VisorCentral.com - Which Car Brand is Best???

Pages (2): « 1 [2]
Show 20 posts from this thread on one page

VisorCentral.com (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/index.php)
- Off Topic (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=6)
-- Which Car Brand is Best??? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=21395)

Posted by mdatl on 02-20-2002 12:20 AM:

Fuel ought to be heaps better. It's heaps more expensive.

Posted by LarryN on 02-20-2002 02:31 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by ToolkiT
Larry, the smaller engines in the european models do not mean lower power...
The fuel in europe is heaps better than in the US and the engines are better tuned...

I agree the BMW's in europe are lower end models than the ones in the US...

I think you must mean the diesel fuel. I believe the unleaded (bleifrei) petrol is very close to the same. Unfortunately, BMW doesn't even offer the diesel model over here, because there's no interest (although if the US sold the same diesel blend that Europe enjoys, people might adopt it here). The smaller displacement diesel engines have lot's 'o torque, and feel quite brisk. The regular petrol smaller displacement models (316i, 520i...) are pretty lack luster on performance. My cousin in Germany has a 520i, and I had a 316i rental. They were both pretty doggy.

Also, as of model year 2000, the Euro spec M engines and the US spec M engines are tuned exactly the same. There is a 2-5 hp decrease in US models due to emission controls. Other than that, they have the same output. The non-M cas have been the same engines/tuning for the last 10 years, differing only in emissions.

Posted by ToolkiT on 02-20-2002 02:45 AM:

Fuel in europe is Euro95 or super (RON98) while in the us it is 87?
The problem is europe uses RON while US measures in a different scale..

Here in australia we've got unleaded (92) and PULP (Premium UnLeaded Petrol) @95.
I believe the US has simular petrol as Australia...

Also the California emissions rules make the power output go down quite a bit too..

If the petrol is the same why do the cars in the US have big engines and still feel slow?

__________________
<IMG WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="50" SRC=http://www.visorcentral.com/images/visorcentral.gif> VisorCentral Discussion Moderator
Do files get embarrassed when they get unzipped?

Posted by LarryN on 02-20-2002 03:07 PM:

Hi ToolkiT!

On this side of the pond we use a different Octane scale. Octane is simply a ping rating. In Europe, as you mentioned, they use the RON scale. In NA, we use an average of the 2 main octane ratings: MON (Motor octane) and RON. RON is always the higher rating.

Our fuel pumps here have the ratings on them, stating the formula used: R + M / 2. So, in Europe you see fuel pumps stating that it's 96 Octane, but it's equivalent to 92 Octane in the States.

That's why BMW's require 92 (North American) Octane or better, since 96 RON Octane is the norm in Europe.

I can't really answer you bigger engines/feeling slower question. When my cousin comes over here from GErmany, he thinks the same thing, but also believe's it's because he's used to daily driving at better than100 mph on the Autobahnen, compared to the 60 here in the States. (Must be a conspiracy)

All times are GMT. The time now is 04:48 AM.

Pages (2): « 1 [2]
Show 20 posts from this thread on one page