Because UTE's look like riced out El Camino's or Ranchero's.

Why didn't the US get on the Diesel bandwagon like so many European countries? It's better for the environment, takes less to refine and you get better mileage/torque, WTF America?

 

we got VW bugs?

 

I remember reading it was something to do with emissions.

Believe it or not, IIRC, we have tougher emission standards for vehicles to meet than the Europeans do.

 

I was under the impression that diesels had much less harmful exhaust than gassers.

I just took a trip to googleville and the handful of sites I clicked on (including the EPA site) all say that Diesel produces more CO2 and NOx, so I was under the wrong impression all this time. But diesels so awesome!

 

It depends really. If you're talking about just raw exhaust, then no. A diesel will pollute much much worse than a gas motor will with out any kind of filtration. Now a days with all the new fuel systems including Urea spray, engineers have gotten diesel exhaust down to a fairly safe level.


Another thing, the reason that Australian cars pack so much more power is due to the fact that they have no emissions laws out there. This is what has allowed most car manufacturers to sell cars making 600-800 horsepower from the factory. It's really nice and if you think about it, you can see why they can do it.

Australia is only about 1% paved to the point that you can drive at highway speeds, and when you think about the fact that the continent is roughly the same size as the U.S, it makes sense that there is a lot less drivers on the road than there is here in the states.

I would have never known this had I not been talking to Steve at RDP who used to live over there and produce some crazy street cars.

 

I've heard about some of those Aussie cars from a site run by a guy in Perth. Would you think you would ever want a mid 90's Chevy Lumina? If it was from Australia you would (I believe the one I'm thinking of was close to 400hp from the factory).

 

It is truly amazing as to what little you have to do to make a car "Street Legal". Basically, it has to have four wheels, a motor, and something for the driver to control the thing with.

No emissions.
No cubic inch restraint on the motors...

Ford has a fun time over there I know. 500HP Fiestas? LOL

 

That just makes me feel bad about my 170ish hp.

 

Well, when you don't have the American government breathing down your neck constantly, it's amazing what you can do.

Take this challenger that we're having built up for example. I'm pretty sure that after the exhaust has no cats, we'll be "street illegal" but we will also be making 900+ HP and getting 24MPGs or better. Figure that one out.

 

Are you going to put a supercharger on it in the process of building it up?
I remember watching one of those shows on either Spike or Speed (the one with Stacey David) and they took a 2009 Challenger and put a supercharger on it and it made for a dramatic increase in horsepower.

So how did you come across the opportunity to drive that new Ram with the Challenger in tow to that shop anyway?