Porsche Plans to buy out VW!

[RandallNeighbour]

FSI? DSG?

Spell it out for this old man, please. What cool features am I NOT dreaming about that I should be dreaming about owning in future automobiles?

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

FSI? DSG?

Spell it out for this old man, please. What cool features am I NOT dreaming about that I should be dreaming about owning in future automobiles?

Randall, I Googled it and got Florida Space Institute and Dubai School of Government.

[racer_d]

Originally Posted by bmussatti

Randall, I Googled it and got Florida Space Institute and Dubai School of Government.

FSI = Direct fuel injection - controlled fuel metering into each cylinder for more efficient burn and more hp. It is coming to Porsches in 2008 iirc

DSG = Dual Sequential Gearbox - ie a clutchless manual transmission. Porsches Tiptronic is an automatic with manual control. DSG is a true Manual box, without a clutch pedal, controlled with electronics.

[tkn]

Maybe now they can discontinue that horrible Cayenne, dump the Panamera, and get back to being a niche sportscar manufacturer...

But probably not...

[timothy]

Or maybe something diabolical! Porsche Rabbit anyone?

But seriously, why is VW at the forefront of these developments and not Porsche? Is P-dog too busy expanding their product line and therefore relegated to playing catch-up on FSI, DSG, etc? Perhaps it was their plan all along to acquire instead of develop.

[John Y]

Originally Posted by timothy

Or maybe something diabolical! Porsche Rabbit anyone?

But seriously, why is VW at the forefront of these developments and not Porsche? Is P-dog too busy expanding their product line and therefore relegated to playing catch-up on FSI, DSG, etc? Perhaps it was their plan all along to acquire instead of develop.

Because a company like VW has the people, the resources, and investment capital to develop these technologies faster, that smaller outfits usually don't.

Originally Posted by racer_d

FSI = Direct fuel injection - controlled fuel metering into each cylinder for more efficient burn and more hp. It is coming to Porsches in 2008 iirc

This should be called DFI...not FSI.

[John Y]

Originally Posted by bmussatti

This should be called DFI...not FSI.

In Porsche's case, there is an acronym for it that starts with a 'D' - I don't remember the other two letters, though...I think it IS DFI.

VW and Audi refer to theirs as FSI, because it stood originally for "Fuel Stratified Injection" - describing what would happen to the fuel charge in the combustion chamber in an ultra-efficient burn mode that allowed for maximum fuel economy. It's typicall labeled as "Fuel Straight Injection" now, referring to the fact that the charge is sent straight (direct) into the combustion chamber, not introduced at the base of the intake manifold just above the intake valves, like in a non direct injection car. I don't know if current-production VW/Audi cars with FSI still have the lean-burn mode or not.

[Brucelee]

Piech is a meglamaniac and has been after VW for some time now.

He made a pledge several years back that Porsche would NEVER seek to own VW and that he would resign from the VW board some time ago.

Didn't keep those pledges.

Hmmm.

[racer_d]

In a recent Autoweek, FERRARI was quoted as looking into the AUDI FSI system as it currently is the superior system. So, it wasn't just Porsche who missed out. Considering how much cost the development of some of these programs carry, it clearly is more economical to wait for someone to perfect the system and copy it, than to create it yourself.

Porsche had a forerunner to DSG called PDK. It was used in the 962 race cars (on a prototype level, not aware of any 962's actually running such a system.) This allowed for a clutchless manual. In the end, it was deemed too expensive to adapt to road car production (ie 1990s Porsche - which was nearly bankrupt).