These days you see ever impressing official fuel consumption figures from seemingly impossible high performance cars. The recently unveiled BMW M5 is a classic case in point, it homologates 9,9l/100km in the combined cycle, which is over 4 litres every 100kms better than its predecessor.
Tightening emission regulations, size increases and new equipment all play against the ultra modern direct fuel injected, down sized, turbocharged engines. Everyone knows that the official cycles have little to no relation at all to everyday driving, so do those improvements actually translate to real life conditions?
To be brutally honest, I have limited experience with modern down sized engines, pretty much the only one I've been able to use thoroughly is the Delta 1.4 T-Jet we have in the family, and even it isn't that ground breaking. Yes, it does have a turbo and reduced engine capacity, but no direct fuel injection and the basic engine design is quite old.
But the fact of the matter is that in (demanding, undeniably) usage the modern Lancia struggles to get below double figures and isn't that far off the (very, by comparison) old Audi 80 2.8E, a car that has twice the engine displacement and is a relatively big executive saloon.
I am aware that I am comparing oranges and apples here, but I'm trying to illustrate a point. Will the modern day Audi A4 2.0T see a significant improvement over my old six? Or are we being fooled. And that's actually only discussing fuel economy because in terms of sound, enjoyment and pleasing driving characteristics there's really no contest.
As far as I've been able to determine, the closer you are to the ideal conditions the more sense they make. But once you are out of their "comfort zone" they use petrol as car of its power always has done, downsizing or not.
And apparently it isn't limited to petrol engines either, because the downsized diesels are also having a hard time keeping with their old relatives, as soon as the going gets tough. And here with notable loss in performance, may I add.
So, are we actually going forwards or backwards?