Ian Dawson's brave Taurus Sports operation teamed up last year with Caterpillar to contend Le Mans with a diesel fuelled Lola B2K/10. The clutch proved to be the car's Achilles heel at the race but the engine ran trouble free during both practice and for the three hours that the car lasted. It eventually managed to run 16 laps without a pit stop; Dawson believes that it could have gone 17, compared to the 11 of the front running Audi R8s. The Lola was out again at Silverstone and is expected to contend this season's LMES series with new backers as well as return to Le Mans. The car's VW Touareg-based engine was also on display at the SAE motorsport conference.

The organisers of the 24-hour race, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest have been particularly supportive of teams wishing to enter energy efficient cars in their event. This reflects the ACO's attitude in 1959 and the early 1960s when it ran a Thermal Efficiency Index as part of the race, an award won more than once by Lotus Elites and Elevens.

It has been conjectured that the major manufacturers will eventually run diesels at Le Mans. The rumour persists that Audi will do so, but its head of motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich merely smiles when you ask for confirmation. Lately it has been suggested that Peugeot may return with a diesel-fuelled LMP1.

A third fuel, Liquid Petroleum Gas was used for the first time in the British Touring Car Championship last season. Prior to this, Vauxhall had run a LPG car in the 1998 Vectra Challenge. The new BTCC team backed by driver John George's JAG retail mobile phone business, which already operated an LPG fleet, initially entered a Honda Civic Type R before announcing it was changing to a lighter Peugeot 406 Coupe. It was reckoned that the fuel cost for each race meeting was a mere £6.10. Problems within the team, rather than the installation, meant that the project seemed to have faltered by the end of the season. However, it is now apparent that George will be back this year with an LPG car run by Vic Lee's Team VLR and with Nicholson-McLaren working on the engine. There is a logic in the latter's involvement as it is also the UK importer of the AG sequential gas injection system from Holland.

An example of how the MBD EEMS initiative has given assistance was its funding of the design of a lightweight fuel tank for the LPG car by Banbury-based CTG. Financial help has to be towards specific projects rather than merely speculative ones.

It has been said that there are manufactures also working on the possibility of entering a diesel-engined car in the BTCC. As series organiser Alan Gow points out, the first to do so will receive great publicity in a similar fashion to Volvo when it first entered with an estate car. If a diesel does win races then there will be those who will say it was down to equivalency regulations but, to the vast majority of onlookers, that will not be something they take into consideration.

The trio of Nasamax, Taurus and JAG would indicate that it is small British operations, typical of the UK motorsports culture, that are the ones to initially take up the EEMS challenge.  Zytek is another that should be acknowledged for the work that it did on the hybrid Panoz Q9 that ran at Road Atlanta back in 1998, finishing second in class. Unfortunately, this project was sidelined in favour of other Panoz schemes.

As mentioned above, it is expected that the MDB will support as many as five initiatives during 2005. One of those under consideration is the newly announced Tridents to be entered in the British GT championship and possibly an LPG fuelled rally car. The two Tridents' 6.5-litre turbocharged GM diesel engines are to be fuelled using virgin bio-diesel grown from linseed and rape oil.

Prev 1 | 2 | 3 Next

Back to Documents