I'll tell you, why I think it was stupid to use petrol engines
for military vehicles:
The biggest advantage of the diesel engine is its low fuel
consumption.
A big problem for each army is the fuel supply (may be except the=20
US Army). It's not only the price for the fuel at home, it costs
much more money (and blood) to bring the fuel to the combat zone.
Rommel got big trouble in Africa because the fuel supply was cut
and the Battle of the Bulge ended because the TIGERS and KING
TIGERS run out of fuel.=20
A petrol driven tank like the M-47 (Patton) or M-48 A1 (Patton II)
with around 800 HP has a fuel consumption off road of 1400 litres
per 100 km, or 0.15 mpg. On the road they take half of this
(700 l/100 km or 0.3 mpg)=20
A modern diesel powered tank like the LEOPARD 1 with nearly the same
power output has only a fuel consumption (off road) of 350 litre/100 km
or 0.625 mpg. Even the LEOPARD 2 with 1500 horsepowers needs "only"
500 litre/100 km or 0.44 mpg.
So with the fuel which you need for one M-47 you can operate 4=20
LEOPARD 1 tanks or 3 LEOPARD 2 tanks.
Another advantage of the low fuel comsumption is the bigger driving
range of the vehicle with one tank full of fuel. Main battle tanks=20
have fuel tanks with a capacity of around 1000 litres (286 US-gals)
(M-48 A2: 1200 litre, LEOPARD 2: 1200 litre). For bigger fuel tanks
there is no space and western tankers don't want to use fuel barrels
on the rear of the tanks like the Russians do (T54).=20
So because of the fuel consumption of the diesel tank is only half
(or less) of those of the petrol powered tank, the diesel powered tank
can drive twice the distance until the next petrol filling stop.
The Bundeswehr prefered petrol in the late 50s, because the Wehrmacht
did it. All tanks, all cars and most of the trucks of the Wehrmacht
had petrol engines. When the Bundeswehr was founded in the late 50s,
many of the old Wehrmacht officers went to the Bundeswehr and so
the Bundeswehr prefered petrol like the Wehrmacht did. Today the=20
Bundeswehr has no petrol powered vehicles (except the 175 cc motorbike
HERCULES).
So I think it is smart to use diesel engines for MVs.
Regards
Andreas
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