Why Don't Sports Cars Use Diesel Engines?

Modern diesel engines are the right blend between performance and efficiency, but you might have wondered why diesels have not been used in sports cars over the years. A sports car can benefit from the low end grunt that a diesel offers and be efficient as well, but these oil burner engines have never really been considered the right kind for cars that are more fun.

Simply put, a sports car needs to be exciting to drive, have power, be lightweight, and also sound good, and a diesel engine compromises on all of those aspects. Economy is not something that sports car owners look for, so it is not widely used, but this does not mean that there have not been attempts to build a diesel-powered sports car.

Diesels have been quite popular in fast sedans over the years. While the USA might not get a lot of diesel cars aside from trucks and SUVs, the rest of the world still enjoys powerful diesel engines. To understand why they are not used in sports cars, we will have to understand the characteristics of a diesel engine.

For a long period of time, diesel engines were used only in trucks and buses. Their job was to carry lots of weight, and they were good for it, because they had good low end grunt and were also more economical than engines that run on gasoline. As time progressed, diesels just kept getting better. One of the biggest boosts that helped diesel engines was a turbocharger — with a turbocharged diesel engine, their speed really amped up.

Diesel engines do still have a lot of compromises though. While diesels produce a lot of torque, they still lack power. In general, diesel engines are quite heavy as well. This is mainly due to their construction. They require higher compression ratios to run and therefore require stronger components, and their extra weight doesn't mesh well with sports cars.

Diesel engines also don't rev that high, which makes their power band quite small. Diesels usually don't make great noise either, which is something that most sports car owners like. While diesel engines can perform well, their fundamental characteristics don't fit into what most sports car fans are looking for.

Sports cars don't come with diesel engines, but this doesn't mean that there were no performance diesel cars. We really came close to a diesel supercar though, in 2008 Audi decided to shove a V12 TDI inside an R8. It was called the Audi R8 Le Mans Concept, and it featured the engine from the Audi R10 TDI Le Mans car, which was dominating the endurance races at the time. The twin turbocharged V12 TDI produced 493 bhp and a massive 1,000 Nm of torque. It couldn't go beyond concept though, since fitting the V12 in the R8 was quite a big task. The engine however did make its debut in the Audi Q7 V12 TDI.

Some sporty cars featured a diesel engine too. The Golf GTD is a diesel hot hatch and it was quite popular in the European market. Other notable mentions would be the Audi S5, BMW 440d, and diesel Alpinas. Diesel has never been the choice of fuel for Americans, and that is why the US market never saw any proper performance diesel cars, but other markets had some really fast diesels over the years.