more than two seconds. Peugeot announced on Friday that they will return to Sebring March 12-15 for this year's running of the 12 Hour race. The ALMS season opener will kick off the tenth season for the series. The addition of the Peugeot will mean three diesel-powered LMP1 cars at Sebring. With their ultimate goal being victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans at this time, it's unknown if Peugeot will run any other races in North America this year. Hopefully they will decide to stick around for a full season of fun, or at least turn up for the Detroit Grand Prix on Labor Day weekend.r

Geneva 2008: 2009 Ford S-Max and Mondeo get new 2.2L diesel

Ford just announced a brand new diesel engine option for its larger passenger vehicles in the European market. Set to debut at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, the 2.2L four cylinder was co-developed with Peugeot and has an output of 175hp and 295lb-ft of torque at just 1,750rpm. The diesel is Euro-IV compliant and uses a particulate filter. The third-generation common rail injection system uses Bosch piezoelectric injectors that can provide up to five fuel pulses per ignition stroke. The new engine will available in the Mondeo, the S-Max medium van and the Galaxy large van. On those vehicles, the emissions are rated at 165, 176 and 179 g/km of CO2, respectively. This will be the first Ford engine equipped with intelligent oil monitoring system that will track driver behavior and ambient conditions and inform the driver when an oil change is needed. Depending on conditions, the engine may be able to go as far as 12,000 miles between oil changes.

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Peugeot 308 runs the length of the M25 motorway on less than £10 of fuel

The M25 is a 117-mile-long motorway that circles the outskirts of London,England. Right now, diesel runs about $8.14/US gallon at Motorway service centers in Blighty. (So if you think we have it bad, well, we don't.) Peugeot decided to do a demonstration of the efficiency of its new 308 S HDi 90 by driving it around the M25. The Ford Focus-sized 308 left with a full tank and accepted 1.99 imperial gallons (2.38 US gallons) when it returned to the starting point. That works out to 49 mpg (US) at an average of just over 50 mph for the trip. The total cost of the trip was just £9.95, which pretty low for a trip in the UK these days. Thanks to a CO2 emissions rating of only 120g/km this model of the 308 gets into one of the lowest tax bands with a annual fee of only £35. Come October, when the revised congestion charges go into effect in London, that CO2 rating will allow 308 owners to get into Central London free of charge.

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Peugeot to announce 2008 race plans Feb. 15, possible ALMS run

rWhen the American Le Mans Series held their annual winter open test session at Sebring last week a newcomer showed up for the party. Peugeot brought over one of the 908 HDi diesel race cars that dominated the Le Mans racing series in Europe in 2007. Peugeot is apparently testing the waters to determine if they want to take on the Audi R10s on US tracks. While nothing is official yet, things are looking promising. Peugeot managed to set the fastest overall lap time of the three-day test session at 1m 42.801s, over eight-tenths of a second faster than the Audi. Peugeot will be making an announcement on February 15 about what their 2008 racing plans will be and whether that will include the full ALMS series.