Look at Van's Blather here.

Bret Ludwig wrote:

Automobile engines
function well in their intended application: delivering low cruising
power in vehicles with well designed transmissions and power trains.
Using them successfully in an airplane requires continuous high power
outputs and reduction systems coupled to the propeller. This is
completely foreign to their design intent.

Join me for a drive in the off-peak hours on the Autobahn and then tell me
again that auto engines can't stand continuous high power output.

In German, there's even a word for that: "vollgasfest",
roughly "full-throttle safe", indicating that an engine is fit for
continuous operation at full throttle. Engines that aren't full-throttle
safe don't sell in Germany and are cause of ridicule, as FIAT had to learn
the hard way.

Anno.

On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:59:47 +0200, "Anno v. Heimburg"
wrote:

Bret Ludwig wrote:

Automobile engines
function well in their intended application: delivering low cruising
power in vehicles with well designed transmissions and power trains.
Using them successfully in an airplane requires continuous high power
outputs and reduction systems coupled to the propeller. This is
completely foreign to their design intent.

Join me for a drive in the off-peak hours on the Autobahn and then tell me
again that auto engines can't stand continuous high power output.

In German, there's even a word for that: "vollgasfest",
roughly "full-throttle safe", indicating that an engine is fit for
continuous operation at full throttle. Engines that aren't full-throttle
safe don't sell in Germany and are cause of ridicule, as FIAT had to learn
the hard way.

Anno.

Anno for the benefit of guys like me who havent been to Germany or for
that matter the Northern Territory(no speed limit at all)
which are the vollgasfest engines?

serious question.
Stealth Pilot

Stealth Pilot wrote:
Anno for the benefit of guys like me who havent been to Germany or for
that matter the Northern Territory(no speed limit at all)
which are the vollgasfest engines?

The problems were back in the 70s and earlier. Since the 80s, most cars
sold* in Germany are vollgasfest. The Audi/VW, BMW and Mercedes probably
get the worst abuse because they are frequently used as company cars (and
lots of companys give company cars to their employees for tax reasons) and
rentals. Diesels are supposed to be particularly tough. I'ld be a bit
careful with the highly charged gasoline ones such as the big Volvo 5-cyl,
but that may be me being irrational.

Anno.

*) Note: Sold, not produced. Includes non-German carmakes. Trying to
categorize cars by country of origin gets increasingly difficult and
pointless anyway, as evidenced by the Cadillac BLS, which is an
American-branded car based on the German Opel Vectra platform and being
produced in the Saab plant in Trollhättan, Sweden. And we haven't even
glanced at the suppliers.

Anno v. Heimburg wrote:


The problems were back in the 70s and earlier.

Just realised that I could have made that clearer in my original post,
sorry.