WTCC
Champion Team SEAT stays green
The World Touring Car Champion is also the cleanest car Is it possible to take part in car races having only little impact on the environment? SEAT is proving that it is, with its Leon TDI WTCC, which is not only a World Touring Champion car, but ...
Edited: Nov 2, 2008, 1:21 AM
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The World Touring Car Champion is also the cleanest car
Is it possible to take part in car races having only little impact on the environment? SEAT is proving that it is, with its Leon TDI WTCC, which is not only a World Touring Champion car, but also the most fuel-efficient and outstanding as regard environmental protection in the World Touring Car Championship. The WTCC regulations force all participants to use several standard elements of the car, allowing the Spanish make to face another significant challenge such as the testing of technological novelties at the highest level.
This is the way to prove with facts, that it is possible to compete and to win, whilst improving sustainable technologies that will allow building a wide range of car engines, from the simplest to those aimed at competition, all of them more fuel-efficient and cleaner.
Co-operation with the FIA Campaign "Make Cars Green"
As a make participating in the World Touring Car Championship, SEAT actively cooperates with the "Make Cars Green" campaign, promoted by the FIA, with the aim of reducing the impact of competitions on the environment. The World Touring Car Championship is the series that best reflects this policy, with technical and sporting regulations intended for limiting the emissions caused by cars, including, amongst others, the compulsoriness of catalysers and unleaded petrol, the use of alternative fuels, short races in order to emit as little pollutants as possible, and noise control with a top level of 103dB at 3000rpm for diesel engines and 110dB at 6000 rpm for petrol engines. The Leon TDI is therefore less noisy, thus creating a lower noise impact on it surroundings.
Efficiency and cleanness, the key of the TDI engines
The TDI engine used by the Leon WTCC allows achieving the same performance of the petrol engines of other manufacturers, using around 20% less fuel, meaning a significant reduction of the emissions. SEAT's TDI is a very fast race car but this doesn't hinder the car from being the cleanest of the Championship. It is as fast as any of the top cars; it uses less fuel and emits less CO2 and particulate matter thanks to the use of filters.
"The TDI engine of the Seat Leon allows us to compete at the highest level and win, whilst limiting the emissions as much as possible," explains Benoit Bagur, chief engineer at SEAT Sport. "It is a technological innovation that SEAT has contributed to the world championship, and we are very happy with it".
Particle filter: cleaner air
The Leon TDI WTCC is testing a new filter technology in the WTCC, which has not reached the big standard series yet and which allows to drastically reduce the polluting elements emitted by the engine.
"We are co-operating with the improvement of elements which may become part of the standard cars in the future", explains Sascha Pilz, responsible for CO2 at SEAT. "As regards CO2, we emit less than petrol engines, because we need less fuel. Moreover, and thanks to the use of latest generation particle filters, the TDI WTCC emits 10 times less particulate matter than a standard diesel car without a filter"
-credit: seat
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