I never said L300, I said L200. The L300 can be used as an ambulance, but the last time I checked, the L200 was, and always was a truck. Mine’s a 4 door, or what americans would call a quad cab.

Check out http://www.mitsubishi-cars.co.uk/newl200/

Comment by 55amg, posted on June5 at 9:55 am ”

And you know this, how?

You don’t know diesels, and you don’t understand the concept of torque. It’s OK, you’ll get schooled soone enough.

Damn… they use those things for ambulances. What do you do for a living?

Dont know about Ferrari? But interested in sportscars AND wealthy enough to get a AMG or similar?

I pity such people… rich, but totally clueless…
(then again… they make the best customers…)

I feel like there has been some misunderstanding here. The AMG cars are not really germane to the conversation, because they provide torque AND hp, not just alot of torque BUT the lowest hp in class. If the R8 were to use the engine configuration discussed in the article, it would have roughly 325hp and 500lbs. The torque is great, but it needs more hp if it wants to position itself against the “affordable” supercars.

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HP isn’t what sells exotic cars. If that were the case, no one would buy Ferraris and the AMG’d out SL65s would be everywhere.
—-

Diesel technology has really come a long way, and those of you dismissing the diesel as too slow will be surprised when you see the performance numbers.

I’m sure there is plenty of tuning capability for even more power, provided the block, crank, and heads are strong enough. Diesels respond very well to increased boost and fuel. You never have to worry about detonation, because, well, it’s already detonating! All you need to watch for are the EGT’s.

I would love to smoke a 911 Turbo (literally smoke) with one of these R8 diesels.

I would definitely buy one of these.

anyway, whod suited better to put a diesel engine in a sportscar than the guys who put sportyness in diesels-cars? Dont know if the new era of diesel engines reached the US yet, but about 10 years ago diesels, especially Audis TDI engines, started to be some hard competition on the autobahn…

On the flip side, I owned a Honda Integra Type R with the K20 engine, and that dyno’d at 276whp @ 8000 rpm and 170 lb ft @ 7600 rpm… not a lot you might say, but remember that a DC5 Type R only weighs 1180 kg.. That car was a blast, with ample power in any gear and a 9000 rpm redline. And trust me, anyone who says small displacement and high rpms is for “ricers”, consider the displacement and max rpm of a Formula 1 machine.

My point is, I don’t think a diesel makes for a really sporty engine, but it can have great performance. The power and torque would definitely be there. Torque is great, but loads of torque make a lot of shifting unnecessary. Not a lot of fun if you really want an involved driving experience on a twisty road, but plenty fast. All this is just my opinion, by the way.

Personally, I prefer high hp and rpms over torque. If that makes me a “ricer”, so be it. I’ve outgrown my Type R, and now run a Lancer Evolution IX that throws down 420 whp and 407 lb ft of torque. I’m having way too much fun driving my car to care what anyone thinks.

And, because someone mentioned the GTi vs. SI torque/hp debate:

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/coupe/112_0606_midsize_coupe_comparision/performance_chart.html

2 different philosophies and neither one is wrong. Make sure you check out the stats on page 5 so you can what little real world advantage all that torque gets you as far as raw accelration and crusing RPMS.