Just when you thought it was safe.....GDI. (maybe TGI)

Gasoline Direct Injection.

Some of the story:

  Under development for 30 years, Gasoline Direct Injection engines
  have, at last, become reality. Mitsubishi Motors first introduced GDI
  technology to the Japanese market in 1996 and has since built more
  than 200,000 of the new engines. A modified design, tailored for
  fuels with European levels of sulphur (500 ppm vs 100 ppm in
  Japan), is now available.

  Conventional petrol engines mix fuel and air outside the combustion
  chamber; this air/fuel mixture is always injected at the same moment
  in the combustion cycle. GDI, conversely, injects the fuel and air
  separately, mixing them inside the cylinder. Depending on power
  required by the driver, fuel is injected in differing quantities at
  varying times during the cycle for faster response and more
  complete power conversion.

    How serious is Mitsubishi Motors with regard to Gasoline Direct
  Injection? The company reports that every new gasoline engine it
  develops in the future will incorporate GDI technology.

  GDI is here to stay

    Jean-Marc Nozeran, managing director (powertrain) for Siemens
  Automotive, expects the new European engine to provide a 15%
  fuel saving. As part of the project, Siemens Automotive is
  developing a complete direct fuel injection system with speed-based
  engine control and exhaust treatment. For the catalytic converters,
  the company is collaborating with GKN Automotive in a joint
  venture known as EMITEC. It has also established Synerject, a
  joint venture with Orbital Engine Corp., for fuel injection systems
  development.

  German company Robert Bosch is also engaged in developing GDI
  engine technology and similarly expects to see the results of its
  efforts on the roads by 2000 or 2001, says Otto Holzinger, senior
  VP, R&D coordination. One of Bosch's specialties is the GDI
  engine management system which instantaneously switches between
  homogenous and stratified charge. The company's Motronic MED 7
  system aims to achieve this by precisely coordinating the parameters
  of air mass, fuel quantity, and ignition angle. An electronically
  controlled throttle valve adjusts the air mass.

  Full text at: http://www.globaldn.com   search for GDI

Pawling NY

Cars I have: 93 Eurovan MV
                  75 Westy
                  73 Super

Cars I had: 89 GTi 16v
                 87 Syncro
                 83 Rabbit GTi
                 82 Vanagon Diesel (w 83 GTi engine)