My 300D is a 1981 with 75k miles.  It's non-turbo, so I control the amount 
of smoke with the throttle.  That the capacity to burn diesel is limited by 
the amount of air being drawn into the engine.  If I start at full 
throttle, it puts out quite a bit of smoke.  If I start at 1/2 to 3/4 
throttle, I achieve the same speed without the smoke.  The neat little TDI 
takes care of that for you.  So you don't have to know how to drive a 
diesel.

I love the TDI, but I've got to wear out my MB first!

Regards,
Bo

-----Original Message-----
>From:	Norman Leong [SMTP:nleong@jps.net]
Sent:	Monday, July 07, 1997 9:40 PM
To:	Multiple recipients of list
Subject:	Re: For the dreamers

Bo did say:

>I resemble that remark.  My other car is a Mercedes 300D (black by the 
way)
>and I got a smoking car letter from the Texas Natural Resource 
Conservation
>Commission.  Oh, well... I like the smell of diesel smoke in the morning!

What year's your 300D?  Is it M-B's equivalent of VW's direct injection?
It would seem that even recent vintage M-B diesels, properly tuned, emit
less visual and odious signs of being a diesel.  They still clatter like
a diesel, however.

A properly tuned TDI motor should not smoke and is very clean, emissions-
wise.  It's real appeal (to me, anyway) is that it has diesel mileage
coupled with gas engine performance (i.e. doesn't have a 0-60 of 20 secs.
or whatever it is).

I just got back from HI, and heck, you could probably run a car on coal
and they probably wouldn't care.  I guess they just figure the trade winds
take all the smog off to LA, or somewhere...  ;)

Norman
Norman