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Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Aston Martin Valkyrie Claims World’s Most Powerful Engine Title
While turbocharging has boosted power and torque outputs to new levels, naturally aspirated engines can still be found at the core of some of the very best supercars on the roads today. Their instantaneous power delivery and ability to deliver a knock-out blow at very high revs makes them the purists choice.
If all goes to plan, the Aston Martin Valkyrie will arrive later this year and when it does it will have the most powerful naturally aspirated engine ever fitted to a road car. Cosworth announced on Tuesday that its 6.5-liter V12 will make a massive 1,130hp, around 10% more than the 1,000hp that was hinted at during development. The amount of power assistance provided by the hybrid battery system has not been revealed just yet though.
Cars like the Lamborghini Huracan Performante, Porsche 911 GT3 and Ferrari GTC4 Lusso all have high-revving atmospheric engines that deliver massive performance without the aid of forced induction. In recent years, the title of most powerful production atmospheric engine has been ping-ponging between Ferrari and Lamborghini with the 789-hp 6.5-liter V12 in the 812 Superfast currently claiming the crown.
A fairer comparison though would be with hypercars like the 950-hp LaFerrari and 887-hp Porsche 918 Spyder, which both make use of hybrid assistance to boost their outputs but even these cars will be put into the shade when the Valkyrie arrives.
This Aston’s output also eclipses all but the most powerful turbocharged super and hypercars. Aside from very limited production vehicles such as the hybrid Koenigsegg Regera, the 1,479-hp Chiron and its predecessor, the 1,184hp Veyron Super Sports, are the only rivals that produce more power.
And they need four turbos and an 8.0-liter 16-cylinder engine to do it. Perhaps the days of the naturally aspirated engine are not as numbered as everyone thought, especially when combined with some even more newfangled hybrid assistance. Of the 175 examples slated for production (which includes the track-focused AMR variants) exactly 0 are still available to buy, so this tech makes it into a few more modern hypercars.
Wednesday, 17 April 2019
Volkswagen CEO Claims Dieselgate Is Nearly Over And Done With Forever
It’s been three years since Volkswagen admitted it cheated on diesel emissions. Just look at how much has changed since. Diesel, once a popular option, especially in Europe, carries a negative stigma and it’s unlikely to ever recover. VW paid dearly for its actions, both financially and legally. Audi’s now-former CEO was in the slammer for months until his recent release. Instead of diesel, VW has turned its full attention to electric-powertrains (though diesels will continue for light and commercial trucks). So much has changed and hopefully for the better.
That’s exactly how VW CEO Herbert Diess feels. According to Automotive News Europe, Diess believes “most” of the diesel scandal is in the past where he hopes it’ll stay.
“We basically bought back and fixed close to 90 percent of the cars” globally, Diess said recently. “I think most of the things we have overcome” he said. “We still have legal issues worldwide, in Germany - you're aware of that - and it will take years to solve everything. We just settled with Audi, with the state attorneys in Germany. There are still legal issues, but technically, we overcame most of the issues.” Diess also added the legal problems VW faced in the US were the most severe globally.
“Legally, we had here really a situation which was much more severe (compared) to the rest of the world, because our cars, when we launched the cars, would not comply with legislation.”
In Europe, by contrast, “the fix was relatively easy; it was a software update for about 10 million cars, which is also through. We have fixed 90 percent of the cars, but it was not a real severe technical issue. The situation here in America was, by far, the most critical one worldwide. And it has to do with the emission regulation here in the United States, which is much tougher than in the rest of the world.”
Above all, Diess sure sounds like he’s doing his best to make things right with global governments and the buying public. Will we still be talking about Dieselgate in, say, another three years from now? Impossible to predict, but by that time VW will have launched more than one of its all-electric I.D. models.