New and exciting to the Fun Cup for 2009, is the introduction of the TDI engine. The turbocharged direct injection, more commonly known as the TDI, is a modern turbocharged diesel engine produced by Volkswagen. The actual car is the same as a petrol engine Fun Cup car, with the exception of a VW TDI diesel engine. (Please see "The Cars – Petrol Engine" page).
Fun Cup is proud to be the first motor racing series in the UK and, in fact, Europe to be actively promoting the use of the environmentally friendly TDI engine in its race cars. They are a 1900cc TDI, 160 bhp, VW diesel engine and produce approximately 30 % less pollution and a staggering 40 % less noise.
The engine uses direct injection, where a fuel injector sprays atomised fuel directly into the main combustion chamber of each cylinder. The engine is coupled with a turbocharger to increase the amount of air, which can move into the engine cylinders and an intercooler to lower the temperature. Therefore, this makes the density of the air from the turbo larger, which increases the amount of fuel that can be injected and combusted. These, in combination, allow for greater engine performance, due to the more complete combustion. At the same time, it decreases emissions and provides more torque than its petrol engine counterpart.
Added to this, the reduced material volume of the direct injection diesel engine minimises heat losses, and therefore increases engine effciency, at the expense of increased combustion noise.
Another advantage of the Fun Cup TDI diesel cars is a feature which is commonly known as the diesel particulate filter, sometimes known as a DPF. It is a device which removes diesel particulate matter, i.e. dirt and soot, from the exhaust of the Fun Cup cars, which means that the Fun Cup cars emit no visible smoke from the exhausts.
The Fun Cup TDI diesel engines truly are a step forward in motorspot technology. They are powerful, clean and most of all “green”. The fact that they are “green” means that they have low amounts of sulphur in the diesel fuel and burn the cleaner fuel, which discharges less nitrogen oxide into the air. They will also have a lower emission of carbon dioxide and are less damaging to the environment than a petrol engine.
So, there are many environmental savings with the Fun Cup TDI diesel engine; fuel consumption is less, therefore, fuel costs are reduced, as well as lower emissions. Not to mention, they are 30 bhp more than their petrol counterpart.
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