About diesel engines and loud starting noises
12/13/2024
Not quite forty years ago, auto-motor-und-sport editor-in-chief Gert Hack rubbed his nose in the diesel engine. In an editorial entitled "It stinks", he criticized the questionable environmental friendliness of the steadily increasing number of diesel engines in passenger cars. Back then, in 1985, traffic forecasters expected a total market share of 20 % diesel cars by the end of the millennium, which meant a future registration share of 30 percent or more. This was probably a clear underestimation of the diesel boom.
Hack said that even a sports car with a diesel engine was no longer pure science fiction, but could hardly have imagined that an Audi powered by a diesel engine would one day win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Hack attributed significantly more advantages to the petrol engine than the diesel engine, because it was simpler, lighter and cheaper, and the better solution in terms of actual environmental impact.
The advance of the diesel engine cannot be explained by technical arguments alone. In fact, the diesel engine exploits loopholes in legislation that are tailored to gasoline engines. For example, there is no mention of soot and odor nuisance in the laws. Well, this of course changed (in part) over time, unlike the taxation of diesel fuel, which in many countries led to a major cost advantage for diesel engines.
However, Gert Hack made another interesting comment, directed at the manufacturers who, in his opinion, were not doing enough to make diesel more environmentally friendly: "This refers to the often unbearably loud starting noise, which is not limited by any legislation. Entire neighborhoods have already broken up because not everyone wants to be woken up at the same time."
Modern diesels certainly start up much more quietly today than they did back then. However, the bad habit of loud starting noises has persisted. High-performance vehicles with gasoline engines (!) currently have a tendency to be started with open exhaust flaps and increased engine speed. What is certainly a desirable noise development for posers could well annoy one or two neighbors in a quiet village (again).
