At 10:26 AM 1/4/2002 -0500, GreenBugeye@aol.com wrote:
>A trivia question (I don't know the answer): Are there any mass-produced new
>cars with carbs still on the market?
Not in the USA- unless you count propane powered vehicles. Ford and GM both
offer propane versions of certain vans and pickups to fleet users. Chrysler
recently sold a large number of propane powered Neons to a local utility
company. These vehicles use propane mixers which are essentially gaseous
fuel carburetors (venturi and needle). Propane burns much cleaner than
gasoline but to meet current emissions limits new cars still need to be
equipped emissions controls. They use a closed loop emissions control
system which varies the mixture in response to a standard O2 sensor. Some
of these vehicles are set up for dual fuel operation and actually switch
over to fuel injection in gasoline mode. While these are 'production' cars
from the government's point of view I'm not sure you can walk into a
dealership and order one for personal use.
> If not, when was the last one sold?
Click and Clack think it was the Yugo (1986?)... but they're wrong. The
last one I know of was the Chevrolet Spectrum (before they started calling
it a Geo) which used a carb at least until 1988. This car was built for GM
by Isuzu. It was underpowered and suffered from overheating problems,
probably because it was set too lean in order to meet emissions limits.
Variations on this engine (with fuel injection and a turbochargers) were
later used in the Geo Storm and the 1991 Lotus Elan M100.
-Erik
--
Erik Quackenbush, Midwest Filter Corporation
1-847-680-0566 http://www.midwestfilter.com
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