The reduction of fuel consumption and of CO2 emissions will in the future be one of the highest priorities in developing new vehicles. Two main starting points for solving this development task are the reduction of the necessary drive power in transient operation and the improvement of the engine's efficiency. In this article it will be shown that the transfer of well-known sports car engine technology such as lightweight engines with high specific power output to passenger cars can make an essential contribution in reducing fuel consumption. After a brief description of the current situation regarding fuel consumption, vehicle weight, and engine technology, the basis of the optimization will be discussed. It will be shown which layout of four-valve technology is necessary to reduce the fuel consumption. By computer simulation the fuel consumption of the vehicle with an optimized four-valve engine will be calculated. For reducing the engine weight as a means of decreasing the vehicle weight some processes will be introduced and explained. The concluding observation of fuel consumption shows that the use of lightweight technology and high specific power output engines in passenger cars allows a considerable reduction in fuel consumption.
Abstract